[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1347 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1347

  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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 14, 2015

Mr. Isakson (for himself and Mr. Bennet) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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 
2015''.

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) The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (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:
                    ``(E) 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.''.
                                 <all>