[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2644 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2644

  To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to expand medicare 
             coverage of certain self-injected biologicals.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 25, 2000

 Mr. Gorton (for himself, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Santorum, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. 
Stevens, Mr. Cochran, and Mr. L. Chafee) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to expand medicare 
             coverage of certain self-injected biologicals.

    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 ``Access to Innovation for Medicare 
Patients Act of 2000''.

SEC. 2. MEDICARE COVERAGE OF SELF-INJECTED BIOLOGICALS.

    (a) Coverage.--
            (1) In general.--Section 1861(s)(2) of the Social Security 
        Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(s)(2)) is amended--
                    (A) in subparagraph (S), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (B) in subparagraph (T), by inserting ``and'' after 
                the semicolon at the end; and
                    (C) by inserting after subparagraph (T) the 
                following new subparagraph:
            ``(U) a self-injected biological (which is approved by the 
        Food and Drug Administration) that is prescribed as a complete 
        replacement for a drug or biological that would otherwise be 
        described in subparagraph (A) or (B);''.
            (2) Conforming amendment.--Subparagraphs (A) and (B) of 
        section 1861(s)(2) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
        1395x(s)(2)) are each amended by inserting ``(except as 
        provided in subparagraph (U))'' after ``biologicals''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) apply to 
biologicals furnished on or after January 1, 2001.
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