[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2743 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

  2d Session
                                S. 2743

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


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 22, 2004

 Mr. Fitzgerald (for himself, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Hollings, Mrs. 
        Feinstein, and Mr. Sessions) introduced the following bill; 
        which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' 
        AffairsYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

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                                 A BILL


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

    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 2004''.

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 a 
licensed medical doctor, a licensed doctor of osteopathy, or a licensed 
dentist whose practice is limited to the specialty of oral or 
maxillofacial surgery.
    ``(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 the following noninvasive, nonsurgical 
procedures: removal of superficial ocular foreign bodies from the 
conjunctival surface, from the eyelid epidermis, or from the corneal 
epithelium; corneal debridement and scraping; forceps epilation of 
misaligned eyelashes; the prescription and fitting of contact lenses; 
insertion of punctal plugs, diagnostic dilation or irrigation of the 
lacrimal system; the use of diagnostic ultrasound; orthokeratology; or 
the treatment of emergency cases of anaphylactic shock (with 
subcutaneous epinephrine, such as that included in a bee sting kit).''.
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