[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2590 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2590

 To amend the Wounded Warrior Act to establish a specific timeline for 
   the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to 
 achieve integrated electronic health records, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 28, 2013

 Mr. Gibson (for himself, Mr. Bera of California, Mr. Cook, Mr. Ruiz, 
 and Mr. Coffman) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
 the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committee on 
 Veterans' Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Wounded Warrior Act to establish a specific timeline for 
   the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to 
 achieve integrated electronic health records, and for other purposes.

    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 ``21st Century Health Care for Heroes 
Act''.

SEC. 2. TIMELINE FOR IMPLEMENTING INTEGRATED ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS.

    (a) Establishment of Timeline.--Section 1635 of the Wounded Warrior 
Act (10 U.S.C. 1071 note) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new subsection:
    ``(k) Timeline.--In carrying out this section, the Secretary of 
Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall ensure that--
            ``(1) the creation of a health data authoritative source is 
        achieved by not later than 180 days after the date of the 
        enactment of this subsection;
            ``(2) the ability of patients of both the Department of 
        Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to download the 
        medical records of the patient (commonly referred to as the 
        `Blue Button Initiative') is achieved by not later than 365 
        days after the date of the enactment of this subsection;
            ``(3) the seamless integration of personal health care 
        information between the Departments is achieved by not later 
        than 365 days after the date of the enactment of this 
        subsection;
            ``(4) the standardization of health care data of the 
        Departments is achieved by not later than 365 days after the 
        date of the enactment of this subsection;
            ``(5) the acceleration of the exchange of real-time data 
        between the Departments is achieved by not later than 365 days 
        after the date of the enactment of this subsection;
            ``(6) the upgrade of the graphical user interface to 
        display the new standardized health care data of the 
        Departments is achieved by not later than 365 days after the 
        date of the enactment of this subsection;
            ``(7) each incoming member of the Armed Forces and the 
        dependent of such a member may elect to receive an electronic 
        copy of the health care record of the individual beginning not 
        later than October 1, 2014; and
            ``(8) each current member of the Armed Forces and the 
        dependent of such a member may elect to receive an electronic 
        copy of the health care record of the individual beginning not 
        later than October 1, 2015.''.
    (b) Cloud Storage.--Section 1635 of such Act is further amended by 
adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(l) Cloud Storage.--The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs shall study the feasibility of establishing a secure, 
remote, network-accessible computer storage system (commonly referred 
to as `cloud storage') to--
            ``(1) provide members of the Armed Forces and veterans the 
        ability to upload the health care records of the member or 
        veteran if the member or veteran elects to do so; and
            ``(2) allow medical providers of the Department of Defense 
        and the Department of Veterans Affairs to access such records 
        in the course of providing care to the member or veteran.''.
    (c) Conforming Amendments.--Section 1635 of such Act is further 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``The Secretary'' and 
        inserting ``In accordance with the timeline described in 
        subsection (k), the Secretary''; and
            (2) in the matter preceding paragraph (1) of subsection 
        (e), by inserting ``in accordance with subsection (k)'' after 
        ``under this section''.
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