[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 89 (Tuesday, May 23, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H4473-H4475]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              VA PRESCRIPTION DATA ACCOUNTABILITY ACT 2017

  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (H.R. 1545) to amend title 38, United States Code, to 
clarify the authority of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to disclose 
certain patient information to State controlled substance monitoring 
programs, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 1545

       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 ``VA Prescription Data 
     Accountability Act 2017''.

     SEC. 2. SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS DISCLOSURE OF PATIENT 
                   INFORMATION TO STATE CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE 
                   MONITORING PROGRAMS.

       Section 5701(l) of title 38, United States Code, is 
     amended--
       (1) by inserting ``(1)'' before ``Under'';
       (2) by striking ``a veteran or the dependent of a veteran'' 
     and inserting ``a covered individual''; and
       (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
       ``(2) In this subsection, a `covered individual' is an 
     individual who is dispensed medication prescribed by an 
     employee of the Department or by a non-Department provider 
     authorized to prescribe such medication by the Department.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Roe) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Walz) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee.


                             General Leave

  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend 
their remarks and include extraneous materials.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Tennessee?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1545, the VA 
Prescription Data Accountability Act of 2017. H.R. 1545 would require 
the Department of Veterans Affairs to disclose information about any 
individual prescribed medication by a VA employee or a provider 
authorized by the VA to a State Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to 
the extent necessary to prevent misuse and diversion of prescription 
medication.
  Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs are Statewide electronic 
databases that collect and distribute information on prescription 
medication to certain authorized individuals or entities. They are used 
to identify and address prescription drug abuse, addiction, and 
diversion.
  While 90 percent of the VA's patient population are veterans, the VA 
treats certain nonveterans, including Active-Duty servicemembers who 
receive VA care through sharing agreements with the Department of 
Defense, dependents, caregivers of veterans, and VA staff, to name a 
few.
  Current law authorizes the VA to disclose information to Prescription 
Drug Monitoring Programs for veterans and dependents of veterans only. 
The VA is not authorized to disclose information for other patients.
  Moreover, technological barriers prevent the VA from transmitting 
dependent data to Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. That means 
that prescription drug information for nonveterans--10 percent of the 
VA's patient population, which translates to more than 700,000 veterans 
this fiscal year--is not being shared with Prescription Drug Monitoring 
Programs today.
  In light of ongoing concerns about the potential for misuse or 
diversion of prescription medication, particularly opioid medications, 
it is imperative that the VA share information about all VA patients, 
veteran and nonveteran, to State Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. 
It is a matter of public safety.
  H.R. 1545 is supported by the American Legion, the Paralyzed Veterans 
of America, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, and by 
the VA, who testified before the Subcommittee on Health earlier this 
year that this authority would ``ensure that VA is able to fulfill its 
public health role in sharing vital clinical information to help guide 
treatment decisions.''
  Mr. Speaker, this bill is sponsored by the gentlewoman of New 
Hampshire (Ms. Kuster), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on 
Oversight and Investigations, who is joined by the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Wenstrup), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health; the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), the chairman of the Subcommittee 
on Oversight and Investigations; and the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Brownley), the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Health. I am 
grateful to all of them for sponsoring this legislation. It has my full 
support, and I urge all of our colleagues to join me in supporting it.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1545 offered by the 
gentlewoman from New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster), who is the ranking member 
of our Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, and, as importantly, 
a champion of policies that make sure the scourge of opioid addiction 
is addressed in this Congress, and is a leading expert on it.

[[Page H4474]]

