Medicare Dental Benefit Act of 2021 This bill provides for Medicare coverage of dental and oral health services, including routine diagnostic and preventive services, basic and major dental services, and emergency care; dental prostheses are also covered. Currently, such services are excluded from Medicare coverage.
Climate Smart Ports Act This bill requires the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a grant program for purchasing or installing equipment and technology to reduce pollution at ports. Specifically, the grants must be used for equipment or technology that produces zero exhaust emissions of certain pollutants and greenhouse gases or captures 100% of the exhaust emissions produced by an ocean-going vessel at berth.
COVID HCBS Relief Act of 2021 This bill temporarily increases the applicable Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (i.e., federal matching rate) under Medicaid for certain approved home- and community-based services that are provided between October 1, 2020, and September 30, 2022. As a condition for receiving the increased rate, a state must agree to undertake activities to improve the delivery of such services during and after the public health emergency relating to COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019), such as by providing additional benefits to home health workers and by helping individuals who were relocated to nursing facilities during the emergency move back to their homes.
Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act of 2021 This bill establishes an interagency Environmental Justice Mapping Committee that must create a tool to identify environmental justice communities. Environmental justice communities are communities with significant representation of communities of color, low-income communities, or tribal and indigenous communities that experience, or are at risk of experiencing, higher or more adverse human health or environmental effects, as compared to other communities. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must establish an environmental justice data repository to maintain the data collected by the committee. The EPA must make the repository available to regional, state, local, and tribal governments.
Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2021 This bill provides for coverage of marriage and family therapist services and mental health counselor services under Medicare. It also excludes such services from the skilled nursing facility prospective payment system, and authorizes marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors to develop discharge plans for post-hospital services.
Improving Social Determinants of Health Act of 2021 This bill requires the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish a program to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequities by, for example, coordinating activities across the CDC. As part of the program, the CDC must award grants to eligible organizations to build capacity to address social determinants of health. The CDC shall provide for an independent evaluation of certain grants and report findings to Congress.
Preventing Mental Health and Substance Use Crises During Emergencies Act This bill establishes a task force and requires a strategy to address mental health and substance use issues during public health emergencies. The Department of Health and Human Services must convene the task force to assess the federal response to such issues during and after the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) emergency. In addition, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration must develop and annually update the strategy. The task force's work must inform the strategy.
PDMPs Help Patients Act of 2021 This bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a grant program to test the feasibility of integrating substance use disorder and behavioral health treatment locator tools into prescription drug monitoring programs. HHS may award grants to up to five states.
Women and Climate Change Act of 2021 This bill addresses climate change and its effects on women and girls. Specifically, the bill establishes the Federal Interagency Working Group on Women and Climate Change within the Department of State. The bill outlines the functions of the working group, including the coordination of agencies' policies and activities relating to combating the effects of climate change on women and improving the government's response to and strategy for climate change. In addition, the Office of Global Women's Issues of the State Department must submit a strategy to prevent and respond to the effects of climate change on women.
Insular Area Medicaid Parity Act This bill eliminates Medicaid funding limitations for U.S. territories beginning in FY2021.
Nationally Enhancing the Well-being of Babies through Outreach and Research Now Act or the NEWBORN Act This bill establishes a pilot program through which the Health Resources and Services Administration must award grants to territorial, tribal, and local health departments in areas with the highest rates of infant mortality to address birth defects, premature births, and other leading causes of infant death.
This concurrent resolution recognizes the difficult challenges Black veterans faced when returning home after serving in the Armed Forces, their heroic military sacrifices, and their patriotism in fighting for equal rights and for the dignity of a people and a nation. The concurrent resolution also recognizes the need for the Department of Veterans Affairs to continue to work to eliminate any health and benefit disparities for minority veterans.
