[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1763 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1763

 To amend the Public Health Service Act and title XVIII of the Social 
    Security Act with respect to health professional shortage areas.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 21, 1993

  Mr. Roberts (for himself, Mr. Thomas of Wyoming, Mr. Slattery, Mr. 
 Lancaster, Mr. Bereuter, Mr. Gunderson, and Ms. Snowe) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred jointly to the Committees on Ways 
                   and Means and Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Public Health Service Act and title XVIII of the Social 
    Security Act with respect to health professional shortage areas.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Health Professional Shortage Area 
Amendments of 1993''.

SEC. 2. MODIFICATION IN CRITERIA FOR DESIGNATION AS HEALTH PROFESSIONAL 
              SHORTAGE AREA.

    (a) Number of Elderly Individuals.--Section 332(b)(2) of the Public 
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 245e(b)(2)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``and'' at the end of subparagraph (C);
            (2) by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (D) 
        and inserting ``, and''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following subparagraph:
                    ``(E) 20 percent or more of the population being 65 
                years of age or older.''.
    (b) Relevance of Travel Times Within Frontier Areas.--Section 
332(a) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 245e(a)) is amended 
by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(4) With respect to meeting the criteria under paragraph 
        (1)(A) for an area to be designated as a health professional 
        shortage area, the Secretary shall, in the case of a frontier 
        area, make the determination of whether the frontier area is a 
        rational area for the delivery of health services without 
        regard to--
                    ``(A) the travel time between population centers in 
                the frontier area; or
                    ``(B) the travel time to contiguous area resources 
                in the frontier area.''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall take 
effect on October 1, 1993, or upon the date of the enactment of this 
Act, whichever occurs later.

SEC. 3. EXTENSION OF ADDITIONAL PAYMENT UNDER MEDICARE FOR PHYSICIANS' 
              SERVICES FURNISHED IN FORMER SHORTAGE AREAS.

    (a) In General.--Section 1833(m) of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 1395l(m)) is amended by striking ``area,'' and inserting ``area 
(or, in the case of an area for which the designation as a health 
professional shortage area under such section is withdrawn, in the case 
of physicians' services furnished to such an individual during the 3-
year period beginning on the effective date of the withdrawal of such 
designation),''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to physicians' services furnished in an area for which the 
designation as a health professional shortage area under section 
332(a)(1)(A) of the Public Health Service Act is withdrawn on or after 
January 1, 1994.

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