VA Improvement Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 5008 To direct the Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs to perform certain duties regarding underperforming medical centers of the Department. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NOVEMBER 8, 2019 Mr. GALLEGO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs A BILL To direct the Inspector General of the Department of Vet- erans Affairs to perform certain duties regarding under- performing medical centers of the Department. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘VA Improvement Act’’. 4 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:05 Nov 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5008.IH H5008 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 5008 IH SEC. 2. DUTIES OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL OF THE DE- 1 PARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS REGARD- 2 ING UNDERPERFORMING MEDICAL CENTERS 3 OF THE DEPARTMENT. 4 (a) LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS.—Not later than 90 5 days after the issuance of the end-of-year relative perform- 6 ance star ratings (in this section referred to as ‘‘Star Rat- 7 ings’’) for each fiscal year, the Inspector General of the 8 Department of Veterans Affairs shall identify and trans- 9 mit a list of specific improvement recommendations for 10 each medical center of the Department that received fewer 11 than two stars in the Star Ratings regarding quality of 12 care for the most recent fiscal year. The Inspector General 13 shall transmit each such list to— 14 (1) the Director of the medical center named in 15 the list; 16 (2) the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; 17 (3) the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the 18 Senate and the House of Representatives; 19 (4) the Senators for the State in which the 20 medical center is located; and 21 (5) the Representative in whose congressional 22 district the medical center is located. 23 (b) PROGRESS REPORTS.—Not later than 180 days 24 after the Inspector General transmits a list under sub- 25 section (a), the Inspector General shall publish on the 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:05 Nov 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5008.IH H5008 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 5008 IH website of the Department and submit to the recipients 1 of that list a report that identifies— 2 (1) the extent to which the Director of the med- 3 ical center implemented the improvement rec- 4 ommendations; 5 (2) any change in the performance of the med- 6 ical center. 7 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:05 Nov 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5008.IH H5008 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS