[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2670 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2670

     To amend title 10, United States Code, to require the amounts 
reimbursed to institutional providers of health care services under the 
 TRICARE program to be the same as amounts reimbursed under Medicare, 
  and to require the Secretary of Defense to contract for health care 
      services with at least one teaching hospital in urban areas.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 26, 2005

   Mr. Gene Green of Texas introduced the following bill; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To amend title 10, United States Code, to require the amounts 
reimbursed to institutional providers of health care services under the 
 TRICARE program to be the same as amounts reimbursed under Medicare, 
  and to require the Secretary of Defense to contract for health care 
      services with at least one teaching hospital in urban areas.

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

SECTION 1. REQUIREMENT FOR TRICARE PROGRAM REIMBURSEMENT OF 
              INSTITUTIONAL PROVIDERS OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES TO BE 
              IDENTICAL TO REIMBURSEMENT UNDER MEDICARE.

    Section 1079(j)(2) of title 10, United States Code, is amended by 
striking ``determined to the extent practicable in accordance with the 
same reimbursement rules as apply to payments to'' and inserting 
``identical to the amount of payments that would be paid to''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT FOR TRICARE PROGRAM TO CONTRACT WITH AT LEAST ONE 
              TEACHING HOSPITAL IN URBAN AREAS FOR DELIVERY OF HEALTH 
              CARE.

    Section 1097(a) of title 10, United States Code, is amended_
            (1) by inserting ``(1)'' before ``The Secretary of 
        Defense'';
            (2) in the second sentence, by striking ``The'' and 
        inserting ``Subject to paragraph (2), the'';
            (3) by redesignating paragraphs (1), (2), (3), and (4) as 
        subparagraphs (A), (B), (C), and (D), respectively; and
            (4) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(2) In contracting for the delivery of health care under this 
section, the Secretary shall contract with at least one teaching 
hospital in each large urban area. In this paragraph--
            ``(A) the term `teaching hospital' means a hospital which 
        has a teaching program approved as specified in section 
        1861(b)(6) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(b)(6)); 
        and
            ``(B) the term `large urban area' has the meaning given 
        that term in the second sentence of section 1886(d)(2)(D) of 
        the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(d)(2)(D)).''.
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