[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 668 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 668

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 and to exempt from the critical access 
   hospital inpatient bed limitation the number of beds provided for 
                           certain veterans.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 23, 2009

 Mr. Walden (for himself and Mr. Kind) 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 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 and 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 ``Critical Access Hospital Flexibility 
Act of 2009''.

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, 2010.

SEC. 3. 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.
                                 <all>