II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1296 

To amend the Wounded Warrior Act to establish a specific timeline for 

the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to achieve 

interoperable electronic health records, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 15, 2013 

Mr. NELSON introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Wounded Warrior Act to establish a specific 

timeline for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary 

of Veterans Affairs to achieve interoperable electronic 

health records, 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 ‘‘Servicemember’s Elec5 tronic Health Records Act of 2013’’. 

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1 SEC. 2. TIMELINE FOR IMPLEMENTING INTEROPERABLE 

2 ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS. 

3 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF TIMELINE.—Section 1635 

4 of the Wounded Warrior Act (10 U.S.C. 1071 note) is 

5 amended by adding at the end the following new sub6 section: 

7 ‘‘(k) TIMELINE.—In carrying out this section, the 

8 Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Af9 fairs shall ensure that— 

10 ‘‘(1) the creation of a health data authoritative 

11 source by the Department of Defense and Depart12 ment of Veterans Affairs that can be accessed by 

13 multiple providers and standardizes the input of new 

14 medical information is achieved not later than 180 

15 days after the date of the enactment of this sub16 section; 

17 ‘‘(2) the ability of patients of both the Depart18 ment of Defense and the Department of Veterans 

19 Affairs to download the medical records of the pa20 tient (commonly referred to as the ‘Blue Button Ini21 tiative’) is achieved not later than 180 days after the 

22 date of the enactment of this subsection; 

23 ‘‘(3) the full interoperability of personal health 

24 care information between the Departments is 

25 achieved not later than one year after the date of 

26 the enactment of this subsection; 

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1 ‘‘(4) the acceleration of the exchange of real2 time data between the Departments is achieved not 

3 later than one year after the date of the enactment 

4 of this subsection; 

5 ‘‘(5) the upgrade of the graphical user interface 

6 to display a joint common graphical user interface is 

7 achieved not later than one year after the date of 

8 the enactment of this subsection; and 

9 ‘‘(6) each current member of the Armed Forces 

10 and the dependent of such a member may elect to 

11 receive an electronic copy of the health care record 

12 of the individual beginning not later than June 30, 

13 2015.’’. 

14 (b) CLOUD STORAGE.—Section 1635 of such Act is 

15 further amended by adding at the end the following new 

16 subsection: 

17 ‘‘(l) CLOUD STORAGE.—The Secretary of Defense 

18 and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall assess the fea19 sibility and advisability of establishing a secure, remote, 

20 network-accessible computer storage system (commonly 

21 referred to as ‘cloud storage’) to— 

22 ‘‘(1) provide members of the Armed Forces and 

23 veterans the ability to upload the health care records 

24 of the member or veteran if the member or veteran 

25 elects to do so; and 

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1 ‘‘(2) allow medical providers of the Department 

2 of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs 

3 to access such records in the course of providing 

4 care to the member or veteran.’’. 

5 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 1635 of 

6 such Act is further amended— 

7 (1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘The Sec8 retary’’ and inserting ‘‘In accordance with the 

9 timeline described in subsection (k), the Secretary’’; 

10 and 

11 (2) in the matter preceding paragraph (1) of 

12 subsection (e), by inserting ‘‘in accordance with sub13 section (k)’’ after ‘‘under this section’’. 

Æ 

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