[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2660 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2660

  To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of 
 Veterans Affairs to provide for an evaluation and report on the costs 
of health care furnished by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 10, 2016

  Mr. Rounds 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 Secretary of 
 Veterans Affairs to provide for an evaluation and report on the costs 
of health care furnished by the Department of Veterans Affairs, 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 ``Veterans Health Administration 
Spending Transparency and Oversight Act of 2016''.

SEC. 2. EVALUATION AND REPORT ON COSTS OF HEALTH CARE FURNISHED BY 
              DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS.

    (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. Evaluation and report on costs of health care furnished 
              by Department
    ``(a) Evaluation.--The Secretary shall provide for an ongoing 
evaluation of the costs of hospital care, medical services, and nursing 
home care furnished to veterans eligible for such care or services as 
compared to the costs of the same care or services furnished in the 
private sector.
    ``(b) Entity To Conduct Evaluation.--The Secretary may enter into a 
contract with a federally funded research and development center to 
conduct the evaluation under subsection (a).
    ``(c) Report.--Not later than March 1 of each year, the Secretary 
shall submit to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the Senate and 
the Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the House of Representatives a 
report on the results of the evaluation conducted under subsection (a) 
during the year preceding the submittal of the report.
    ``(d) Definitions.--In this section, the terms `hospital care', 
`medical services', and `nursing home care' have the meanings given 
those terms in section 1701 of this title.''.
    (b) 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. Evaluation and report on costs of health care furnished by 
                            Department.''.
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