110 HR 6557 IH: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to exempt U.S. House of Representatives 2008-07-21 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 2d Session H. R. 6557 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.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Veterans Critical Access Act.

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.