Veteran Overmedication Prevention Act of 2016
This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (or another private, not-for-profit entity with comparable expertise) to review the deaths of all covered veterans who died by suicide during the last five years.
The review shall include:
- the total numbers of veterans who died by a violent death or by an accidental death during such period;
- each veteran's age, gender, race, and ethnicity;
- a list of medications and substances prescribed to such veterans, as annotated on toxicology reports;
- a summary of medical diagnoses by VA physicians that led to such prescriptions in cases of anxiety and depressive disorders;
- the number of instances in which such a veteran was concurrently on multiple medications prescribed by VA physicians;
- the number of such veterans who were not taking any VA-prescribed medication;
- the percentage of such veterans treated for anxiety or depressive disorders who received a non-medication first-line treatment compared to the percentage who received medication only;
- the number of instances in which a non-medication first-line treatment was attempted and deemed ineffective which led to prescribing medication;
- descriptions of how the VA determines and updates clinical practice guidelines for prescribing medications and of VA efforts to maintain appropriate staffing levels for mental health professionals;
- the percentage of such veterans with combat experience or related trauma;
- identification of VA medical facilities with markedly high prescription rates and suicide rates for treated veterans;
- an analysis of VA programs that collaborate with state Medicaid agencies and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services;
- an analysis of VA medical center collaboration with medical examiners' offices or local jurisdictions to determine veteran mortality and cause of death;
- identification of a best practice model to collect and share veteran death certificate data;
- an assessment of any apparent patterns based on the review; and
- recommendations to improve the safety and well-being of veterans.
The VA shall ensure that such data is compiled in a manner that allows it to be analyzed across all data fields for purposes of informing and updating VA clinical practice guidelines.
A "covered veteran" means any veteran who received VA hospital care or medical services during the five-year period preceding the veteran's death.