HM 145

1	House Memorial
2	A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging
3	Congress to create a nationwide Emergency Room Staffing
4	Initiative.
5
6	WHEREAS, a crisis exists whereby an insufficient number of
7	physicians and medical specialists are available to provide on-
8	call emergency room support, and
9	WHEREAS, in order to provide a more stable health care
10	system in America, an incentive must be created to encourage
11	physicians and medical specialists to more actively participate
12	in these on-call emergency room responsibilities as part of
13	their hospital staffing duties, and
14	WHEREAS, an increased number of indigent care cases and
15	patients without health insurance seeking medical attention has
16	helped to discourage many practitioners and specialists from
17	desiring to serve in on-call services in emergency rooms, and
18	WHEREAS, when combined with already dramatically reduced
19	reimbursement rates, the staffing crisis is exacerbated, NOW,
20	THEREFORE,
21
22	Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
23
24	That the Congress of the United States is urged to create a
25	nationwide initiative in order to remedy this staffing crisis by
26	amending the nation's tax code to allow for all uncompensated
27	emergency room work to be eligible as a charitable deduction
28	against earned income for the practicing physician or medical
29	specialist up to a maximum of $100,000. Charges eligible for
30	this deduction should be based on a rate equivalent to 200
31	percent of the Medicare reimbursement rate at the time the
32	service is rendered. In the absence of an applicable Medicare
33	billing code, hospitals may charge a fee not to exceed 100
34	percent of the average customary and reasonable charges allowed
35	under private health insurance for any services rendered.
36	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
37	dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
38	President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
39	United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
40	the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.