[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6066 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6066

 To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the productivity of 
 the management of Department of Veterans Affairs health care, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 8, 2018

 Mr. Wenstrup introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the productivity of 
 the management of Department of Veterans Affairs health care, 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. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS HEALTH CARE PRODUCTIVITY 
              IMPROVEMENT.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter I of chapter 17 of title 38, United 
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1705A the following 
new section:
``Sec. 1705B. Management of health care: productivity
    ``(a) Relative Value Unit Tracking.--The Secretary shall track 
relative value units for all Department providers.
    ``(b) Clinical Procedure Coding Training.--The Secretary shall 
require all Department providers to attend training on clinical 
procedure coding.
    ``(c) Performance Standards.--(1) The Secretary shall establish for 
each Department facility--
            ``(A) in accordance with paragraph (2), standardized 
        performance standards based on nationally recognized relative 
        value unit production standards applicable to each specific 
        profession in order to evaluate clinical productivity at the 
        provider and facility level;
            ``(B) remediation plans to address low clinical 
        productivity and clinical inefficiency; and
            ``(C) an ongoing process to systematically review the 
        content, implementation, and outcome of the plans developed 
        under subparagraph (B).
    ``(2) In establishing the performance standards under paragraph 
(1)(A), the Secretary may--
            ``(A) incorporate values-based productivity models; and
            ``(B) take into account non-clinical duties, including with 
        respect to training and research.
    ``(d) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) The term `Department provider' means an employee of 
        the Department whose primary responsibilities include 
        furnishing hospital care or medical services, including a 
        physician, a dentist, an optometrist, a podiatrist, a 
        chiropractor, an advanced practice registered nurse, and a 
        physician's assistant acting as an independent provider.
            ``(2) The term `relative value unit' means a unit for 
        measuring workload by determining the time, mental effort and 
        judgment, technical skill, physical effort, and stress involved 
        in delivering a procedure.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of 
such chapter is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 
1705A the following new item:

``1705B. Management of health care: productivity.''.
    (c) Report.--Not later than one year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall submit 
to Congress a report on the implementation of section 1705B of title 
38, United States Code, as added by subsection (a). Such report shall 
include, for each professional category of Department of Veterans 
Affairs providers, the relative value unit of such category of 
providers at the national, Veterans Integrated Service Network, and 
facility levels.
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