I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2634
To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to modify the formula, known
as the Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA) system, for the
allocation of funds appropriated to the Department of Veterans Affairs
for medical care to different geographic regions of the Nation, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 25, 2001
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN (for himself, Mr. GRUCCI, Mrs. KELLY, Mr. HINCHEY,
Mr. GILMAN, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr. KING, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. PALLONE,
Mrs. ROUKEMA, Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York, Mr. LAFALCE, Ms.
DELAURO, Mr. MCHUGH, Mr. FOSSELLA, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. WEINER,
Mr. BASS, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. PAYNE, Mr.
HOLT, Mr. SWEENEY, Mr. MCNULTY, Mr. FERGUSON, Mr. MENENDEZ,
Mr. ROTHMAN, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, MRS. MALONEY of New York, and Mr.
SAXTON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to modify the
formula, known as the Veterans Equitable Resource Allo-
cation (VERA) system, for the allocation of funds appro-
priated to the Department of Veterans Affairs for med-
ical care to different geographic regions of the Nation,
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 ‘‘Equitable Care for All
Veterans Act’’.
SEC. 2. REVISION TO MEDICAL CARE FUNDING ALLOCA-
TION FORMULA FOR DEPARTMENT OF VET-
ERANS AFFAIRS.
(a) MODIFICATION TO VERA FORMULA.—The fund-
ing allocation formula for the Department of Veterans Af-
fairs medical care system known as the Veterans Equi-
table Resource Allocation (VERA) system, established
pursuant to section 429 of Public Law 104–204 (110
Stat. 2929), shall be modified by the Secretary of Vet-
erans Affairs in accordance with this section. Such modi-
fications shall provide for the incorporation of regional dif-
ferences in the cost of providing health care to veterans
(due to different regional cost of living, long travel dis-
tance, and other appropriate factors) as part of the cri-
teria used to determine the national means differential
used in the existing system.
(b) EVALUATION.—At the end of the second fiscal
year beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act,
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall evaluate the effects
of the modifications implemented pursuant to subsection
(a) on the regional allocation of funds available to the De-
partment of Veterans Affairs for health care. The Sec-
retary shall submit to Congress not later than 60 days
after the end of such fiscal year the determination of the
Secretary as to whether those modifications have resulted
in a substantive shift in the funding allocations among the
different service regions of the Veterans Health Adminis-
tration compared to the allocations before such modifica-
tions.
(c) CONTINGENT TERMINATION
OF VERA FOR-
MULA.—If in the report submitted pursuant to subsection
(b) the Secretary of Veterans Affairs determines that the
modifications have not resulted in a substantive shift in
the funding allocations described in that subsection, the
Secretary shall immediately terminate use of the Veterans
Equitable Resource Allocation system for the regional allo-
cation of funds available to the Department of Veterans
Affairs for health care.
SEC. 3. STANDBY ALTERNATIVE SYSTEM.
(a) DEVELOPMENT OF REPLACEMENT FORMULA.—
If pursuant to section 2(c) the Secretary of Veterans Af-
fairs is required to terminate the use of the Veterans Eq-
uitable Resource Allocation system, the Secretary shall de-
velop a new formula for the allocation of funds appro-
priated to the Department of Veterans Affairs for Medical
Care to the national service regions, known as Veterans
Integrated Service Networks (VISNs), of the Department.
In developing such formula, the Secretary shall take the
following requirements into account:
(1) For any fiscal year for which the amount
appropriated for Medical Care is an increase from
the preceding year, the funding level provided under
the new formula to any VISN may not be less than
the amount provided for the preceding year.
(2) The new formula shall take into account ad-
ditional costs incurred by a VISN due to any of the
following factors at that VISN being in excess of the
median for all VISNs:
(A) The number of veterans moving into
the geographic area of that VISN.
(B) The median age of veterans in that
VISN.
(C) The number of veterans in that VISN
requiring complex care or nursing home care.
(D) The age of Department of Veterans
Affairs health care facilities in that VISN.
(b) TRANSITION FORMULA.—Until a replacement
funding allocation formula is implemented pursuant to
subsection (a), the funding allocation formula to be ap-
plied by the Secretary to amounts appropriated for vet-
erans medical care shall be the formula in effect before
the Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation system.
be allocated equally among the remaining 22 VISNs
before implementation of the new formula.
Æ