[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 375 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 375

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to establish a minimum 
   geographic cost-of-practice index value for physicians' services 
               furnished under the medicare program of 1.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 12, 2003

   Mr. Domenici (for himself, Mrs. Lincoln, Mr. Rockefeller, and Mr. 
    Thomas) 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 establish a minimum 
   geographic cost-of-practice index value for physicians' services 
               furnished under the medicare program of 1.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Medicare Access 
Equity Act of 2003''.
    (b) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Americans have paid taxes in to the medicare program 
        equally across the country and every American should have 
        access to quality health care.
            (2) There is a national market for health care providers.
            (3) Increasingly, private insurance companies tie their 
        reimbursement rates to those paid by medicare.
            (4) The physician fee schedule formula for medicare 
        currently includes several adjustments for variable costs 
        throughout the nation. While it is appropriate for the cost of 
        running a practice to reflect overhead differences, physicians 
        should not be compensated for their time differently based on 
        where they live.
            (5) Medicare beneficiaries pay the same part B premium 
        regardless of location which forces subsidization of higher 
        reimbursement areas by seniors in lower reimbursement areas 
        without any corresponding benefit.
            (6) Areas of the country that currently receive the lowest 
        reimbursement from medicare are often the same areas that are 
        experiencing the greatest shortage of physicians. Attracting 
        more physicians to these areas cannot be achieved without 
        greater equity in medicare reimbursement.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF FLOOR ON WORK GEOGRAPHIC ADJUSTMENT.

    Section 1848(e)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w-
4(e)(1)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph:
                    ``(E) Floor at 1.0 on work geographic indices.--
                After calculating the work geographic indices in 
                subparagraph (A)(iii), for purposes of payment for 
                services furnished on or after January 1, 2004, the 
                Secretary shall increase the work geographic index to 
                1.00 for any locality for which such geographic index 
                is less than 1.00.''.
                                 <all>