Department of Veterans Affairs Provider Accountability Act

Bill: 115-s-2107
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Heller, Dean [R-NV]
Introduced: 2017-11-09
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Subjects: Department of Veterans Affairs

Employee performance

Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management

Government information and archives

Health care quality

Health information and medical records

Health personnel

Licensing and registrations

Medical ethics

Personnel records

Veterans' medical care
Latest action: action_date: 2017-11-09
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Summaries:
action_date: 2017-11-09
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Department of Veterans Affairs Provider Accountability Act</b></p> <p>This bill provides that when the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) brings a major adverse action against certain Veterans Health Administration medical employees the VA shall transmit to the National Practitioner Data Bank and the applicable state licensing board the employee's name and the reason for such action.</p> <p>The VA may not enter into a settlement agreement regarding a claim by a VA employee under which it would be required to conceal a serious medical error or purge a negative record from an employee's personnel file. Such provision shall not apply to a negative record if the VA Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection and the Office of Special Counsel jointly certify that the negative record is not legitimate.</p>

tv_txt: II 115th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 2107 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES November 9, 2017 Mr. Heller (for himself and Mr. Manchin ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs A BILL To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Under Secretary of Health to report major adverse personnel actions involving certain health care employees to the National Practitioner Data Bank and to applicable State licensing boards, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Department of Veterans Affairs Provider Accountability Act . 2. Accountability within Veterans Health Administration (a) Reporting major adverse actions to National Practitioner Data Bank and State licensing boards Section 7461 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: (f) Whenever the Under Secretary for Health (or an official designated by the Under Secretary) brings charges based on conduct or performance against a section 7401(1) employee and as a result of those charges a major adverse action is taken against the employee, the Under Secretary shall, not later than 30 days after the date on which such major adverse action is carried out, transmit to the National Practitioner Data Bank and the applicable State licensing board the name of the employee, a description of the major adverse action, and a description of the reason for the major adverse action. . (b) Prohibition on signing settlements with certain clauses (1) In general Except as provided in paragraph (2), the Secretary of Veterans Affairs may not enter into a settlement agreement relating to a claim by an employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs under which the Department would be required to conceal a serious medical error or purge a negative record from a personnel file of an employee of the Department. (2) Exception Paragraph (1) shall not apply to a negative record if the head of the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection of the Department and the Special Counsel jointly certify that the negative record is not legitimate.