Ensuring Veterans Access to Care Act of 2014
Latest action · Jun 4, 2014 Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 408.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJun 3, 2014
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Ensuring Veterans Access to Care Act of 2014 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to: (1) implement an upgraded and centralized electronic system for scheduling individuals' appointments for VA health care, and (2) contract for an independent assessment of the process at each VA medical facility for scheduling such appointments.
Sets forth measures concerning the training and hiring of VA health personnel that:
- protect primary care physicians from liability for failing to perform their period of obligated service under the Health Professionals Educational Assistance Program due to VA staffing changes or an oversupply of primary care physicians;
- allow individuals, as part of that Program, to enroll in the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences to pursue a medical education with a primary care specialization;
- require the Secretary to annually identify the five VA health care occupations for which there are the largest staffing shortages, to recruit and appoint health care providers to those positions, and to give scholarship priority under the Health Professionals Educational Assistance Program to applicants pursuing careers in those occupations;
- direct the Secretary to implement a clinic management training program to provide in-person, standardized education on health care management to all managers of, and health care providers at, VA medical facilities; and
- include service at VA medical facilities as obligated service under the National Health Service Corps Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs.
Establishes measures to improve veterans' access to health care from non-VA providers by:
- requiring the Secretary to make enhanced use of the Secretary's existing authorities to give veterans access to health care at non-VA facilities if they cannot get timely access to care at VA health facilities;
- extending a joint Department of Defense (DOD)-VA program to identify, implement, and evaluate creative health care coordination and sharing initiatives at facility, intraregional, and nationwide levels;
- requiring the Secretary to transfer the authority to pay for health care through non-VA facilities from the VA's Veterans Integrated Service Networks and medical centers to the Veterans Health Administration's Chief Business Office;
- requiring the Secretary to provide outreach to Indian medical facilities regarding their ability to enter into agreements with the VA for reimbursement for providing veterans with health care;
- requiring the Secretary to enter into agreements to reimburse Native Hawaiian health care systems for the provision of health care to veterans.
Sets forth VA health care administrative matters, which include:
- requiring the Secretary to improve veterans' access to telemedicine and other health care through the use of VA mobile vet centers by establishing standardized requirements for the operation of such centers,
- establishing the Commission on Access to Care,
- establishing the Commission on Capital Planning for Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Facilities, and
- authorizing the Secretary to remove any individual from the Senior Executive Service if the Secretary determines that the individual's performance warrants such removal.
Authorizes the Secretary to carry out certain major medical facility leases at specified locations for up to specified amounts. Sets forth requirements for the budgetary treatment of such leases.
Cosponsors 32
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Jun 3, 2014 to Jun 5, 2014, with 22 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-HI | Brian Schatz | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-NY | Charles E. Schumer | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-NJ | Cory A. Booker | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-ND | Heidi Heitkamp | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-RI | Jack Reed | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-NH | Jeanne Shaheen | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-OR | Jeff Merkley | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-WV | John D. Rockefeller IV | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-AK | Mark Begich | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-NM | Martin Heinrich | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-LA | Mary L. Landrieu | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-HI | Mazie K. Hirono | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-VT | Patrick J. Leahy | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-CT | Richard Blumenthal | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
| D-IL | Richard J. Durbin | Original | Jun 3, 2014 |
Actions 4
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jun 4, 2014Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 408.
- Jun 3, 2014Introduced in Senate
- Jun 3, 2014Introduced in the Senate. Read the first time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under Read the First Time. (text of measure as introduced: CR S3370-3379)
- Jun 3, 2014Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S3369-3370)
Related bills 5
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| S 1740 | Department of Veterans Affairs Major Medical Facility Lease Authorization Act of 2013 | Related bill | Nov 20, 2013 |
| S 2413 | Restoring Veterans Trust Act of 2014 | Related bill | Jun 2, 2014 |
| HR 2913 | Veterans' Local Access Act | Related bill | Aug 13, 2013 |
| HR 3521 | Department of Veterans Affairs Major Medical Facility Lease Authorization Act of 2013 | Related bill | Dec 20, 2013 |
| HR 4861 | Commission for Our Veterans' Care Act | Related bill | Jun 27, 2014 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security.
- Administrative remedies
- Advisory bodies
- Alaska Natives and Hawaiians
- Arizona
- Armed Forces and National Security
- California
- Caribbean area
- Civil actions and liability
- Computers and information technology
- Congressional oversight
- Connecticut
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- Federal officials
- Florida
- Georgia
- Government buildings, facilities, and property
- Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
- Government studies and investigations
- Hawaii
- Health care coverage and access
- Health facilities and institutions
- Health information and medical records
- Health personnel
- Health programs administration and funding
- Health technology, devices, supplies
- Home and outpatient care
- Hospital care
- Illinois
- Indian social and development programs
- Kansas
- Louisiana
- Massachusetts
- Medical education
- Mental health
- Military medicine
- Minority health
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- Oklahoma
- Performance measurement
- Public contracts and procurement
- Puerto Rico
- South Carolina
- Student aid and college costs
- Tennessee
- Texas
- U.S. territories and protectorates
- Veterans' medical care
- Women's health
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jun 4, 2014Placed on Calendar Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.