[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 875 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 875

  To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the reporting of 
   cases of infectious diseases at facilities of the Veterans Health 
                Administration, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 7, 2013

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the reporting of 
   cases of infectious diseases at facilities of the Veterans Health 
                Administration, 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 ``Department of Veterans Affairs 
Disease Reporting and Oversight Act of 2013''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT THAT VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION REPORT CASES OF 
              INFECTIOUS DISEASES AT FACILITIES OF THE ADMINISTRATION.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter II of chapter 73 of title 38, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
``Sec. 7330B. Reporting of infectious diseases
    ``(a) Reporting.--(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), not 
later than 24 hours after the director of a Veterans Integrated Service 
Network confirms the presence of a notifiable infectious disease at a 
facility under the jurisdiction of the director, the director shall 
submit notice of such presence to the following:
            ``(A) The Central Office of the Department.
            ``(B) The Director of the Centers for Disease Control and 
        Prevention.
            ``(C) The State in which the facility is located and if the 
        State has an agency or department that handles matters relating 
        to such notifiable infectious disease, the head of such agency 
        or department.
            ``(D) The county in which the facility is located and if 
        the county has an agency or department that handles matters 
        relating to such notifiable infectious disease, the head of 
        such agency or department.
            ``(E) For each individual who has contracted the notifiable 
        infectious disease at the facility or is at risk of contracting 
        such notifiable infectious disease--
                    ``(i) the individual and the individual's next of 
                kin;
                    ``(ii) the individual's primary health care 
                provider; and
                    ``(iii) the county in which the individual resides 
                and if the county has an agency or department that 
                handles matters relating to such notifiable infectious 
                disease, the head of such agency or department.
            ``(F) Each employee of the Department who is employed at 
        such facility.
    ``(2) If the State in which a facility described in paragraph (1) 
is located requires that a notifiable infectious disease confirmed at 
such facility be reported to the State more quickly than required under 
paragraph (1) or requires that a suspected presence of a notifiable 
infectious disease at such facility be reported before waiting for 
confirmation of such presence, the director concerned shall comply with 
such State requirement.
    ``(3) Not later than 24 hours after submitting a notice under 
paragraph (1), the director concerned shall confirm that such notice is 
received.
    ``(b) Notifiable Infectious Disease.--For purposes of this section, 
a notifiable infectious disease is any infectious disease that is--
            ``(1) on the list of nationally notifiable diseases 
        published by the Council of State and Territorial 
        Epidemiologists and the Centers for Disease Control and 
        Prevention; or
            ``(2) covered by a provision of law of a State that 
        requires the reporting of infectious diseases.
    ``(c) Plan To Prevent Spread.--(1) Not later than seven days after 
the director of a Veterans Integrated Service Network confirms the 
presence of a notifiable infectious disease at a facility under the 
jurisdiction of such director, the director shall develop and implement 
an action plan to manage and control the potential spread of the 
notifiable infectious disease.
    ``(2) The plan developed and implemented under paragraph (1) shall 
also provide details on the role of partnering Federal, State, and 
local government entities in the management and control of the 
potential spread of the notifiable infectious disease.
    ``(d) Recordkeeping.--The director of each Veterans Integrated 
Service Network shall keep records of each notice submitted under 
subsection (a)(1) for a period of not less than 10 years.
    ``(e) Annual Reports by Inspector General.--Not less frequently 
than once each year, the Inspector General of the Department shall 
submit to Congress a report on the compliance of the directors of the 
Veterans Integrated Service Networks with the requirements of this 
section.
    ``(f) Enforcement and Disciplinary Action.--(1) In any case in 
which the Inspector General of the Department suspects that a director 
of a Veterans Integrated Service Network has failed to comply with an 
applicable provision of this section, the Inspector General shall 
conduct an investigation to determine whether such director failed to 
comply with an applicable provision of this section.
    ``(2) If the Inspector General determines under paragraph (1) that 
a director has failed to comply with a provision of this section, the 
Secretary shall suspend such director for such period as the Secretary 
considers appropriate under subchapter I or subchapter II of chapter 75 
of title 5, as the case may be.
    ``(3) Paragraph (2) shall not be construed to prevent the Secretary 
from imposing, in addition to suspension under paragraph (2), such 
other disciplinary action on the director as the Secretary considers 
appropriate and for which the Secretary is otherwise authorized.''.
    (b) Internal Communication.--Not later than 180 days after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary for Health of the 
Veterans Health Administration shall issue a directive to the Pathology 
Team, the Infection Prevention Team, and the Facilities Management Team 
of the Veterans Health Administration and such other groups within the 
Administration as the Under Secretary considers appropriate on the 
actions that should be taken in any case in which a notifiable 
infectious disease (as such term is used in section 7330B of title 38, 
United States Code, as added by subsection (a)) is discovered in a 
facility of the Veterans Health Administration.
    (c) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
chapter 73 of such title is amended by inserting after the item 
relating to section 7330A the following new item:

``7330B. Reporting of infectious diseases.''.
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