[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4942 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4942

   To amend title 38, United States Code, to increase the number of 
      graduate medical education residency positions at hospitals 
           administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 23, 2014

   Ms. Titus (for herself, Mr. O'Rourke, Mr. Takano, Mr. Hastings of 
Florida, Ms. Kuster, Ms. Norton, and Mr. Ruiz) introduced the following 
     bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title 38, United States Code, to increase the number of 
      graduate medical education residency positions at hospitals 
           administered by the Secretary 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 ``Underserved Veterans Access to 
Health Care Act''.

SEC. 2. INCREASE OF GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION RESIDENCY POSITIONS.

    (a) In General.--Section 7302 of title 38, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(e)(1) In carrying out this section, the Secretary shall 
establish medical residency programs, or ensure a sufficient number of 
residency positions in medical residency programs, at medical 
facilities of the Department that the Secretary determines--
            ``(A) are experiencing a shortage of physicians; and
            ``(B) are located in communities that are designated as a 
        health professional shortage area (as defined in section 332 of 
        the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254e)).
    ``(2) In carrying out paragraph (1), the Secretary shall--
            ``(A) determine the specialty of health care professionals 
        that a location is experiencing a shortage of, including with 
        respect to primary care and mental health;
            ``(B) allocate the residency positions under paragraph (1) 
        based on such determination; and
            ``(C) notify Congress of the information used by the 
        Secretary to make such determination.''.
    (b) Five-Year Goal.--During the five-year period beginning on the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
shall establish not fewer than 2,000 graduate medical education 
residency positions pursuant to section 7302(e) of title 38, United 
States Code, as added by subsection (a). In establishing such 
positions, the Secretary shall give priority to medical facilities of 
the Department of Veterans Affairs that--
            (1) as of the date of the enactment of this Act, do not 
        have medical residency programs; and
            (2) are located in communities that have a high 
        concentration of veterans.
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