[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 236 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 236

    To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to clarify the 
treatment of payment under the medicare program for clinical laboratory 
             tests furnished by critical access hospitals.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            February 1, 2005

  Mr. Nelson of Nebraska (for himself, Ms. Collins, Ms. Cantwell, and 
 Mrs. Murray) 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 clarify the 
treatment of payment under the medicare program for clinical laboratory 
             tests furnished by critical access hospitals.

    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 ``Critical Access to Clinical Lab 
Services Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION OF PAYMENT FOR CLINICAL LABORATORY TESTS 
              FURNISHED BY CRITICAL ACCESS HOSPITALS.

    (a) In General.--Section 1834(g)(4) of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 1395m(g)(4)) is amended--
            (1) in the heading, by striking ``No beneficiary cost-
        sharing for'' and inserting ``Treatment of''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new sentence: ``For 
        purposes of the preceding sentence and section 1861(mm)(3), 
        clinical diagnostic laboratory services furnished by a critical 
        access hospital shall be treated as being furnished as part of 
        outpatient critical access services without regard to whether--
                    ``(A) the individual with respect to whom such 
                services are furnished is physically present in the 
                critical access hospital at the time the specimen is 
                collected;
                    ``(B) such individual is registered as an 
                outpatient on the records of, and receives such 
                services directly from, the critical access hospital; 
                or
                    ``(C) payment is (or, but for this subsection, 
                would be) available for such services under the fee 
                schedule established under section 1833(h).''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to cost reporting periods beginning on or after October 1, 2003.
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