[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1296 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1296

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 15, 2013

  Mr. Nelson introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
             referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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 interoperable 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 ``Servicemember's Electronic Health 
Records Act of 2013''.

SEC. 2. TIMELINE FOR IMPLEMENTING INTEROPERABLE 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 by 
        the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs 
        that can be accessed by multiple providers and standardizes the 
        input of new medical information is achieved 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 not later than 180 days 
        after the date of the enactment of this subsection;
            ``(3) the full interoperability of personal health care 
        information between the Departments is achieved not later than 
        one year after the date of the enactment of this subsection;
            ``(4) the acceleration of the exchange of real-time data 
        between the Departments is achieved not later than one year 
        after the date of the enactment of this subsection;
            ``(5) the upgrade of the graphical user interface to 
        display a joint common graphical user interface is achieved not 
        later than one year after the date of the enactment of this 
        subsection; and
            ``(6) 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 June 30, 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 assess the feasibility and advisability 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''.
                                 <all>