[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 739 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 739

 To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to increasing the 
 number of health professionals who practice in the United States in a 
                     field of primary health care.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 12, 1997

Mr. Traficant introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                         Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to increasing the 
 number of health professionals who practice in the United States in a 
                     field of primary health care.

    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 ``Primary Health Care Education Act of 
1997''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT IN CERTAIN HEALTH PROFESSIONS EDUCATION PROGRAMS 
              OF PREFERENCE PROVISIONS REGARDING PRIMARY HEALTH CARE.

    Section 791 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 295j) is 
amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as subsections 
        (c) and (d), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the following 
        subsection:
    ``(b) Preferences Regarding Primary Health Care.--
            ``(1) Schools of medicine.--
                    ``(A) In making awards of grants and contracts 
                under this title to schools of medicine or osteopathic 
                medicine, the Secretary shall give preference to any 
                such school that, in accordance with such criteria as 
                the Secretary may establish, carries out a program--
                            ``(i) to emphasize training in primary 
                        health care; and
                            ``(ii) to encourage the students of the 
                        school to enter a field of primary health care 
                        as a career choice.
                    ``(B) In determining whether a school of medicine 
                or osteopathic medicine meets the conditions for 
                receiving preference under subparagraph (A), the 
                Secretary shall include among the factors considered 
                the following:
                            ``(i) Whether the school has a department, 
                        division, or other academic unit whose 
                        principal purpose is to provide clinical 
                        instruction in family medicine.
                            ``(ii) If the school has such a unit, 
                        whether the school provides significant funding 
                        for the unit (with the amount of funding 
                        expressed as the ratio of the budget for the 
                        unit to the number of students enrolled in the 
                        school).
                            ``(iii) Whether the school requires that 
                        each student of the school, as a condition of 
                        receiving a degree from the school, have 
                        significant clinical training in family 
                        medicine, general internal medicine, and 
                        general pediatrics by the end of the third year 
                        of the curriculum.
                            ``(iv) Whether, in undergoing clinical 
                        training, students of the school receive 
                        instruction from the faculty of medical 
                        residency training programs in fields of 
                        primary health care.
            ``(2) Medical residency training programs.--In making 
        awards of grants and contracts under this title to entities 
        that operate medical residency training programs, the Secretary 
        shall give preference to any such entity that, in accordance 
        with such criteria as the Secretary may establish, ensures that 
        each resident, in undergoing clinical training--
                    ``(A) receives instruction from the faculty of 
                medical residency training programs in fields of 
                primary health care; or
                    ``(B) has rotations providing training in such 
                fields.''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This Act takes effect October 1, 1997, or upon the date of the 
enactment of this Act, whichever occurs later.
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