109 HR 6030 IH: Health Care Access and Rural Equity (H–CARE) Act of U.S. House of Representatives 2006-09-06 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I 109th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6030 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 6, 2006 Mr. Walden of Oregon (for himself, Mr. Pomeroy, Mrs. Emerson, Mr. McIntyre, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Paul, Mr. McNulty, Mr. Goode, Mr. Graves, Ms. Herseth, Mr. Peterson of Minnesota, Mr. Davis of Tennessee, Mrs. Jo Ann Davis of Virginia, Mr. McHugh, Mr. Jones of North Carolina, Mr. Ross, Mr. Tanner, Mr. Peterson of Pennsylvania, Mr. Berry, Mr. Nussle, Mr. Matheson, Mr. Boyd, Mr. Moran of Kansas, Mr. Kind, Mr. Sweeney, Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Leach, Mr. Etheridge, Mr. Sherwood, Mr. Boucher, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Oberstar, Mr. Salazar, Mr. Rogers of Alabama, Mr. Ney, Mr. Stupak, Mr. Thompson of California, Mr. Hinojosa, Mr. Bass, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Hastings of Washington, Mr. Otter, Mr. Edwards, Mrs. Cubin, Mr. Latham, Mr. Kennedy of Minnesota, Mr. Rahall, Mr. Hinchey, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Michaud, Mr. Strickland, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Hoekstra, Mr. Allen, Mr. Udall of New Mexico, Mr. Pickering, Mr. Kildee, Mr. Melancon, and Mr. Renzi) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to protect and preserve access of Medicare beneficiaries in rural areas to health care providers under the Medicare Program, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title; table of contents

(a)

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Health Care Access and Rural Equity (H–CARE) Act of 2006. (b)

Table of Contents

The table of contents of this Act is as follows: Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. Title I—Medicare Hospital Services Sec. 101. Fairness in the Medicare disproportionate share hospital (DSH) adjustment for rural hospitals. Sec. 102. Treatment of Medicare hospital reclassifications. Sec. 103. Critical access hospital improvements. Sec. 104. Rebasing for sole community hospitalssec. 4 of HR 2961. Sec. 105. Establishment of rural community hospital (RCH) programsec. 2 from HR 2350; just hospital stuff. Sec. 106. Extension of medicare rural hospital hold harmless provision under the prospective payment system for hospital outpatient department (HOPD) servicessec. 2 of HR 5118. Title II—Medicare Practitioner Services Sec. 201. Coverage of marriage and family therapist services and mental health counselor services under part B of the Medicare program. Sec. 202. Permanent treatment of certain physician pathology services under MedicareS3609. Sec. 203. Extension of medicare incentive payment program for physician scarcity areassec. 3 of HR 5118. Sec. 204. Extension of medicare increase payments for ground ambulance services in rural areassec. 4 of HR 5118. Sec. 205. Extension of floor on medicare work geographic adjustmentsec. 5 of HR 5118. Title III—Other Medicare Provisions Sec. 301. Ensuring proportional representation of interests of rural areas on MedPACfrom pomero_033. Sec. 302. Rural health clinic improvements. Sec. 303. Use of medical conditions for coding ambulance services. Sec. 304. Improvement in payments to retain emergency and other capacity for ambulances in rural areas. Sec. 305. Medicare remote monitoring pilot projects. Sec. 306. Minimum payment rate by Medicare Advantage organizations for critical access hospital services and rural health clinic servicessec. 1of HR 880. Sec. 307. Prompt payment by Medicare prescription drug plans and MA–PD plans under part Dsec.2 of HR 5182. Sec. 308. Extension of medicare reasonable costs payments for certain clinical diagnostic laboratory tests furnished to hospital patients in certain rural areassec. 6 of HR 5118. Sec. 309. Extension of temporary Medicare payment increase for home health services furnished in a rural areasec. 7 of HR 5118. Title IV—Other Provisions Sec. 401. Health information technology grants for rural health care providersfrom stupak_02a (a) & (c). Sec. 402. Capital infrastructure revolving loan program. Sec. 403. Rural health quality advisory commission and demonstration projects. Sec. 404. Rural health care servicespomero_034. Sec. 405. Community health center collaborative access expansion. Sec. 406. Facilitating the provision of telehealth services across State lines.