Luis Fortuno on Health Care

Improve services for people with autism & their families.

Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to:

1. convene, on behalf of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, a Treatments, Interventions, and Services Evaluation Task Force to evaluate evidence-based biomedical and behavioral treatments and services for individuals with autism;
2. establish a multi-year demonstration grant program for states to provide evidence-based autism treatments, interventions, and services.
3. establish planning and demonstration grant programs for adults with autism;
4. award grants to states for access to autism services following diagnosis;
5. award grants to University Centers of Excellence for Developmental Disabilities to provide services and address the unmet needs of individuals with autism and their families;
6. make grants to protection and advocacy systems to address the needs of individuals with autism and other emerging populations of individuals with disabilities; and
7. award a grant to a national nonprofit organization for the establishment and maintenance of a national technical assistance center for autism services and information dissemination.
8. Directs the Comptroller General to issue a report on the financing of autism services and treatments.

Establish a National Diabetes Coordinator.

A bill to reduce the incidence, progression, and impact of diabetes and its complications and establish the position of National Diabetes Coordinator. Establishes the position of National Diabetes Coordinator, whose duties shall be to:

1. serve as the principal advisor on reducing the rates of diabetes and its complications;
2. develop a measurement for the incidence of diabetes;
3. develop and coordinate implementation of a national strategy to reduce the incidence, progression, and impact of diabetes and its complications;
4. provide leadership and coordination to ensure that diabetes-related programs are coordinated internally and with those of relevant federal, state, and local agencies with a goal of avoiding duplication of effort, maximizing impact, and marshaling all government resources; and
5. coordinate public and private resources to develop and lead a public awareness campaign regarding the prevention and control of diabetes and its complications.

In carrying out the duties described, the Coordinator shall adhere to the mission of:
1. preventing diabetes in those individuals and populations at risk for the disease;
2. increasing detection of diabetes;
3. maximizing the return on diabetes research;
4. increasing diabetes control efforts;
5. improving the standard of diabetes care available; and
6. supplementing, but not supplanting, existing diabetes research programs.
7. Requires reports to the President on ways in which food programs and nutritional support can be better targeted at concerns specific to those at risk for diabetes or those already diagnosed whose complications could be reduced by more effective diet.