[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1595 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1595

To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide flexibility 
  in the manner in which beds are counted for purposes of determining 
  whether a hospital may be designated as a critical access hospital 
                      under the Medicare program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 12, 2007

 Mr. Smith (for himself and Mr. Wyden) 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 provide flexibility 
  in the manner in which beds are counted for purposes of determining 
  whether a hospital may be designated as a critical access hospital 
                      under the Medicare program.

    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 Hospital Flexibility 
Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. FLEXIBILITY IN THE MANNER IN WHICH BEDS ARE COUNTED FOR 
              PURPOSES OF DETERMINING WHETHER A HOSPITAL MAY BE 
              DESIGNATED AS A CRITICAL ACCESS HOSPITAL UNDER THE 
              MEDICARE PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Section 1820(c)(2)(B) of the Social Security Act 
(42 U.S.C. 1395i-4(c)(2)(B)) is amended--
            (1) in clause (iii), by inserting ``(or 20, as determined 
        on an annual, average basis)'' after ``25''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following flush sentence:
        ``In determining the number of beds for purposes of clause 
        (iii), only beds that are occupied shall be counted.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section take 
effect on January 1, 2008.
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