I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3497 
To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a pilot program 
establishing a secure, patient-centered, portable medical records system, 
that would allow veterans to have access to their Personal Health Infor-
mation, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 27, 2017 
Mrs. MCMORRIS RODGERS (for herself and Mr. MOULTON) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out 
a pilot program establishing a secure, patient-centered, 
portable medical records system, that would allow vet-
erans to have access to their Personal Health Informa-
tion, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Modernization of Med-
ical Records Access for Veterans Act of 2017’’. 
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SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS PILOT PRO-
GRAM 
ON 
SECURE, 
PATIENT-CENTERED, 
PORTABLE 
MEDICAL 
RECORDS 
STORAGE 
SYSTEM. 
(a) PILOT PROGRAM.—Not later than 180 days after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs shall commence a pilot program under 
which veterans who are enrolled in the patient enrollment 
system under section 1705 of title 38, United States Code, 
use a portable medical records storage system described 
in subsection (e) to store and share with Department of 
Veterans Affairs health care providers and community 
health care providers, records of their individual medical 
history. 
(b) SELECTION OF LOCATIONS.—The Secretary shall 
select not less than one Veterans Integrated Services Net-
work in which to carry out the pilot program under sub-
section (a). 
(c) CONTRACTS.— 
(1) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary shall seek to 
enter into a contract using competitive procedures 
with an appropriate entity for the provision of the 
medical records storage system described in sub-
section (e). 
(2) NOTICE OF COMPETITION.—Not later than 
60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
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the Secretary shall issue a request for proposals for 
the contract described in paragraph (1). Such re-
quest shall be full and open to any contractor that 
has an existing commercially available medical 
records storage capability described in subsection 
(e). 
(3) SELECTION.—Not later than 120 days after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 
shall award a contract to an offeror pursuant to the 
request for proposals under paragraph (2) if at least 
one acceptable offer is submitted. 
(d) DURATION OF PILOT PROGRAM.—The Secretary 
shall carry out a pilot program under this section for a 
period of at least 12 months. After carrying out such pro-
gram for 12 months, the Secretary may terminate the pro-
gram, continue the program, expand the program to in-
clude additional locations, or implement the use of port-
able medical records storage systems on a national basis. 
(e) 
REQUIREMENTS
OF
PORTABLE
MEDICAL 
RECORDS STORAGE SYSTEM.—A medical records storage 
system described in this subsection is a physical device 
that meets the following requirements: 
(1) Capability to store not less than four 
gigabytes of electronic health records on a physical 
device, which is not larger than the dimensions of a 
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credit card, issued to each veteran enrolled in the 
pilot program. 
(2) Capability to be used by substantially all 
electronic health records systems certified by the Of-
fice of the National Coordinator for Health IT on or 
before January 1, 2017. 
(3) Capability to limit access to electronic 
health records stored on each device to the patient 
and health care providers. 
(4) Capability for health care providers to se-
curely access, annotate, and add electronic health 
records to the physical device, including in instances 
where the health care provider is not in possession 
of the physical storage device. 
(5) Requirement that all electronic health 
records transferred from a health care provider over 
the internet to the physical storage device be 
encrypted. 
(6) Requirement that the portable medical 
records system can operate without persistent stor-
age of any electronic health records on the internet 
or within a cloud computing repository. 
(7) Capability to provide a replacement device 
containing an up-to-date electronic health record, if 
the original physical storage device has been re-
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moved from the owner’s possession or otherwise ren-
dered inoperable. 
(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) The term ‘‘dimensions of a credit card’’ 
means three and three-eighths inches in width, two 
and one-eighth inches in length, and five-one hun-
dred twenty-eighth of one inch in depth. 
(2) The term ‘‘electronic health records’’ means 
electronic documentation of physicians’ notes, elec-
tronic viewing of lab test results, diagnostic images 
and video, clinical decision support, and interoper-
ability with other systems. 
(g) PROHIBITION ON NEW APPROPRIATIONS.—No 
additional funds are authorized to be appropriated to 
carry out the requirements of this Act. Such requirements 
shall be carried out using amounts otherwise authorized 
to be appropriated for the Department of Veterans Af-
fairs. 
Æ 
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