Department of Veterans Affairs Provider Accountability Act

Department of Veterans Affairs Provider Accountability Act

The bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to transmit specified information to the National Practitioner Data Bank and the applicable state licensing board when the VA brings a covered major adverse action against certain appointed VA medical employees. A covered major adverse action is an action originating from circumstances in which the behavior of the employee so substantially failed to meet clinical practice standards that it raised reasonable concern for the safety of patients.

The bill requires the VA to transmit the employee's name and the description of and reason for the covered major adverse action. The VA must also update its credentialing system with a record of covered major adverse actions taken and an indication that information was transmitted as required.

The VA shall enroll certain appointed VA medical employees into a continuous query of their record within the National Practitioner Data Bank and shall implement a mechanism for maintaining and updating the information collected through such query to facilitate the sharing of information between Veterans Integrated Service Networks.

The VA may not enter into a settlement agreement relating to an adverse action by certain appointed VA medical employees under which it would be required to conceal a serious medical error or lapse in generally accepted standards of clinical practice. Such provision shall not apply to a negative record if the VA Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection and the Office of Special Counsel jointly certify that the negative record is not legitimate.

The bill requires the VA to provide mandatory training to all health staff who handle hiring, privileging, and credentialing, regarding all policies of the VA on credentialing, privileging, and when and how to report adverse actions to the relevant entities.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 221 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 221

 To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Under Secretary 
 of Health to report major adverse personnel actions involving certain 
  health care employees to the National Practitioner Data Bank and to 
       applicable State licensing boards, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 24, 2019

Mr. Gardner (for himself, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Moran, Ms. Collins, and Mr. 
   Cassidy) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
             referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Under Secretary 
 of Health to report major adverse personnel actions involving certain 
  health care employees to the National Practitioner Data Bank and to 
       applicable State licensing boards, 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 ``Department of Veterans Affairs 
Provider Accountability Act''.

SEC. 2. ACCOUNTABILITY WITHIN VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION.

    (a) Reporting Major Adverse Actions to National Practitioner Data 
Bank and State Licensing Boards.--Section 7461 of title 38, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subsection:
    ``(f) Whenever the Under Secretary for Health (or an official 
designated by the Under Secretary) brings charges based on conduct or 
performance against a section 7401(1) employee and as a result of those 
charges a major adverse action is taken against the employee, the Under 
Secretary shall, not later than 30 days after the date on which such 
major adverse action is carried out, transmit to the National 
Practitioner Data Bank and the applicable State licensing board the 
name of the employee, a description of the major adverse action, and a 
description of the reason for the major adverse action.''.
    (b) Prohibition on Signing Settlements With Certain Clauses.--
            (1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), the 
        Secretary of Veterans Affairs may not enter into a settlement 
        agreement relating to a claim by an employee of the Department 
        of Veterans Affairs under which the Department would be 
        required to conceal a serious medical error or purge a negative 
        record from a personnel file of an employee of the Department.
            (2) Exception.--Paragraph (1) shall not apply to a negative 
        record if the head of the Office of Accountability and 
        Whistleblower Protection of the Department and the Special 
        Counsel (established by section 1211 of title 5, United States 
        Code) jointly certify that the negative record is not 
        legitimate.
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