[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6557 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6557

  To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to exempt from the 
 critical access hospital inpatient bed limitation the number of beds 
                     provided for certain veterans.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 21, 2008

 Mr. Walden of Oregon (for himself, Mr. Tanner, Mr. Michaud, Mr. Moran 
  of Kansas, and Mr. Herger) introduced the following bill; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to exempt from the 
 critical access hospital inpatient bed limitation the number of beds 
                     provided for certain veterans.

    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 ``Veterans Critical Access Act''.

SEC. 2. CRITICAL ACCESS HOSPITAL INPATIENT BED LIMITATION EXEMPTION FOR 
              BEDS PROVIDED TO CERTAIN VETERANS.

    (a) In General.--Section 1820(c) of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 1395i-4(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph:
            ``(3) Exemption from bed limitation.--For purposes of this 
        section, no acute care inpatient bed shall be counted against 
        any numerical limitation specified under this section for such 
        a bed (or for inpatient bed days with respect to such a bed) if 
        the bed is provided for an individual who is a veteran and the 
        Department of Veterans Affairs referred the individual for care 
        in the hospital or is coordinating such care with other care 
        being provided by such Department.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to cost reporting periods beginning on or after the date of the 
enactment of this Act.
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