Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act
Latest action · Sep 27, 2008 Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedSep 27, 2008
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to authorize the Secretary of Education to award recruitment incentive grants or contracts to graduate medical schools to enable them to improve primary care education and training for medical students.
Amends the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, to: (1) award grants to critical shortage health facilities to enable them to provide scholarships to individuals who agree to serve as physicians at such facilities after completing a residency in the field of family practice, pediatrics, or internal medicine; and (2) establish an educational loan repayment program for individuals who agree to serve as primary care physicians in an area that is not a health professional shortage area.
Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for deferment of education loans during medical residency and internships in family medicine, internal medicine, or pediatric medicine.
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994 to make permanent the Conrad State J-1 Visa Waiver Program.
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to exempt from the H-1 B Visa Limitation individuals awarded a medical speciality certification in internal medicine, pediatrics, or family medicine by the appropriate medical board based on post-doctoral training and experience in the United States.
Amends the PHSA to direct the Secretary to award grants to eligible state and local government entities for the development of informational materials that promote careers in primary care.
Amends title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to allow the use of Medicaid transformation payments for methods for improving medical assistance under Medicaid and SSA title XXI (Children's Health Insurance Program) (CHIP, formerly known as SCHIP) by encouraging certain medical practices to qualify as patient centered medical homes.
Establishes the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC).
Amends SSA title XVIII (Medicare) to: (1) increase budget neutrality limits under the physician fee schedule to account for anticipated savings resulting from payments for certain services and the coordination of beneficiary care; and (2) require a separate Medicare payment for designated primary care services and comprehensive care coordination services.
Amends SSA title XVIII, as amended by the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, to cover patient-centered medical home services.
Directs the Secretary to develop a methodology to increase payments for designated evaluation and management services provided by primary and principal care physicians.
Requires: (1) additional incentive payments for primary care services furnished in health professional shortage areas; (2) permanent extension of the floor on the Medicare work geographic adjustment under the physician fee schedule; and (3) permanent extension of the Medicare incentive payment program for physician scarcity areas.
Directs the Secretary to study and report to Congress on the process for determining relative value under the Medicare physician fee schedule.
Eliminates cost sharing for preventive benefits and the time restriction for initial preventive physical examination.
Directs the Secretary to study and report to Congress on: (1) facilitating the receipt of Medicare preventive services by Medicare beneficiaries; and (2) increasing the ability of the physician to assist Medicare beneficiaries in obtaining needed prescriptions under Medicare part D (Voluntary Prescription Drug Benefit Program).
Requires additional payments to physicians for services to individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP).
Requires various specified studies.
Cosponsors
Members who signed on, in the order they did.
Committees 4
Where it was sent and what each committee and subcommittee did with it, in order.
| Chamber | Committee | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| House | Energy and Commerce Committee | Referred Sep 27, 2008 |
| Health Subcommittee | Referred Sep 27, 2008 | |
| House | Judiciary Committee | Referred Sep 27, 2008 |
| House | Education and Workforce Committee | Referred Sep 27, 2008 |
| House | Ways and Means Committee | Referred Sep 27, 2008 |
Actions 3
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Sep 27, 2008Introduced in House
- Sep 27, 2008Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary, Education and Labor, and 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.
- Sep 27, 2008Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
Titles 2
Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.
- Official Title as Introduced
- To amend the Public Health Service Act and the Social Security Act to increase the number of primary care physicians and to improve patient access to primary care services, and for other purposes.
- Short Titles as Introduced
- Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Health.
- Child health
- Congressional oversight
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Education programs funding
- Executive agency funding and structure
- Foreign labor
- Foreign language and bilingual programs
- Government information and archives
- Government studies and investigations
- Health
- Health care costs and insurance
- Health care coverage and access
- Health facilities and institutions
- Health personnel
- Health programs administration and funding
- Health promotion and preventive care
- Home and outpatient care
- Immigration status and procedures
- Medicaid
- Medical education
- Medical tests and diagnostic methods
- Medicare
- Minority education
- Minority employment
- Prescription drugs
- Student aid and college costs
- Temporary and part-time employment
- Visas and passports
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Sep 27, 2008Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.
