professional standards review areas

professional standards review areas Sec. 105. Section 1152 of the Social Security Act is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection: “(g) (1) In any case in which the Secretary has established, within a State, two or more appropriate areas with respect to which Professional Standards Review Organizations may be designated, he shall, prior to designating a Professional Standards Review Organization for any such area, conduct in each such area a poll in which the doctors of medicine and doctors of osteopathy engaged in active practice therein will be asked: ‘Do you support a change from the present local and regional Professional Standards Review Organization area designations to a single statewide area designation?’. If, in each such area, more than 50 per centum of the doctors responding to such question respond in the affirmative, then the Secretary shall establish the entire State as a single Professional Standards Review Organization area. “(2) The provisions of paragraph (1) shall not be applicable with respect to the designation of Professional Standards Review Organization areas in any State, if, prior to the date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary has entered into an agreement (on a conditional basis or otherwise) with an organization designating it as the Professional Standards Review Organization for any area in the State.”.