[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3117 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3117

 To apply an alternative payment amount under the Medicare program for 
   certain graduate medical education programs established to train 
               residents displaced by natural disasters.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 11, 2008

  Mr. Vitter (for himself and Ms. Landrieu) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To apply an alternative payment amount under the Medicare program for 
   certain graduate medical education programs established to train 
               residents displaced by natural disasters.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT AMOUNTS FOR GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION 
              PROGRAMS ESTABLISHED TO TRAIN RESIDENTS DISPLACED BY 
              NATURAL DISASTERS.

    (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in 
applying section 1886(h) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
1395ww(h)(2)), and any regulations implementing such section, with 
respect to an eligible hospital for a cost reporting period beginning 
on or after July 1, 2005, the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
shall provide for payments for direct graduate education costs in 
accordance with subsection (c) for such hospital and cost reporting 
period.
    (b) Eligible Hospital Defined.--In this section, the term 
``eligible hospital'' means a hospital that--
            (1) did not have a graduate medical education program under 
        section 1886(h) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
        1395ww(h)) before the date of a presidential declaration of 
        major disaster issued under section 401 of the Robert T. 
        Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act;
            (2) established such a program to educate residents 
        displaced from a graduate medical education program impacted by 
        such disaster; and
            (3) is located in a wage area that is in, or immediately 
        adjacent to, an area for which such disaster was declared.
    (c) Payment to Eligible Hospitals.--The payment amount for an 
eligible hospital for a cost reporting period in which the hospital 
operates a graduate medical education program referred to in subsection 
(b)(2) shall be--
            (1) for the first such cost reporting period, the 
        reasonable costs (as determined based on rules applied in 
        determining reasonable costs under section 1886(h)(2)(A) of the 
        Social Security Act) incurred by the hospital for such program;
            (2) for the second such cost reporting period, computed 
        based on an alternative FTE resident amount calculated as 
        described in section 1886(h)(2)(A) of the Social Security Act 
        (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(h)(2)(A)), but using the reasonable costs 
        incurred by the hospital for such program during such second 
        cost reporting period and the number of FTE residents (as 
        described in section 1886(h)(3)(B)(ii) of the Social Security 
        Act (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(h)(3)(B)(ii)) in the program for such 
        second cost reporting period; and
            (3) for the third such cost reporting period and each 
        subsequent cost reporting period, computed based on the 
        alternative FTE resident amount under this section for the 
        previous cost reporting period, updated and adjusted as 
        described in section 1886(h)(2)(D) of the Social Security Act 
        (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(h)(2)(D)).
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