I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2379

To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve access to health care 

for rural veterans, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 5, 2003

Mr. OSBORNE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL

To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve access 

to health care for rural veterans, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rural Veterans Access 

5 to Care Act of 2003’’. 

6 SEC. 2. IMPROVED ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE FOR RURAL 

7 VETERANS. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—(1) Chapter 17 of title 38, United 

9 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol10 lowing new section:
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1 ‘‘§ 1730A. Access to care for rural veterans 

2 ‘‘(a) The Secretary shall ensure that funds allocated 

3 pursuant to subsection (b) are used in accordance with 

4 that subsection to improve access to medical services for 

5 highly rural or geographically remote veterans by using 

6 the contract authority of section 1703 of this title and 

7 other authorities available to the Secretary to improve 

8 such access to care. 

9 ‘‘(b)(1) The Secretary shall provide that, of the 

10 amounts made available for any fiscal year for the Medical 

11 Care appropriation for the Department, not less than 5 

12 percent shall be available only for treatment of veterans 

13 described in subsection (c) for—

14 ‘‘(A) acute or chronic symptom management; 

15 ‘‘(B) nontherapeutic medical services; and 

16 ‘‘(C) other medical services as determined ap17 propriate in the case of any veteran by the director 

18 of the appropriate geographic service region of the 

19 Department, after consultation with the Department 

20 physician responsible for primary care of the vet21 eran. 

22 ‘‘(2) In the allocation of such percentage of funds to 

23 geographic service regions of the Department, such funds 

24 for any fiscal year shall initially be allocated in an iden25 tical percentage to each such service region. However, 

26 upon a determination by the Secretary that a particular 
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1 service region will not use all of the funds so allocated 

2 for a fiscal year for highly rural or geographically remote 

3 veterans, the Secretary shall reallocate those funds to one 

4 or more other service regions, to be available only for 

5 treatment of veterans described in subsection (c) for pur6 poses described in paragraph (1). 

7 ‘‘(c) Veterans referred to in subsection (b)(1) as de8 scribed in this subsection are veterans—

9 ‘‘(1) who are enrolled in the veterans health 

10 care system under section 1705 of this title or have 

11 a service-connected disability; and 

12 ‘‘(2) who, pursuant to subsection (e), are con13 sidered to be highly rural or geographically remote 

14 veterans. 

15 ‘‘(d) After the end of the third fiscal year during 

16 which this section is in effect, the Secretary shall review 

17 the operation of this section and, if the Secretary deter18 mines that an adjustment in the percentage in effect 

19 under subsection (b)(1) is necessary, shall recommend to 

20 Congress an adjustment to such percentage. The Sec21 retary shall include with any such recommendation a rec22 ommendation as to whether the Secretary should have the 

23 authority to apply the overall percentage through the use 

24 of different percentages for the various geographic service 

25 regions of the Department. 
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1 ‘‘(e) The Secretary shall prescribe by regulation the 

2 veterans considered to be highly rural or geographically 

3 remote veterans for the purposes of this section. The Sec4 retary shall include as such a veteran any veteran for 

5 whom the driving time to reach a Department health-care 

6 facility is 60 minutes or greater. The Secretary may pro7 vide for a lesser driving time in the case of any veteran 

8 if the Secretary determines that a driving time of 60 min9 utes or greater imposes a hardship on such veteran or oth10 erwise is in the best interest of the veteran.’’.

11 (2) The table of sections at the beginning of such 

12 chapter is amended by adding at the end the following 

13 new item:

‘‘1730A. Access to care for rural veterans.’’.

14 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Section 1730A of title 38, 

15 United States Code, as added by subsection (a), shall take 

16 effect beginning with funds appropriated for fiscal year 

17 2005.

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