[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 852 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 852

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


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 22, 2009

  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)), 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 an approved medical residency training 
        program as defined under section 1886(h)(5)(A) of the Social 
        Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(h)(5)(A)) 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) first participated in 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, as defined by the Secretary, 
        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 (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(h)(2)(A))) 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 paragraphs (3)(B)(ii) and (4)(E) of section 
        1886(h) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(h))) 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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