In: Nursing
HSC 103 medical law and Ethics
Chapter 1
Part One: Using the Internet, research the process of how a bill becomes a law. Describe the process in detail.
Part Two: Research a current healthcare-related issue that is in the process of becoming a law. Describe the issue/bill and the details about the process it is in.
Combine Part One and Part Two into a one to two page paper.
Part One: Using the Internet, research the process of how a bill becomes a law. Describe the process in detail.
Stage 1: Drafting of bill
Any member of Congress who has an idea for a law can draft a bill, either from the Senate or the House or Representatives. Such ideas come from members of Congress themselves or from the lobbying and community organizations of ordinary people. The primary member of Congress who supports the bill is considered the sponsor "Co-sponsors" are the other members who support the bill.
Stage 2: The bill has been tabled
It will be introduced once the bill is written. When the sponsor is a Senator, the bill is presented in the Senate. The bill is introduced in the Senate if a Senator is the sponsor. Once a bill has been introduced, it can be found on Congress.gov, the official government website that tracks federal laws.
Stage 3: Proposal goes to committee
It is referred to a committee as soon as a bill is tabled. Both the House and Senate have different committees composed of groups of members of Congress who are particularly interested in various topics such as health or international affairs. When a bill is in the committee's hands, it is scrutinized carefully and its chances of passing through the entire Congress. The committee may also elect to hold hearings to better grasp the bill's consequences. Hearings provide for documenting the opinions of the executive branch, experts, other elected officials and supporters, as well as critics of the legislation. When the committee refuses to vote on a bill the bill is declared "dead."
Stage 4: Review of the Bill by sub-committee
Subcommittees are grouped within committees and have additional expertise on a given subject. Committees also refer the bills for analysis and their own hearings to a subcommittee. The subcommittee may amend the bill and will vote to return a bill to the full committee.
Step 5: Mark up of the bill by committee
The committee must meet to "mark up" the bill after the hearings and subcommittee analysis are complete. They make amendments and adjustments before sending the bill to the council. If a committee does not vote to report legislation to the full congressional chamber, the bill dies. If the bill is voted by the committee it will be reported to the floor. This method is called "ordering a filing bill"
Step 6: Voting on the bill through the full chamber
When the bill hits the house, there is more discussion and full-chamber members vote to approve any amendments. The bill is either approved by the voting representatives, or rejected.
Section 7: The bill is referred to the other chamber
If a bill is passed by the House or Senate, it is referred to the other house, where it typically takes the same course through committees, and eventually to the floor. This chamber will accept, deny, disregard or amend the bill as presented. Congress that set up a conference committee to resolve or reconcile the discrepancies between the House versions of a bill and the Senate. If an agreement is not reached by the conference committee the bill dies. Once an agreement is reached, the members of the committee shall prepare a conference report with suggestions for the final bill. To accept the conference report, both the House and the Senate need to vote.
Stage 8: The plan goes to the President
After a bill has been approved in identical form by both the House and Senate, the bill is sent to the President. When the president approves the bill, it is signed, and it becomes bill. Unless the President takes no action when Congress is in session for ten days, the bill will immediately become law.
When the President opposes the bill they are entitled to veto the bill. Therefore, if no action has been taken for 10 days and Congress has already delayed, there will be a "pocket veto."
Phase 9: veto override
When a bill is vetoed by the President, Congress may seek to circumvent the veto. If the bill is passed by a two-thirds majority by both the Senate and the House, the President's veto is overruled and the bill becomes law.
Part Two: Research a current healthcare-related issue that is in the process of becoming a law.
Patient engagement and disclosure
Many proposed bills focus on disclosing cost and financial information to the patient, as well as the patient, provider and insurer relationship — details that have not always been transparent up to now.
Price disclosure has gained much attention from both the branches of the legislature and the executive. The fact that patients don't provide up front cost information impairs their ability to equate services with the expense of alternative therapies. The Executive Order focuses on reducing the costs of health care through a variety of Health and Human Services Department (HHS), Initiatives intended to "boost patients' ability to select the treatment that best serves them."
Congress Regulation focuses on "surprise" medical bills. Those are medical bills in which a patient encounters one or more of their medical care providers suddenly out of the network and is either not protected or protected only partially, resulting in extremely high costs.