Protecting Patients and Doctors from Unlawful Robocalls Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3780 To direct the Federal Communications Commission to establish an advisory committee to develop best practices regarding how to combat unlawful robocalls made to hospitals and how hospitals can protect themselves from such calls, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JULY 16, 2019 Mrs. DINGELL (for herself and Mr. BURGESS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To direct the Federal Communications Commission to estab- lish an advisory committee to develop best practices re- garding how to combat unlawful robocalls made to hos- pitals and how hospitals can protect themselves from such calls, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Patients 4 and Doctors from Unlawful Robocalls Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:49 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3780.IH H3780 Pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3780 IH SEC. 2. HOSPITAL ROBOCALL PROTECTION GROUP. 1 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days after 2 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission 3 shall establish an advisory committee to be known as the 4 ‘‘Hospital Robocall Protection Group’’. 5 (b) MEMBERSHIP.—The Group shall be composed 6 only of the following members: 7 (1) An equal number of representatives from 8 each of the following: 9 (A) Voice service providers that serve hos- 10 pitals. 11 (B) Companies that focus on mitigating 12 unlawful robocalls. 13 (C) Consumer advocacy organizations. 14 (D) Providers of one-way voice over inter- 15 net protocol services described in subsection 16 (e)(4)(B)(ii). 17 (E) Hospitals. 18 (F) State government officials focused on 19 combatting unlawful robocalls. 20 (2) One representative of the Commission. 21 (3) One representative of the Federal Trade 22 Commission. 23 (c) ISSUANCE OF BEST PRACTICES.—Not later than 24 180 days after the date on which the Group is established 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:49 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3780.IH H3780 Pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3780 IH under subsection (a), the Group shall issue best practices 1 regarding the following: 2 (1) How voice service providers can better com- 3 bat unlawful robocalls made to hospitals. 4 (2) How hospitals can better protect themselves 5 from such calls, including by using unlawful robocall 6 mitigation techniques. 7 (3) How the Federal Government and State 8 governments can help combat such calls. 9 (d) PROCEEDING BY FCC.—Not later than 180 days 10 after the date on which the best practices are issued by 11 the Group under subsection (c), the Commission shall con- 12 clude a proceeding to assess the extent to which the vol- 13 untary adoption of such best practices can be facilitated 14 to protect hospitals and other institutions. 15 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 16 (1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 17 means the Federal Communications Commission. 18 (2) GROUP.—The term ‘‘Group’’ means the 19 Hospital Robocall Protection Group established 20 under subsection (a). 21 (3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ has the mean- 22 ing given such term in section 3 of the Communica- 23 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:49 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3780.IH H3780 Pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3780 IH (4) VOICE SERVICE.—The term ‘‘voice serv- 1 ice’’— 2 (A) means any service that is inter- 3 connected with the public switched telephone 4 network and that furnishes voice communica- 5 tions to an end user using resources from the 6 North American Numbering Plan or any suc- 7 cessor to the North American Numbering Plan 8 adopted by the Commission under section 9 251(e)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934 10 (47 U.S.C. 251(e)(1)); and 11 (B) includes— 12 (i) transmissions from a telephone 13 facsimile machine, computer, or other de- 14 vice to a telephone facsimile machine; and 15 (ii) without limitation, any service 16 that enables real-time, two-way voice com- 17 munications, including any service that re- 18 quires internet protocol-compatible cus- 19 tomer premises equipment (commonly 20 known as ‘‘CPE’’) and permits out-bound 21 calling, whether or not the service is one- 22 way or two-way voice over internet pro- 23 tocol. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:49 Jul 25, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3780.IH H3780 Pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS