Fixing VHA Facilities Act

Fixing VHA Facilities Act

This bill establishes a Health Monitor in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) who shall:

• identify and transmit a list of improvements for each low performing VA medical center to the director of an identified center, the VA, the House and Senate veterans' committees, and the appropriate senators and representative; and
• notify list recipients of the extent to which a director has implemented the plan and any resulting performance change.

A monitor must have experience in federal oversight, health care administration, health care delivery and/or patient advocacy.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4728 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4728

 To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish the office of the 
  Health Monitor of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 21, 2017

Ms. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico introduced the following bill; 
        which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title 38, United States Code, to establish the office of the 
  Health Monitor of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 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 ``Fixing VHA Facilities Act''.

SEC. 2. HEALTH MONITOR.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 3 of title 38, United States Code, is 
amended by inserting after section 312A the following new section:
``Sec. 312B. Health Monitor.
    ``(a) In General.--(1) There is in the Department a Health Monitor 
who shall appointed by the Secretary.
    ``(2) The Health Monitor shall report to the Inspector General in 
the discharge of the duties of the Health Monitor under subsection (c). 
The Inspector General may not terminate the Health Monitor until 60 
days after the date the Inspector General notifies Congress of such 
impending termination.
    ``(3) In discharging the duties under subsection (c), the Health 
Monitor shall have the powers of an Inspector General under section 6 
of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.).
    ``(b) Qualifications.--Each individual appointed as Health Monitor 
shall be an individual who has substantive professional experience in 
at least one of the following areas:
            ``(1) Federal oversight.
            ``(2) Health care administration.
            ``(3) Health care delivery.
            ``(4) Patient advocacy.
    ``(c) Duties.--(1) Not later than 60 days after the issuance of the 
end-of-year relative performance star ratings (in this section referred 
to as `Star Ratings') for each fiscal year, the Health Monitor shall 
identify and transmit a list of specific improvement recommendations 
for each medical center of the Department that received fewer than 
three stars in the Star Ratings for the most recent fiscal year. The 
Health Monitor shall transmit each such list to--
            ``(A) the Director of the medical center named in the list;
            ``(B) the Secretary;
            ``(C) the Committees on Veterans' Affairs of the Senate and 
        the House of Representatives;
            ``(D) the Senators for the State in which the medical 
        center is located; and
            ``(E) the Representative in whose congressional district 
        the medical center is located.
    ``(2) Not later than 180 days after the Health Monitor transmits a 
list under paragraph (1), the Health Monitor shall submit a report to 
the recipients of that list a report that identifies--
            ``(A) the extent to which the Director of the medical 
        center implemented the plan;
            ``(B) any change in the performance of the medical 
        center.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
such chapter is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 
312A the following new item:

``312B. Health Monitor.''.
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