VICTOR Act of 2017

Veterans Increased Choice for Transplanted Organs and Recovery Act of 2017 or the VICTOR Act of 2017

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to include among veterans eligible to receive hospital care and medical services through agreements with the Department of Defense, the Indian Health Service, federally-qualified health centers, or health care providers that participate in the Medicare program a veteran:

• who requires an organ or bone marrow transplant; and
• who has a medically compelling reason to travel outside the veteran's Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network region in which the veteran resides to receive a transplant at a VA medical facility, or who faces an unusual or excessive burden in receiving such transplant at a VA facility, such as geographical challenges, environmental factors, or a medical condition that affects the ability to travel.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2601 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2601

To amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to 
  improve the access of veterans to organ transplants, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 23, 2017

Mr. Dunn (for himself, Mr. Correa, Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania, Mr. Banks 
 of Indiana, Miss Gonzalez-Colon of Puerto Rico, Mr. Rutherford, Mrs. 
 Radewagen, Mr. Poliquin, Mr. Gosar, Mr. Bost, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Royce of 
  California, Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Ross, Mr. Bilirakis, Mr. Costello of 
 Pennsylvania, Mr. Sablan, Mr. Bergman, Mr. Hudson, and Mr. Arrington) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to 
  improve the access of veterans to organ transplants, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Veterans Increased Choice for 
Transplanted Organs and Recovery Act of 2017'' or the ``VICTOR Act of 
2017''.

SEC. 2. ORGAN TRANSPLANTS UNDER THE VETERANS CHOICE PROGRAM.

    Section 101(b)(2) of the Veterans Access, Choice, and 
Accountability Act of 2014 (Public Law 113-146; 38 U.S.C. 1701 note) is 
amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (C)(ii), by striking ``or'';
            (2) in subparagraph (D)(ii)(II)(dd), by striking the period 
        and inserting ``; or''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
                    ``(E)(i) requires an organ transplant;
                    ``(ii) resides more than 100 miles from a 
                transplant center operated by the Department; and
                    ``(iii) is seeking, under subsection (a), hospital 
                care or medical services related to the required organ 
                transplant at a transplant center--
                            ``(I) located within 100 miles of the 
                        residence of the veteran;
                            ``(II) operated by an entity that is 
                        described in subsection (a)(1)(B) that has 
                        entered into an agreement with the Secretary 
                        under subsection (d).''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act shall take effect on the later of--
            (1) October 1, 2018; and
            (2) the date of the enactment of this Act.
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