Improve Access to Care for Our Female Veterans Act

Improve Access to Care for Our Female Veterans Act

This bill instructs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to strengthen the environment and oversight of the care inspections process by:

• expanding the list of requirements that facility staff inspect for compliance with the women's health handbook of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA),
• ensuring that all patient care areas of VA medical facilities are inspected as required,
• clarifying the roles and responsibilities of VA medical facility staff responsible for identifying and addressing compliance, and
• establishing a process to verify that the noncompliance information reported by such facilities to the VHA central office is accurate and complete.

To improve care for women veterans, the VA shall monitor women veterans' access to sex-specific care services (mammography, maternity care, and gynecology) under community care contracts.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3558 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3558

      To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make certain 
improvements relating to inspections of Department of Veterans Affairs 
            medical facilities and improving care for women.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 28, 2017

    Mrs. Brooks of Indiana (for herself and Mrs. Murphy of Florida) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make certain 
improvements relating to inspections of Department of Veterans Affairs 
            medical facilities and improving care for women.

    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 ``Improve Access to Care for Our 
Female Veterans Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Department of Veterans Affairs has policies in 
        place to help ensure the privacy, safety, and dignity of women 
        veterans when they receive care at its medical facilities.
            (2) A Government Accountability Office report found many 
        instances of noncompliance with such policies.
            (3) Women veterans are the fastest growing cohort within 
        the veteran community.
            (4) Women serve in every branch of the Armed Forces and 
        represent nearly 15 percent of the members of the Armed Forces 
        currently serving on active duty and 18 percent of members of 
        the National Guard and reserve components.
            (5) The number of women veterans using the medical care 
        provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to 
        increase dramatically.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) female veterans are put at risk by a system that is 
        currently designed for men; and
            (2) the Department of Veterans Affairs should follow 
        through with commitments to ensure female veterans can access 
        services tailored to their needs.

SEC. 3. IMPROVEMENT OF INSPECTIONS OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS 
              MEDICAL FACILITIES AND IMPROVEMENT OF CARE FOR WOMEN 
              PROVIDED BY DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    (a) Improvement of Inspections Process.--The Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs shall strengthen the environment of care inspections process 
and oversight of such process by--
            (1) expanding the list of requirements that facility staff 
        inspect for compliance to align with the women's health 
        handbook of the Veterans Health Administration;
            (2) ensuring that all patient care areas of Department 
        medical facilities are inspected as required;
            (3) clarifying the roles and responsibilities of Department 
        medical facility staff responsible for identifying and 
        addressing compliance; and
            (4) establishing a process to verify that noncompliance 
        information reported by facilities to the Veterans Health 
        Administration central office is accurate and complete.
    (b) Improvement of Care for Women.--
            (1) Monitoring of sex-specific care services.--To improve 
        care for women veterans, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
        shall monitor women veterans' access to sex-specific care 
        services under current and future community care contracts. 
        Such monitoring shall include an examination of appointment 
        scheduling and completion times, driving times to appointments, 
        and reasons appointments could not be scheduled with community 
        providers.
            (2) Definitions.--In this subsection:
                    (A) The term ``sex-specific care services'' means 
                mammography, maternity care, and gynecology.
                    (B) The term ``community care contract'' means an 
                agreement described in section 101(d) of the Veterans 
                Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 (Public 
                Law 113-146).
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