[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1729 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1729

    To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for 
  independent accreditation for dialysis facilities and assurances of 
                         high quality surveys.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 2, 2017

 Mr. Roberts (for himself, Mr. Warner, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Cardin, and Mr. 
Young) 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 to provide for 
  independent accreditation for dialysis facilities and assurances of 
                         high quality surveys.

    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 ``Dialysis Access Improvement Act of 
2017''.

SEC. 2. INDEPENDENT ACCREDITATION FOR DIALYSIS FACILITIES AND ASSURANCE 
              OF HIGH QUALITY SURVEYS.

    (a) Accreditation and Surveys.--
            (1) In general.--Section 1865 of the Social Security Act 
        (42 U.S.C. 1395bb) is amended--
                    (A) in subsection (a)--
                            (i) in paragraph (1), in the matter 
                        preceding subparagraph (A), by striking ``or 
                        the conditions and requirements under section 
                        1881(b)''; and
                            (ii) in paragraph (4), by inserting 
                        ``(including a renal dialysis facility)'' after 
                        ``facility''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following new 
                subsection:
    ``(e) With respect to an accreditation body that has received 
approval from the Secretary under subsection (a)(3)(A) for 
accreditation of provider entities that are required to meet the 
conditions and requirements under section 1881(b), in addition to 
review and oversight authorities otherwise applicable under this title, 
the Secretary shall (as the Secretary determines appropriate) conduct, 
with respect to such accreditation body and provider entities, any or 
all of the following as frequently as is otherwise required to be 
conducted under this title with respect to other accreditation bodies 
or other provider entities:
            ``(1) Validation surveys referred to in subsection (d).
            ``(2) Accreditation program reviews (as defined in section 
        488.8(c) of title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, or a 
        successor regulation).
            ``(3) Performance reviews (as defined in section 488.8(a) 
        of title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, or a successor 
        regulation).''.
            (2) Timing for acceptance of requests from accreditation 
        organizations.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
        enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human 
        Services shall begin accepting requests from national 
        accreditation bodies for a finding described in section 
        1865(a)(3)(A) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
        1395bb(a)(3)(A)) for purposes of accrediting provider entities 
        that are required to meet the conditions and requirements under 
        section 1881(b) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1395rr(b)).
    (b) Requirement for Timing of Surveys of New Dialysis Facilities.--
Section 1881(b)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395rr(b)(1)) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new sentence: ``Beginning 
180 days after the date of the enactment of this sentence, an initial 
survey of a provider of services or a renal dialysis facility to 
determine if the conditions and requirements under this paragraph are 
met shall be initiated not later than 90 days after such date on which 
both the provider enrollment form (without regard to whether such form 
is submitted prior to or after such date of enactment) has been 
determined by the Secretary to be complete and the provider's 
enrollment status indicates approval is pending the results of such 
survey.''.
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