[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5976 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5976
To provide for a hardship waiver for recoupment of certain Medicare
payments.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 28, 2006
Mr. Baker introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Ways and Means
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide for a hardship waiver for recoupment of certain Medicare
payments.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. HARDSHIP WAIVER FOR RECOUPMENT OF MEDICARE PAYMENTS.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in the
case of a facility described in subsection (b), the Secretary of Health
and Human Services--
(1) shall waive any recoupment or recovery of alleged
medicare overpayments described in subsection (c) in order to
permit the facility's continued provision of critical services
to its medicare and underserved populations; and
(2) shall not impose any sanction (including any civil
monetary penalty or exclusion from participation in any Federal
health care program) against the facility in connection with
any cost report filing made by the facility relating to such
alleged medicare overpayments.
(b) Facility Described.--A facility described in this subsection is
a critical access hospital (as defined in section 1861(mm)(1) of the
Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 1395x(mm)(1)) that meets the following
requirements (and includes any skilled nursing facility that is
contained within the same facility as such critical access hospital):
(1) Sole acute care hospital facility serving rural,
underserved area.--
(A) The facility is located in a rural area (as
defined for purposes of such section) that is
designated under section 330(b)(3)(A) of the Public
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254b(b)(3)(A)) as an area
with a shortage of personal health services.
(B) There is no other acute general hospital or
critical access hospital that provides inpatient or
outpatient hospital services in the county (or
equivalent area) in which the facility is located.
(2) Public facility.--The facility is operated by a
political subdivision of a State.
(3) Improved fiscal management.--The facility has made
changes in its management so that tax payments described in
subsection (c) are being made in a proper and timely manner.
(4) Hurricane katrina disaster area.--The county (or
equivalent area) in which the facility is located is an area
that--
(A) has been declared in accordance with section
401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and
Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170) as a result
of Hurricane Katrina; and
(B) the President has determined, as of September
14, 2005, warrants individual or public assistance from
the Federal Government under such Act.
(c) Medicare Overpayments Described.--
(1) In general.--The medicare overpayments described in
this subsection for a facility are payments made to the
facility under title XVIII of the Social Security Act before
the date of the enactment of this Act that were attributable to
alleged payment of compromised payroll taxes (as defined in
paragraph (2)).
(2) Compromised payroll taxes.--For purposes of paragraph
(1), the term ``compromised payroll taxes'' means, with respect
to a facility, amounts incurred before the date of the
enactment of this Act--
(A) that were originally owed by the facility for
its share of the Federal Insurance Contributions Act
(FICA) and other payroll taxes;
(B) that were not paid; and
(C) for which the facility is no longer liable
under a tax compromise permitted under section 7122 of
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
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