Ensuring Access to General Surgery Act of 2017
This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to study access by underserved populations to general surgeons, including: (1) whether the health professional shortage area designation under the National Health Service Corps program accurately assesses adequacy of access and whether another measure would be more accurate, and (2) potential methodologies for designating general surgery shortage areas.
HHS must publish data comparing the availability and need of general surgery services in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
HHS may establish a methodology for designating general surgery shortage areas and make such designations. HHS must publish a list of general surgery shortage areas.