Native American Psychiatric and Mental Health Care Improvement Act - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to award a five-year grant to one department of psychiatry in, or one non-profit entity affiliated with, an accredited medical school in this country to carry out a demonstration program to recruit, train, deploy, and professionally support psychiatric physicians who agree to provide primary and specialty health care services in Indian health programs for at least two years.
Requires the grantee to: (1) create a nationally-replicable workforce model that identifies and incorporates best practices for carrying out such activities, and (2) provide participating psychiatric physicians with up to one year of supplemental clinical and cultural competency training that enables them to provide primary and specialty health care services in Indian health programs.
Requires participating psychiatric physicians to: (1) be licensed or eligible for licensure to practice in the state to which they will be deployed; and (2) demonstrate a commitment, beyond the one year of training and two years of deployment, to a career as a specialty care or primary care physician providing mental health services in Indian health programs. Gives a preference to psychiatric physicians who are American Indians or Alaska Natives.
Directs the Secretary to make a repayment, under the Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program, of the educational loans of participating psychiatric physicians for each year of their deployment to an Indian health program.
[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2037 Introduced in House (IH)]
113th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2037
To establish a demonstration grant program to recruit, train, deploy,
and professionally support psychiatric physicians in Indian health
programs.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 16, 2013
Mr. Schrader introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on
Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish a demonstration grant program to recruit, train, deploy,
and professionally support psychiatric physicians in Indian health
programs.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Native American Psychiatric and
Mental Health Care Improvement Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration concludes the rate of serious mental illness in
American Indians and Alaska Natives is twice that of any other
race or ethnicity.
(2) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
concludes the suicide rate among American Indian and Alaska
Native youth is more than twice that of any other race or
ethnicity.
(3) The United States Surgeon General attributes high rates
of homelessness, incarceration, alcohol and drug abuse, stress,
and trauma as principal causes of mental illness in American
Indians and Alaska Natives.
(4) The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
concludes in The National Health Disparity Report, 2011, that
American Indians and Alaska Natives had worse care than Whites
in 28 measures of health care quality and access.
(5) The Indian Health Service reports that per capita
spending on personal health care of American Indians and Alaska
Natives was $2,741 in 2012--nearly two-thirds below the
national average of $7,239.
(6) The Department of Health and Human Services, Office of
Inspector General, reports that a shortage of psychiatrists at
the Indian Health Service and other tribal health facilities
significantly limits mental health access to American Indians
and Alaska Natives.
(7) The One Sky Center, the American Indian/Alaska Native
National Resource Center for Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services, identifies 20 psychiatrists currently practicing in
Indian country (out of approximately 60,000 psychiatrists
practicing nationwide), and 2 Native American psychiatrists
currently practicing in Indian country (out of 13 practicing
nationwide).
(8) According to the American Psychiatric Association,
psychiatric physicians practicing in American Indian and Alaska
Native population groups often face cultural competency
challenges, professional isolation, high demand for medical and
mental health services, relatively low compensation, and high
burnout rates.
(9) A legislative initiative is warranted to create a
nationally-replicable workforce model that identifies and
incorporates best practices for recruiting, training,
deploying, and professionally supporting Native American
psychiatric physicians or non-Native American psychiatric
physicians (or both), who are fully integrated into existing
medical, mental, and behavioral health systems in Indian health
programs.
SEC. 3. DEMONSTRATION GRANT PROGRAM TO RECRUIT, TRAIN, DEPLOY, AND
PROFESSIONALLY SUPPORT PSYCHIATRIC PHYSICIANS IN INDIAN
HEALTH PROGRAMS.
(a) Establishment.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services (in
this section referred to as the ``Secretary''), in consultation with
the Director of the Indian Health Service and demonstration programs
established under section 123 of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act
(25 U.S.C. 1616p), shall award one 5-year grant to one eligible entity
to carry out a demonstration program (in this Act referred to as the
``Program'') under which the eligible entity shall carry out the
activities described in subsection (b).
(b) Activities To Be Carried Out by Recipient of Grant Under
Program.--Under the Program, the grant recipient shall--
(1) create a nationally-replicable workforce model that
identifies and incorporates best practices for recruiting,
training, deploying, and professionally supporting Native
American and non-Native American psychiatric physicians to be
fully integrated into medical, mental, and behavioral health
systems in Indian health programs;
(2) recruit to participate in the Program Native American
and non-Native American psychiatric physicians who demonstrate
interest in providing specialty health care services (as
defined in section 313(a)(3) of the Indian Health Care
Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1638g(a)(3))) and primary care
services to American Indians and Alaska Natives;
(3) provide such psychiatric physicians participating in
the Program with not more than 1 year of supplemental clinical
and cultural competency training to enable such physicians to
provide such specialty health care services and primary care
services in Indian health programs;
(4) with respect to such psychiatric physicians who are
participating in the Program and trained under paragraph (3),
deploy such physicians to practice specialty care or primary
care in Indian health programs for a period of not less than 2
years and professionally support such physicians for such
period with respect to practicing such care in such programs;
and
(5) not later than 1 year after the last day of the 5-year
period for which the grant is awarded under subsection (a),
submit to the Secretary and to the appropriate committees of
Congress a report that shall include--
(A) the workforce model created under paragraph
(1);
(B) strategies for disseminating the workforce
model to other entities with the capability of adopting
it; and
(C) recommendations for the Secretary and Congress
with respect to supporting an effective and stable
psychiatric and mental health workforce that serves
American Indians and Alaska Natives.
