WASHINGTON - Doctors and nurses would have to tell federal authorities about undocumented immigrants seeking medical treatment under a bill that could come up for a vote in the House this week.

The measure is among a batch of congressional proposals targeting the country's 8 million to 10 million undocumented immigrants.

The bill, known as the Undocumented Alien Emergency Medical Assistance Amendments of 2004, aims to correct what sponsor Rep. Dana Rohrabacher calls "the worst excesses" of congressional actions favoring undocumented immigrants.

"If we know that an illegal alien is in the United States, especially one that is consuming resources that are taking health care resources away from our people, they should be deported and their own country should be taking care of them," Rohrabacher, R-Calif., told fellow lawmakers.

His measure would go far beyond what administrators at University Medical Center in Tucson sought to do in November when they began reporting to federal officials about all immigrants, documented and undocumented, who failed to pay their bills.

Rohrabacher's anger is rooted in the historic Medicare bill signed into law late last year following a close vote in Congress. It included a provision that gives hospitals at least $1 billion over the next four years to help cover the spiraling cost of providing emergency services for undocumented immigrants.

Under the legislation, the $1 billion will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis to hospitals nationwide. The funding formula favors such states as California, Arizona and Texas that have large numbers of undocumented immigrants. Arizona could get $160 million.

GOP Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona fought for the provision at the request of scores of border hospitals where such immigrants were racking up millions in unpaid bills.

The provision enraged Rohrabacher. He agreed to vote yes on the Medicare measure only if House leaders promised to bring up his bill for a vote before the end of the year.

Rohrabacher's bill, which stands a slim chance of passing, would supersede an existing federal law that prohibits hospitals from asking patients about their immigration status.

It would require hospitals to collect names, addresses, fingerprints, photographs and names of employers from undocumented immigrants admitted into any hospital.

The information would be shared with Homeland Security Department officials, who would deport undocumented illegal immigrants. Their employers would be billed for the hospital charges.

Cooperation among hospitals would be voluntary, but those that declined to participate would be ineligible for federal funds to cover the cost of treating undocumented immigrants.

UMC officials in Tucson oppose the bill, even though the hospital spends as much as $2.5 million annually to care for undocumented immigrants, said President and CEO Gregory Pivirotto.

"I worry about the implication of it," he said. "It makes us similar to a jail, and that would make it very difficult for our caregivers."

Under UMC's new policy, hospital workers call U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to turn in "foreign nationals" with delinquent accounts. Most are here legally.

Pivirotto had no statistics on the number of foreigners' names turned over to the federal government, but he said authorities are not notified while the patient is under the hospital's care.

The hospital waits at least seven days for foreign patients to set up a payment plan, he said.

Leading hospital associations and immigration advocates, anticipating a likely House vote on Rohrabacher's bill, went on the offensive this week to denounce the measure.

"It would turn hospital workers into de facto immigration agents," said Carla Luggiero, a senior lobbyist with the American Hospital Association.

The bill also could create a public health threat by discouraging undocumented immigrants from seeking treatment for potentially communicable diseases, said Luggiero.

"If doctors and nurses are going to be required to enforce immigration law, then how are they supposed to treat patients?" said Eliseo Medina, vice president of the Service Employees International Union, whose membership includes thousands of immigrants.

"This bill is mean-spirited," he said.

Rohrabacher contends his bill would not burden hospitals.

"Doctors need not stop lifesaving work to obtain information from their patients," he said. "Nor would a hospital refuse lifesaving care to any illegal alien who is truly in an emergency situation."