Rural Hospital Frontier Fairness Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1323 To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to extend the floor on the area wage index under the inpatient prospective payment system to certain sole community hospitals and to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide eligibility for certain sole community hospitals to discounted drug prices under the 340B drug pricing program. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 22, 2019 Mr. PETERSON (for himself and Mr. TIPTON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subse- quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to extend the floor on the area wage index under the inpatient prospective payment system to certain sole community hospitals and to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide eligibility for certain sole community hospitals to discounted drug prices under the 340B drug pricing program. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:10 Mar 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1323.IH H1323 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 1323 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rural Hospital Fron- 2 tier Fairness Act’’. 3 SEC. 2. EXTENDING FLOOR ON AREA WAGE INDEX TO CER- 4 TAIN SOLE COMMUNITY HOSPITALS. 5 Section 1886(d)(3)(E)(iii) of the Social Security Act 6 (42 U.S.C. 1395ww(d)(3)(E)(iii)) is amended— 7 (1) in subclause (I), by inserting before the pe- 8 riod at the end the following: ‘‘and, for discharges 9 occurring on or after October 1, 2019, the area 10 wage index applicable under this subparagraph to 11 any sole community hospital that is located not more 12 than 75 miles from the closest frontier State and 13 that makes an election under subclause (V) may not 14 be less than 1.00’’; and 15 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub- 16 clause: 17 ‘‘(V) SOLE COMMUNITY HOS- 18 PITAL ELECTION.—The Secretary 19 shall provide for a process under 20 which a sole community hospital de- 21 scribed in subclause (I) may elect, at 22 such time and in such manner as 23 specified by the Secretary, to apply 24 subclause (I) to such sole community 25 hospital.’’. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:10 Mar 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1323.IH H1323 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 1323 IH SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY OF CERTAIN SOLE COMMUNITY HOS- 1 PITALS FOR DISCOUNTED DRUG PRICES 2 UNDER THE 340B DRUG PRICING PROGRAM. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 340B(a)(4) of the Public 4 Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 256b(a)(4)) is amended by 5 adding at the end the following new subparagraph: 6 ‘‘(P) An entity that is a sole community 7 hospital (as defined in section 8 1886(d)(5)(C)(iii) of the Social Security Act), 9 that was classified as such a hospital before Oc- 10 tober 1, 2015, and that is located not more 11 than 75 miles from the closest frontier State 12 (as defined in section 1886(d)(3)(E)(iii)(II) of 13 such Act).’’. 14 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.— 15 (1) IN GENERAL.—The amendment made by 16 subsection (a) shall apply to drugs purchased on or 17 after the first day of the first month that begins 18 more than 60 days after the date of the enactment 19 of this Act. 20 (2) CONFORMING 340B AGREEMENTS.—The 21 Secretary of Health and Human Services shall pro- 22 vide for such timely modification of agreements en- 23 tered into under section 340B of the Public Health 24 Service Act (42 U.S.C. 256b) as is necessary to pro- 25 vide for the application of the amendment made by 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:10 Mar 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1323.IH H1323 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 1323 IH subsection (a) on a timely basis consistent with 1 paragraph (1). 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:10 Mar 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1323.IH H1323 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS