110 HR 1233 IH: Mitigating the Impact of Uncompensated U.S. House of Representatives 2007-02-28 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 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 1233 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES February 28, 2007 Mrs. Bono introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means A BILL To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a bad debt deduction to doctors to partially offset the cost of providing uncompensated care required to be provided under the amendments made by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Mitigating the Impact of Uncompensated Service and Time Act of 2007.

2.

Bad debt deduction for doctors to partially offset the cost of providing uncompensated care required to be provided under amendments made by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act

(a)

In general

Section 166 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to bad debts) is amended by redesignating subsection (f) as subsection (g) and by inserting after subsection (e) the following new subsection: (f)

Bad debt treatment for doctors to partially offset cost of providing uncompensated care required To be provided

(1)

Amount of deduction

(A)

In general

For purposes of subsection (a), the basis for determining the amount of any deduction for an eligible EMTALA debt shall be treated as being equal to the Medicare payment amount. (B)

Medicare payment amount

For purposes of subparagraph (A), the Medicare payment amount with respect to an eligible EMTALA debt is the fee schedule amount established under section 1848 of the Social Security Act for the physicians’ service (to which such debt relates) as if the service were provided to an individual enrolled under part B of title XVIIII of such Act. (2)

Eligible EMTALA debt

For purposes of this section, the term eligible EMTALA debt means any debt if— (A)such debt arose as a result of physicians’ services— (i)which were performed in an EMTALA hospital by a board-certified physician (whether as part of medical screening or necessary stabilizing treatment and whether as an emergency department physician, as an on-call physician, or otherwise), and (ii)which were required to be provided under section 1867 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395dd), and (B)such debt is owed— (i)to such physician, or (ii)to an entity if— (I)such entity is a corporation and the sole shareholder of such corporation is such physician, or (II)such entity is a partnership and any deduction under this subsection with respect to such debt is allocated to such physician or to an entity described in subclause (I). (3)

Board-certified physician

For purposes of this subsection, the term board-certified physician means any physician (as defined in section 1861(r) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(r)) who is certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine or other appropriate medical specialty board for the specialty in which the physician practices, or who meets comparable requirements, as identified by the Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with Secretary of Health and Human Services. (4)

Other definitions

For purposes of this subsection— (A)

EMTALA hospital

The term EMTALA hospital means any hospital having a hospital emergency department which is required to comply with section 1867 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395dd) (relating to examination and treatment for emergency medical conditions and women in labor). (B)

Physicians’ services

The term physicians’ services has the meaning given such term in section 1861(q) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(q)). . (b)

Effective date

The amendments made by this section shall apply to debts arising from services performed in taxable years beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act.