VA Quality Health Care Accountability and Transparency Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 5786 To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make certain information publicly available on one internet website of the Department of Veterans Affairs. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 6, 2020 Mr. GALLEGO (for himself, Mr. JOYCE of Ohio, Mr. LAMB, Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania, Mr. GONZALEZ of Ohio, and Mr. TIMMONS) 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 information publicly available on one internet website of the Department of Veterans Affairs. 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 Quality Health 4 Care Accountability and Transparency Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. IMPROVED TRANSPARENCY BY DEPARTMENT OF 6 VETERANS AFFAIRS. 7 (a) PUBLICATION OF STAFFING AND QUALITY OF 8 CARE DATA.—Not later than one year after the date of 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5786.IH H5786 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 5786 IH the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Af- 1 fairs shall make publicly available on the Access to Care 2 internet website of the Department of Veterans Affairs (or 3 a successor website) the information under subsection (b). 4 (b) INFORMATION INCLUDED.— 5 (1) IN GENERAL.—The information published 6 on the internet website under subsection (a) shall in- 7 clude— 8 (A) any numeric indicators relating to 9 timely care, effective care, safety, and veteran- 10 centered care that the Secretary collects at 11 medical facilities of the Department pursuant 12 to section 1703C of title 38, United States 13 Code; 14 (B) the staffing and vacancy information 15 required by subparagraphs (A) through (D) of 16 section 505(a)(1) of the VA MISSION Act of 17 2018 (Public Law 115–182; 38 U.S.C. 301 18 note); 19 (C) the patient wait times information re- 20 quired by subsection (a) of section 206 of the 21 Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act 22 of 2014 (Public Law 113–146; 128 Stat. 23 1780); and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5786.IH H5786 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 5786 IH (D) the patient safety, quality of care, and 1 outcome measures required by subsection (b) of 2 such section. 3 (2) UPDATES.—The Secretary shall regularly 4 update the internet website under subsection (a) to 5 ensure that the information under paragraph (1) is 6 the most current information required by the provi- 7 sions of law specified in such paragraph. 8 (c) REQUIREMENTS OF INTERNET WEBSITE.—In ad- 9 dition to the requirements of section 206(b)(4) of the Vet- 10 erans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 11 (Public Law 113–146; 128 Stat. 1781), the Secretary 12 shall ensure that the internet website under subsection (a) 13 meets the following requirements: 14 (1) The internet website is directly accessible 15 from— 16 (A) the main homepage of the publicly ac- 17 cessible internet website of the Department; 18 and 19 (B) the main homepage of the publicly ac- 20 cessible internet website of each medical center 21 of the Department. 22 (2) Where practicable, the internet website is 23 organized and searchable by each medical center of 24 the Department. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5786.IH H5786 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 5786 IH (3) The internet website is easily understand- 1 able and usable by the general public. 2 (d) CONSULTATION AND CONTRACT AUTHORITY.—In 3 carrying out subsection (c)(3), the Secretary— 4 (1) shall consult with veterans service organiza- 5 tions; and 6 (2) may enter into a contract to design the 7 internet website under subsection (a) with a com- 8 pany, non-profit entity, or other entity, specializing 9 in website design that has substantial experience in 10 presenting health care data and information in a 11 easily understandable and usable manner to patients 12 and consumers. 13 (e) ACCURACY OF DATA.— 14 (1) ANNUAL PROCESS.—Not later than 18 15 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, 16 the Secretary shall develop and implement an annual 17 process to audit a generalizable subset of the data 18 contained in the internet website under subsection 19 (a) to assess the accuracy and completeness of the 20 data. 21 (2) CRITERIA.—The Secretary shall ensure that 22 each audit under subsection (a)— 23 (A) determines the extent that the medical 24 record information, clinical information, data, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5786.IH H5786 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 5786 IH and documentation provided by each medical 1 center of the Department that is used to cal- 2 culate the information under subsection (b) is 3 accurate and complete; 4 (B) identifies any deficiencies in the re- 5 cording of medical record information, clinical 6 information, or data by medical centers of the 7 Department that affects the accuracy and com- 8 pleteness of the information under subsection 9 (b); and 10 (C) provides recommendations to medical 11 centers of the Department on how to— 12 (i) improve the accuracy and com- 13 pleteness of the medical record informa- 14 tion, clinical information, data, and docu- 15 mentation that is used to calculate the in- 16 formation under subsection (b); and 17 (ii) ensure that each medical center of 18 the Department provides such information 19 in a uniform manner. 20 (3) INDEPENDENT VALIDATION.—The Sec- 21 retary shall enter into an agreement with the Inspec- 22 tor General of the Department, or an entity other 23 than the Department selected by the Secretary, to 24 validate each audit under subsection (a). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5786.IH H5786 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 5786 IH (4) ANNUAL REPORTS.—Not later than two 1 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, 2 and annually thereafter, the Secretary shall submit 3 to Congress a report on the findings of each audit 4 under paragraph (1), including the independent vali- 5 dation of the audit conducted under paragraph (3). 6 (f) COMPTROLLER GENERAL REVIEW.—Not later 7 than three years after the date of the enactment of this 8 Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall 9 conduct a review of the internet website under subsection 10 (a) to assess the degree to which the Secretary is com- 11 plying with this section and to provide recommendations 12 to the Secretary on how to improve the internet website. 13 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:12 Feb 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5786.IH H5786 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS