[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2919 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2919

 To amend part B of title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide 
       Medicare physician incentive payments for efficient areas.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 17, 2009

Mr. Blumenauer 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 part B of title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide 
       Medicare physician incentive payments for efficient areas.

    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 ``Medicare Efficiency Incentive Act of 
2009''.

SEC. 2. PAYMENTS FOR EFFICIENT PHYSICIANS.

    Section 1833 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395l) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(x) Incentive Payments for Efficient Physicians.--
            ``(1) In general.--In the case of physicians' services 
        furnished on or after January 1, 2010, and before January 1, 
        2014, by a participating physician in an efficient area (as 
        identified under paragraph (2)), in addition to the amount of 
        payment that would otherwise be made for such services under 
        this part, there also shall be paid an amount equal to 5 
        percent of the payment amount for the services under this part.
            ``(2) Identification of efficient areas.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Based upon available data, the 
                Secretary shall identify those counties or equivalent 
                areas in the United States in the lowest fifth 
                percentile of utilization based on per capita spending 
                for services provided in 2007 under this part and part 
                A.
                    ``(B) Identification of counties where service is 
                furnished.--For purposes of paying the additional 
                amount specified in paragraph (1), if the Secretary 
                uses the 5-digit postal ZIP Code where the service is 
                furnished, the dominant county of the postal ZIP Code 
                (as determined by the United States Postal Service, or 
                otherwise) shall be used to determine whether the 
                postal ZIP Code is in a county described in 
                subparagraph (A).
                    ``(C) Judicial review.--There shall be no 
                administrative or judicial review under section 1869, 
                1878, or otherwise, respecting--
                            ``(i) the identification of a county or 
                        other area under subparagraph (A); or
                            ``(ii) the assignment of a postal ZIP Code 
                        to a county or other area under subparagraph 
                        (B).
                    ``(D) Publication of list of counties; posting on 
                website.--With respect to a year for which a county or 
                area is identified under this paragraph, the Secretary 
                shall identify such counties or areas as part of the 
                proposed and final rule to implement the physician fee 
                schedule under section 1848 for the applicable year. 
                The Secretary shall post the list of counties 
                identified under this paragraph on the Internet website 
                of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.''.
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