[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1883 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1883

 To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide greater access for 
  residents of frontier areas to the healthcare services provided by 
                       community health centers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 18, 2003

    Mr. Enzi (for himself, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Craig) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
          Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide greater access for 
  residents of frontier areas to the healthcare services provided by 
                       community health centers.

    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 ``Frontier Healthcare Access Act of 
2003''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

    (a) Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) People who live in frontier areas are medically 
        underserved and face unique challenges in accessing affordable 
        healthcare.
            (2) People who live in frontier areas are more likely to 
        lack health insurance than other rural and urban citizens.
            (3) Frontier areas generally do not have population centers 
        that can support the full range of healthcare services 
        available in most urban and some rural areas.
            (4) Community health centers play an important role in 
        providing health services to many medically underserved areas 
        and populations.
            (5) Many frontier areas do not have community health 
        centers.
            (6) Many frontier areas cannot currently qualify for 
        community health centers because the Federal definition of 
        medically underserved areas or populations does not 
        appropriately or effectively recognize the unique nature and 
        needs of frontier areas and those who live in them.
            (7) Any definition of frontier areas for purposes of 
        eligibility for Federal or State healthcare programs should 
        look beyond simple measures of population density to consider 
        such factors as the distance from and travel time to the 
        nearest significant healthcare service center or market.
            (8) President George W. Bush has made the development of 
        new community health centers a priority of his administration.
            (9) People who live in frontier areas should be included 
        explicitly in this expansion of the community health center 
        program.
    (b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this Act to provide greater 
access for residents of frontier areas to the healthcare services 
provided by community health centers.

SEC. 3. FRONTIER COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS.

    Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254b) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ``and residents of 
        public housing'' and inserting ``residents of public housing, 
        and residents of frontier areas'';
            (2) by redesignating subsections (j), (n), (o), (p), (q), 
        (r), (s), (q), and (s) as subsections (k), (l), (m), (n), (o), 
        (p), (q), (r), and (s), respectively; and
            (3) by inserting after subsection (i), the following:
    ``(j) Residents of Frontier Areas.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary may award grants for the 
        purposes described in subsections (c), (e), and (f) for the 
        planning and delivery of services to areas identified under 
        paragraph (3)(B).
            ``(2) Supplement not supplant.--A grant awarded under this 
        subsection shall be expended to supplement, and not supplant, 
        the expenditures of the health center and the value of in-kind 
        contributions for the delivery of services to the population 
        described in paragraph (1).
            ``(3) Definition.--
                    ``(A) In general.--In this subsection, the term 
                `frontier area' means a county or a rational area 
                identified by the Secretary in consultation with 
                appropriate State offices of rural health.
                    ``(B) Regulations.--The Secretary shall through 
                regulations develop a definition to identify frontier 
                areas and shall designate residents of such areas as 
                medically underserved for purposes of this section. In 
                developing such definition the Secretary shall consider 
                factors such as population density, distance in miles 
                from the nearest significant healthcare service center 
                or market, and travel time in minutes from the nearest 
                significant healthcare service center or market.''.
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