110 HR 2860 IH: Health Care Access and Rural Equity (H–CARE) U.S. House of Representatives 2007-06-26 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. 2860 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 26, 2007 Mr. Pomeroy (for himself, Mr. Walden of Oregon, Mr. Stupak, Mrs. Emerson, Mr. Thompson of California, Mr. Moran of Kansas, Mr. Kind, Mr. Peterson of Pennsylvania, Mr. Allen, Mr. Berry, Mr. Camp of Michigan, Ms. Herseth Sandlin, Mr. McIntyre, Mr. Tanner, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Boswell, Mr. Boyd of Florida, Mr. Boucher, Mrs. Boyda of Kansas, Mr. Braley of Iowa, Mr. Carney, Mr. Davis of Alabama, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Etheridge, Mr. Gilchrest, Mr. Graves, Mr. Hare, Mr. Hastings of Washington, Mr. Hinchey, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mr. Jones of North Carolina, Mr. Kanjorski, Mr. LaHood, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Matheson, Mr. McHugh, Mrs. McMorris Rodgers, Mr. McNulty, Mr. Melancon, Mr. Oberstar, Mr. Paul, Mr. Pickering, Mr. Rahall, Mr. Rehberg, Mr. Renzi, Mr. Salazar, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Tiahrt, Mr. Welch of Vermont, Mr. Wilson of Ohio, Mr. Young of Alaska, Mr. Thornberry, and Mr. Ross) 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 2007. (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 hospitals. Sec. 105. Establishment of rural community hospital (RCH) program. Sec. 106. Hold harmless through 2012 for small rural hospitals and sole community hospitals under the prospective payment system for hospital outpatient department services under the Medicare program. 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 Medicare. Sec. 203. Extension of Medicare incentive payment program for physician scarcity areas. Sec. 204. Extension of Medicare increase payments for ground ambulance services in rural areas. Sec. 205. Extension of floor on Medicare work geographic adjustment. Title III—Other Medicare Provisions Sec. 301. Ensuring proportional representation of interests of rural areas on MedPAC. 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 services furnished by a critical access hospital and a rural health clinic. Sec. 307. Prompt payment by Medicare prescription drug plans and MA–PD plans under part D. Sec. 308. Extension of Medicare reasonable costs payments for certain clinical diagnostic laboratory tests furnished to hospital patients in certain rural areas. Sec. 309. Extension of temporary Medicare payment increase for home health services furnished in a rural area. Title IV—Other Provisions Sec. 401. Health information technology grants for rural health care providers. Sec. 402. Rural health quality advisory commission and demonstration projects. Sec. 403. Rural health care services. Sec. 404. Community health center collaborative access expansion. Sec. 405. Facilitating the provision of telehealth services across State lines. Sec. 406. Expanded application of the 340B program to drugs provided in rural hospitals.