[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2174 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2174

    To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require the 
   governing boards and compensation committees of Medicare national 
   accrediting entities have public representation and the governing 
    boards have public meetings as a condition of recognizing their 
               accreditation under the Medicare Program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 10, 1999

  Mr. Stark introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require the 
   governing boards and compensation committees of Medicare national 
   accrediting entities have public representation and the governing 
    boards have public meetings as a condition of recognizing their 
               accreditation under the Medicare Program.

    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 ``Improvement of Medicare Accrediting 
Entity Act of 1999''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENTS FOR GOVERNING BOARDS AND COMPENSATION COMMITTEES 
              OF MEDICARE ACCREDITING ENTITIES.

    (a) In General.--Section 1865 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
1395bb) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by inserting ``, subsection (f),'' 
        after ``subsection (b)'';
            (2) in subsection (b)(1), by inserting ``except as provided 
        in subsection (f),'' after ``In addition,''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(f) The previous provisions of this section shall not apply to 
accreditation of a hospital or other provider entity by any national 
accreditation body unless--
            ``(1) at least one-half of the membership of the governing 
        board of the body, and at least one-half of the membership of 
        the committee of the body that governs compensation of its 
        officers, is composed of individuals who are members of the 
        public approved by the Secretary and who are not employed by 
        (or otherwise under contract with) the body (or any entity 
        accredited by the organization) or an immediate family member 
        of an individual who is so employed or under contract with the 
        body or such an entity; and
            ``(2) meetings of the governing board of the body are open 
        to the public to the extent such meetings would be required to 
        be open to the public under section 552b of title 5, United 
        States Code, if the body were an agency for purposes of such 
        section.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to the composition of the governing board and compensation 
committee and meetings of such board as of January 1, 2000, with 
respect to accreditations occurring on or after such date.
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