II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2168 

To amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 

to include in the Veterans Choice Program all veterans enrolled in the 

patient enrollment system of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 28, 2017 

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

to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability 

Act of 2014 to include in the Veterans Choice Program 

all veterans enrolled in the patient enrollment system 

of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 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 ‘‘Veterans Improved Ac5 cess and Care Act of 2017’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. EXPANSION OF VETERANS CHOICE PROGRAM TO 

2 INCLUDE ALL ENROLLED VETERANS. 

3 Section 101 of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Ac4 countability Act of 2014 (Public Law 113–146; 38 U.S.C. 

5 1701 note) is amended— 

6 (1) in subsection (b), by amending paragraph 

7 (2) to read as follows: 

8 ‘‘(2) the veteran elects to receive hospital care 

9 or medical services under this section.’’; 

10 (2) in subsection (c)(1)— 

11 (A) in the matter preceding subparagraph 

12 (A), by striking ‘‘In the case of an eligible vet13 eran described in subsection (b)(2)(A), the Sec14 retary shall, at the election of the eligible vet15 eran’’ and inserting ‘‘The Secretary shall, at 

16 the election of an eligible veteran’’; and 

17 (B) in subparagraph (A)— 

18 (i) by striking ‘‘provide the veteran’’ 

19 and inserting ‘‘provide the eligible vet20 eran’’; and 

21 (ii) by striking ‘‘described in such 

22 subsection’’ and inserting ‘‘of the Veterans 

23 Health Administration’’; 

24 (3) in subsection (g), by striking paragraph (3); 

25 and 


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1 (4) in subsection (q)(2)(A), by striking ‘‘, 

2 disaggregated by’’ and all that follows through ‘‘sub3 section (b)(2)(D)’’. 

4 SEC. 3. PILOT PROGRAM ON EXPEDITING THE DEPART5 MENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS PROCESS FOR 

6 ONBOARDING NEW MEDICAL PROVIDERS. 

7 (a) PILOT PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary 

8 of Veterans Affairs shall carry out a pilot program to as9 sess the feasibility and advisability of expediting the proc10 ess of the Veterans Health Administration for onboarding 

11 new medical providers. Under the pilot program, the Sec12 retary shall seek to reduce the length of time it takes to 

13 onboard medical providers to no more than 60 days. 

14 (b) LOCATIONS.—The Secretary shall select medical 

15 facilities at which to carry out the pilot program. In select16 ing such facilities, the Secretary shall give priority to med17 ical facilities facing hiring shortages of licensed inde18 pendent medical providers. 

19 (c) ONBOARDING PROCESS DEFINED.—In this sec20 tion, the term ‘‘onboarding process’’ means the process of 

21 bringing on a medical provider applicant after the medical 

22 provider is offered a tentative position, including certifi23 cation of credentialing, background investigation, assess24 ment of health status, and such other actions are nec25 essary for starting employment. 


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1 SEC. 4. STRATEGY TO REDUCE DURATION OF HIRING 

2 PROCESS OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AF3 FAIRS FOR LICENSED PROFESSIONAL MED4 ICAL PROVIDERS. 

5 Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact6 ment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 

7 submit to Congress a strategy to reduce the duration of 

8 the hiring process of the Department of Veterans Affairs 

9 for licensed professional medical providers by half. Such 

10 strategy shall describe how the overall certification of cre11 dentials process for licensed professional medical providers 

12 can be expedited. 

13 SEC. 5. IMPROVING ACCOUNTABILITY WITHIN VETERANS 

14 HEALTH ADMINISTRATION BY REQUIRING 

15 REPORTING OF MAJOR ADVERSE ACTIONS 

16 TAKEN TO NATIONAL PRACTITIONER DATA 

17 BANK AND STATE LICENSING BOARDS. 

18 Section 7461 of title 38, United States Code, is 

19 amended by adding at the end the following new sub20 section: 

21 ‘‘(f) Whenever the Under Secretary for Health (or an 

22 official designated by the Under Secretary) brings charges 

23 based on conduct or performance against a section 

24 7401(1) employee and as a result of those charges a major 

25 adverse action is taken against the employee, the Under 

26 Secretary shall, not later than 30 days after the date on 


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1 which such major adverse action is carried out, transmit 

2 to the National Practitioner Data Bank and the applicable 

3 State licensing board the name of the employee, a descrip4 tion of the major adverse action, and a description of the 

5 reason for the major adverse action.’’. 

Æ 


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