S 1003 · 110th Congress 2007–2009, ended

Access to Emergency Medical Services Act of 2007

Fact sheet

Latest action · Mar 28, 2007 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

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.

  1. IntroducedMar 28, 2007
  2. Passed SenateNot reached
  3. Passed HouseNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

Access to Emergency Medical Services Act of 2007 - Establishes the United States Bipartisan Commission on Access to Emergency Medical Services to: (1) identify and examine factors in the health care delivery, financing, and legal systems that affect the effective delivery of screening and stabilization services furnished in hospitals that have emergency departments pursuant to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA); and (2) make specific recommendations to Congress with respect to federal programs, policies, and financing needed to assure the availability of such screening and stabilization services and the coordination of state, local, and federal programs for responding to disasters and emergencies.

Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to provide for additional payments for certain physicians' emergency services furnished pursuant to EMTALA.

Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to convene a working group that includes experts in emergency care, inpatient critical care, hospital operations management, nursing, and other relevant disciplines to develop boarding and diversion standards for hospitals and guidelines, measures, and incentives for implementation, monitoring, and enforcement of such standards.

Requires the CMS working group to: (1) identify barriers contributing to delays in timely processing of patients requiring admission as inpatients who initially sought care through the hospital's emergency department; (2) identify best practices to improve patient flow within hospitals; and (3) report to Congress and the Secretary a detailed description of the standards, guidelines, measures, and incentives developed, as well as identified barriers and best practices.

Directs the Secretary to establish a mechanism to make public information regarding any hospital that fails to report information requested by the CMS working group.

Cosponsors 23

Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Mar 28, 2007 to Sep 11, 2008, with 1 there on the day it was introduced.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
R-PAArlen SpecterOriginalMar 28, 2007
D-OHSherrod BrownApr 10, 2007
D-MICarl LevinMay 2, 2007
D-WAMaria CantwellMay 16, 2007
R-LADavid VitterMay 23, 2007
D-SDTim JohnsonJun 11, 2007
D-NJFrank R. LautenbergJul 30, 2007
R-MNNorm ColemanOct 16, 2007
R-MESusan M. CollinsOct 30, 2007
R-KSPat RobertsNov 1, 2007
D-CTJoseph I. LiebermanDec 12, 2007
D-LAMary L. LandrieuJan 22, 2008
D-HIDaniel K. InouyeJan 23, 2008
R-GAJohnny IsaksonMar 6, 2008
R-TXJohn CornynMar 13, 2008

Actions 2

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. Mar 28, 2007Introduced in Senate
  2. Mar 28, 2007Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Related bills 1

Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.

BillTitleRelationshipLatest action
HR 882Access to Emergency Medical Services Act of 2007Related billFeb 20, 2007

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Health.

Text 1

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

  1. Mar 28, 2007Introduced in Senate

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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.