[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3473 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3473

 To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide that only licensed 
  medical doctors and licensed doctors of osteopathy may perform eye 
surgery at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities or under contract 
                with the Department of Veterans Affairs.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 6, 2003

  Mr. Sullivan (for himself, Mr. Bilirakis, Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite of 
    Florida, Mr. Burgess, Mr. Gingrey, Mr. Janklow, Mr. Keller, Mr. 
Sessions, Mr. Stearns, Mr. Weldon of Florida, Ms. Berkley, Ms. Corrine 
Brown of Florida, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Green of Texas, Mr. Scott of Georgia, 
 Mr. Snyder, and Mr. Strickland) introduced the following bill; which 
           was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide that only licensed 
  medical doctors and licensed doctors of osteopathy may perform eye 
surgery at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities or under contract 
                with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    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 Eye Treatment Safety (VETS) 
Act of 2003''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATION AS TO PERSONS WHO MAY PERFORM EYE SURGERY FOR 
              DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    Section 1707 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(c)(1) Eye surgery at a Department facility or under contract 
with the Department may be performed only by an individual who is 
either a licensed medical doctor or a licensed doctor of osteopathy.
    ``(2) For purposes of this subsection, the term `eye surgery' means 
any procedure involving the eye or the adnexa in which human tissue is 
cut, burned, frozen, vaporized, ablated, probed, or otherwise altered 
or penetrated by incision, injection, laser, ultrasound, ionizing 
radiation, or by other means, in order to treat eye disease, alter or 
correct refractive error, or alter or enhance cosmetic appearance. Such 
term does not include removal of superficial ocular foreign bodies or 
the prescription and fitting of contact lenses for the purpose of 
altering refractive error.''.
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