[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5556 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5556

  To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act with respect to the 
   treatment of patient encounters in ambulatory surgical centers in 
        determining meaningful EHR use, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 18, 2014

 Mrs. Black (for herself, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Mrs. Blackburn, 
 and Mr. Griffin of Arkansas) 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 title XVIII of the Social Security Act with respect to the 
   treatment of patient encounters in ambulatory surgical centers in 
        determining meaningful EHR use, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Electronic Health Fairness Act of 
2014''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Ambulatory surgery centers were not covered under the 
        provisions of the HITECH Act of 2009, which created 
        certification standards and incentives for adopting electronic 
        health record (EHR) technology in the physician office and 
        hospital settings.
            (2) CMS defines a meaningful EHR user as an eligible 
        professional having 50 percent or more of the professional's 
        outpatient encounters at practices or locations equipped with 
        certified EHR technology.
            (3) Physicians with patient encounters in an ambulatory 
        surgical center are at a disadvantage when attempting to meet 
        meaningful use requirements because there currently is not 
        certified EHR technology for such centers.
            (4) Until such time as EHR technology is certified 
        specifically for use in the ambulatory surgical centers, 
        patient encounters that occur in such a center should not be 
        used when calculating whether an eligible professional meets 
        meaningful use requirements, unless an eligible professional 
        elects to include those encounters.

SEC. 3. TREATMENT OF PATIENT ENCOUNTERS IN AMBULATORY SURGICAL CENTERS 
              IN DETERMINING MEANINGFUL EHR USE.

    Section 1848(o)(2) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w-
4(o)(2)) is amended by adding at the end of the following new 
subparagraph:
                    ``(D) Treatment of patient encounters at ambulatory 
                surgical centers.--
                            ``(i) In general.--Subject to clause (ii), 
                        any patient encounter of an eligible 
                        professional occurring at an ambulatory 
                        surgical center (described in section 
                        1832(i)(1)(A)) shall not be treated as a 
                        patient encounter in determining whether an 
                        eligible professional qualifies as a meaningful 
                        EHR user.
                            ``(ii) Sunset.--Clause (i) shall no longer 
                        apply as of the first year that begins more 
                        than 3 years after the date the Secretary 
                        certifies EHR technology for the ambulatory 
                        surgical center setting.''.
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