[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 133 (Thursday, November 18, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2045]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     IMPROVING ACCESS TO PHYSICIANS IN MEDICALLY UNDERSERVED AREAS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 17, 2004

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the purpose of this bill is to 
make it possible for foreign doctors to provide medical services in 
geographic areas which have been designated by the Secretary of Health 
and Human Services as having a shortage of health care professionals. 
S. 2302 is almost identical to H.R. 4453, which I cosponsored with my 
colleague, Mr. Hostettler. H.R. 4453 passed the House on October 6 on 
the suspension calendar. The Senate bill has an additional provision 
which ensures that specialists sponsored by Federal and State agencies 
are placed in areas that have a shortage in that specialty. The 
additional provision requires the sponsoring agency to determine 
criteria for demonstrating a specialist shortage and to meet that 
criteria in order to sponsor the specialist.
  Aliens who attend medical school in the United States on J exchange 
program visas are required to leave the country afterwards and reside 
abroad for two years before they can receive a visa to work here as 
physicians. In 1994, Congress created a new temporary waiver of this 2-
year foreign residence requirement which allowed states as well as 
federal agencies to sponsor the doctors. It applied to foreign doctors 
who would commit to practicing medicine for no less than 3 years in a 
geographic area designated by the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services as 2 having a shortage of health care professionals. This 
program has been successful for 10 years in bringing highly qualified 
physicians to medically underserved areas. It sunsetted on June 1 of 
this year.
  The first physician recommended for a waiver in Texas was Dr. Maria 
Camacho, a Pediatric Intensivist. Her services to the residents of 
Harlingen in Cameron County provide a level of health care to children 
that was previously unavailable in that county.
  Dr. K. M. Moorthi is a Nephrologist who was recommended for a waiver 
to serve at a facility in Pecos, TX, in Reeves County. He works at a 
dialysis center. Patients requiring dialysis 3 times per week in that 
part of Texas used to have to travel more than 70 miles each way for 
the treatments. Now it is available in Pecos.
  The bill will provide a 2-year extension for this waiver program. 
When it was marked up by the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border 
Security, and Claims, the extension was only for one year. Although I 
had sought a 5-year extension at that 3 markup, I subsequently accepted 
a compromise of 2 years. I also negotiated a flexibility provision 
which will allow a State agency to place a doctor at a location that 
has not been designated as underserved if the doctor will nevertheless 
serve patients from an underserved area. The exception is limited to 
five doctors in each state. It targets rural underserved areas that 
typically get specialty medical care from a major medical facility that 
is not itself located within an underserved area. The bill also 
provides that the doctors who receive a waiver to come here with H-1B 
visas will not count towards the annual H-1B cap.
  I urge you to vote for S. 2302.

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