[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1854 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1854

                   To enhance medical surge capacity.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 10, 2011

 Mr. Burr (for himself, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Enzi, Mr. Casey, Ms. Mikulski, 
 Mr. Alexander, and Mr. Roberts) introduced the following bill; which 
        was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
                   To enhance medical surge capacity.

    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 ``Medical Surge Capacity Act''.

SEC. 2. ENHANCING MEDICAL SURGE CAPACITY.

    (a) Modification of Criteria for Emergency Area; Emergency 
Period.--Section 1135(g)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
1320b-5(a)(1)(A)) is amended by striking ``and'' after the semicolon 
and inserting ``or''.
    (b) Waiver Authority for Host Areas.--Section 1135(g)(1) of such 
Act (42 U.S.C. 1320b-5(g)(1)), as amended by subsection (a), is amended 
by adding after and below subparagraph (B), the following flush 
sentence:
        ``Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, the Secretary may 
        deem an emergency area to include a geographical area into 
        which individuals from the emergency area are evacuated and 
        receiving care.''.
    (c) Duration of EMTALA and HIPAA Waivers.--The third sentence of 
section 1135(b) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1320b-5(b)) is amended by 
striking ``72-hour'' and inserting ``96-hour''.
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