Latest News On Health Care

To watch Mac's floor speech on the Pelosi Health Care Bill, click here.

To read Mac's summary of the Pelosi Health Care Bill, click here.  

October 2009 Health Care Update

August 2009 Health Care Update

July 2009 Health Care Discussion

 Mac's Health Care Bills

H.R. 2692, the “CAH Designation Waiver Authority Act” Critical access hospitals are certain hospitals that serve a vital need in a community due to a lack of other health care options in the area. These hospitals receive a higher reimbursement rate from Medicare and Medicaid due to the higher cost of operations they face because of their location. In order to be classified as a critical access hospital, a particular hospital must meet a number of requirements, one being that they are not located within 35 miles of any other hospital. This requirement has hurt many hospitals in our district because they fulfill every other requirement but there might be another hospital some 30 miles away or so and therefore they are not eligible for the designation. This situation causes a significant financial burden on them. H.R. 2692 would return the authority to grant waivers to this requirement to the states so that a state can decide to grant a waiver to an otherwise deserving critical access hospital even if it is located within a 35 mile radius of another hospital. Congressman Thornberry introduced H.R. 2692 with his Democratic colleague, Congressman Mike Ross. There is also a companion bill in the Senate that was introduced by Senators Pryor and Brownback. 

> Please click here for the text of the bill, status, and other information.

H.R. 2784, The Partnership to Improve Seniors Access to Medicare Act, a bill that would create a program that would provide $20,000 a year in student loan repayment to medical professionals who agree to fill up to 30% of their practice for the year with Medicare patients. The goal of this bill is to provide an additional incentive for doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals to accept Medicare patients into their practice.

> Please click here for the text of the bill, status, and other information.

H.R. 2786, the Patient Fairness and Indigent Care Promotion Act, a bill that would help doctors treat low-income patients by allowing them to deduct the costs of treatment as a bad debt write-off from their federal taxes. This bill will provide incentives to doctors to treat more non-paying patients.

> Please click here for the text of the bill, status, and other information.

H.R. 2785, the Health Care Fraud and Paperwork Reduction Act, a bill that establishes a Commission on Billing Codes and Forms Simplification that is tasked with working with Medicare and the medical community to standardize and simplify billing practices while protecting patient privacy. The Commission would also study electronic forms and billing practices while protecting patient privacy.

> Please click here for the text of the bill, status, and other information.

H.R. 2787, the Medical Liability Procedural Reform Act, a bill that will authorize the Attorney General to give grants to states that establish health care tribunals that provide alternatives to current tort litigation.

> Please click here for the text of the bill, status, and other information.