Title: Veterans Affairs Medical-Surgical Purchasing Stabilization Act
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
Veterans Affairs Medical-Surgical Purchasing Stabilization Act
This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), in procuring medical, surgical, dental, or laboratory items for VA medical facilities through the Medical Surgical Prime Vendor (MSPV) program, to: (1) award contracts to multiple regional prime vendors instead of a single nationwide prime vendor; and (2) prohibit a prime vendor from solely designing, or purchasing from, the formulary of items available for MSPV purchase.
The VA shall: (1) ensure that each VA employee who conducts formulary analyses or makes decisions about including items on the formulary has relevant medical expertise, and (2) provide Congress with periodic lists of such individuals and their medical expertise listed by categories of formulary items.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5418 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5418

 To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out the Medical 
      Surgical Prime Vendor program using multiple prime vendors.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 29, 2018

  Mr. Bergman (for himself, Mr. Peters, Mr. Banks of Indiana, and Mr. 
    Dunn) 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 the Medical 
      Surgical Prime Vendor program using multiple prime vendors.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Veterans Affairs Medical-Surgical 
Purchasing Stabilization Act''.

SEC. 2. MEDICAL SURGICAL PRIME VENDOR PROGRAM.

    (a) Vendors.--In procuring certain medical, surgical, and dental 
supplies or laboratory supplies for medical centers of the Department 
of Veterans Affairs, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall carry out 
the Medical Surgical Prime Vendor program, or successor program, in a 
manner that--
            (1) requires the Secretary to award contracts to multiple 
        regional prime vendors instead of a single nationwide prime 
        vendor; and
            (2) prohibits--
                    (A) a prime vendor from solely designing the 
                formulary of such supplies; and
                    (B) a prime vendor from solely purchasing from such 
                formulary.
    (b) Clinically Driven Sourcing.--
            (1) Expertise.--In carrying out the formulary of supplies 
        under the Medical Surgical Prime Vendor program, or successor 
        program, the Secretary shall ensure that each employee of the 
        Department of Veterans Affairs who conducts formulary analyses 
        or makes decisions with respect to including items on the 
        formulary has medical expertise relevant to the items for which 
        the employee conducts such analyses or makes such decisions.
            (2) Lists.--Not later than 30 days after the date of the 
        enactment of this Act, and quarterly thereafter with respect to 
        any updates, the Secretary shall submit to the Committees on 
        Veterans' Affairs of the House of Representatives and the 
        Senate a list of each employee described in paragraph (1) and 
        the relevant medical expertise of the employee, listed by the 
        categories of items in the formulary described in such 
        paragraph.
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