(c) Eligible Entities.--
(1) Requirements.--To be eligible to receive the grant
under this section, an entity shall--
(A) submit to the Secretary an application at such
time, in such manner, and containing such information
as the Secretary may require;
(B) be a department of psychiatry within a medical
school in the United States that is accredited by the
Liaison Committee on Medical Education or a public or
private non-profit entity affiliated with a medical
school in the United States that is accredited by the
Liaison Committee on Medical Education; and
(C) have in existence, as of the time of submission
of the application under subparagraph (A), a
relationship with Indian health programs in at least
two States with a demonstrated need for psychiatric
physicians and provide assurances that the grant will
be used to serve rural and non-rural American Indian
and Alaska Native populations in at least two States.
(2) Priority in selecting grant recipient.--In awarding the
grant under this section, the Secretary shall give priority to
an eligible entity that satisfies each of the following:
(A) Demonstrates sufficient infrastructure in size,
scope, and capacity to undertake the supplemental
clinical and cultural competency training of a minimum
of 5 psychiatric physicians, and to provide ongoing
professional support to psychiatric physicians during
the deployment period to an Indian health program.
(B) Demonstrates a record in successfully
recruiting, training, and deploying physicians who are
American Indians and Alaska Natives.
(C) Demonstrates the ability to establish a program
advisory board, which may be primarily composed of
representatives of federally-recognized tribes, Alaska
Natives, and Indian health programs to be served by the
Program.
(d) Eligibility of Psychiatric Physicians To Participate in the
Program.--
(1) In general.--To be eligible to participate in the
Program, as described in subsection (b), a psychiatric
physician shall--
(A) be licensed or eligible for licensure to
practice in the State to which the physician is to be
deployed under subsection (b)(4); and
(B) demonstrate a commitment beyond the one year of
training described in subsection (b)(3) and two years
of deployment described in subsection (b)(4) to a
career as a specialty care physician or primary care
physician providing mental health services in Indian
health programs.
(2) Preference.--In selecting physicians to participate
under the Program, as described in subsection (b)(2), the grant
recipient shall give preference to physicians who are American
Indians and Alaska Natives.
(e) Loan Forgiveness.--Under the Program, any psychiatric physician
accepted to participate in the Program shall, notwithstanding the
provisions of subsection (b) of section 108 of the Indian Health Care
Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1616a) and upon acceptance into the Program,
be deemed eligible and enrolled to participate in the Indian Health
Service Loan Repayment Program under such section 108. Under such Loan
Repayment Program, the Secretary shall pay on behalf of the physician
for each year of deployment under the Program under this section up to
$35,000 for loans described in subsection (g)(1) of such section 108.
(f) Deferral of Certain Service.--The starting date of required
service of individuals in the National Health Service Corps Service
Program under title II of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 202
et seq.) who are psychiatric physicians participating under the Program
under this section shall be deferred until the date that is 30 days
after the date of completion of the participation of such a physician
in the Program under this section.
(g) Definitions.--For purposes of this Act:
(1) American indians and alaska natives.--The term
``American Indians and Alaska Natives'' has the meaning given
the term ``Indian'' in section 447.50(b)(1) of title 42, Code
of Federal Regulations, as in existence as of the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(2) Indian health program.--The term ``Indian health
program'' has the meaning given such term in section 104(12) of
the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (25 U.S.C. 1603(12)).
(3) Professionally support.--The term ``professionally
support'' means, with respect to psychiatric physicians
participating in the Program and deployed to practice specialty
care or primary care in Indian health programs, the provision
of compensation to such physicians for the provision of such
care during such deployment and may include the provision,
dissemination, or sharing of best practices, field training,
and other activities deemed appropriate by the recipient of the
grant under this section.
(4) Psychiatric physician.--The term ``psychiatric
physician'' means a medical doctor or doctor of osteopathy in
good standing who has successfully completed four-year
psychiatric residency training or who is enrolled in four-year
psychiatric residency training in a residency program
accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical
Education.
(h) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be
appropriated to carry out this section $1,000,000 for each of the
fiscal years 2014 through 2018.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
Referred to the Subcommittee Indian and Alaska Native Affairs.
Llama 3.2 · runs locally in your browser
Ask anything about this bill. The AI reads the full text to answer.
Enter to send · Shift+Enter for new line