  This legislation would make significant progress towards curbing 
substance abuse disorders and diversion of prescription medication in 
our veteran population.
  As you heard, currently, a veteran's dependent can receive a 
prescription for a controlled substance from a provider in the 
community, and then they receive the same prescription for the same 
controlled substance from a VA provider without either provider's 
knowledge of what happened.
  Congress, in the past, has attempted to remedy this problem but, due 
to confusion within the VA, was unsuccessful. I believe that 
Congresswoman Kuster's legislation would clear up this confusion and 
allow the VA to better serve both veterans and their dependents by 
allowing the VA and community providers to recognize and treat 
substance abuse disorders instead of contributing to them by 
unintentionally overprescribing.
  Mr. Speaker, I fully support this legislation. I would encourage all 
of my colleagues to do the same.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 1 minute to 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Costello).
  Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of 
the VA Prescription Data Accountability Act. We face a serious opioid 
epidemic in our communities across the Nation. As we work to put forth 
solutions to this crisis, it is critical that we incorporate the 
Veterans Health Administration into existing, effective controlled 
substance monitoring programs.
  To ensure effective, accurate oversight of who is being prescribed 
controlled substances, this legislation would require the VA to 
disclose information about all individuals, veteran or dependent, who 
receive such prescriptions from the VHA.
  In my home State of Pennsylvania, we have an established 
comprehensive and effective Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. 
Incorporating additional data from the VA is an appropriate step to 
utilize proven existing networks to fight back against the opioid 
epidemic.

  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New 
Hampshire (Ms. Kuster), my good friend and the ranking member of the 
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, and a critical partner in 
serving our veterans.
  Ms. KUSTER of New Hampshire. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Walz) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe) for 
their support of this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, today I rise to speak on my bill, H.R. 1545, the VA 
Prescription Accountability Act. This bill demonstrates the power of 
bipartisanship in this Congress, especially on the House VA Committee.
  I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup) for his willingness to 
co-lead this bill with me, and also the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Bergman) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Brownley) for 
cosponsoring this commonsense legislation.
  This bill is common sense because it improves upon the Prescription 
Drug Monitoring Programs, also known as PDMPs across this country. 
PDMPs are proven resources in combating our Nation's opioid epidemic. 
PDMPs improve the public health and our general well-being.
  In 2012, the VA was finally authorized to connect its patient 
population to State PDMPs. But, unfortunately, an issue with the VA's 
antiquated computer systems meant that literally hundreds of thousands 
of nonveteran patients at the VA were left excluded from the data 
reported to PDMPs by the VA.
  As the ranking member of the House Veterans' Oversight and 
Investigations Subcommittee, I am all too familiar with the continued 
issues with computer systems across the entirety of the VA. This issue 
underscores the need for the VA and this Congress to ensure effective 
and rapid reform to the VA's computer systems. When those systemic 
shortcomings potentially exacerbate the Nation's opioid epidemic, I saw 
the importance to take action.
  Through my Bipartisan Heroin Task Force, we in Congress have learned 
the importance of ensuring prescription opioids are not misused. The 
consequences are truly dire. Over 30,000 Americans die in opioid-
related overdoses every year. That number just continues to rise.
  This bill represents a small but practical step forward in addressing 
this crisis.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of this 
low-cost bill. It will help ensure these important programs work as 
intended by closing the gap in prescription information. I urge my 
Senate colleagues to quickly take up the bill and pass it in the Senate 
as well.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Takano), our vice ranking member of the full Committee 
on Veterans' Affairs and a true champion of veterans.

                              {time}  1545

  Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my colleague from New 
Hampshire (Ms. Kuster) and her bill to improve information sharing 
between providers to ensure that they are able to follow safe 
prescribing practices.
  The VA Prescription Data Accountability Act helps to close a loophole 
in statute that limits the data that the VA can share with Prescription 
Drug Monitoring Programs, or PDMPs. These databases track the 
prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances to help find 
suspected fraud and intervene with patients who are at high risk for 
prescription drug abuse. These databases are only as useful as the 
information they collect.
  Since 2011, the VA has been able to share prescription data with 
PDMPs, but only for the veteran patients it sees. Statutory and 
technical challenges have prevented the Department from sharing data 
from nonveteran patients with PDMPs. Approximately 10 percent of the 
VA's patients are nonveterans. We are talking about 700,000 patients 
each year.
  Now, Ms. Kuster's bill expands the authority of the VA to share all 
patient data with PDMPs. This will allow us to better monitor the use 
of prescription drugs and help combat a growing opioid epidemic.
  On average, 650,000 opioid prescriptions are dispensed daily in the 
United States, and 78 people die from opioid-related overdoses. 
Properly tracking prescription drugs is one of the first steps to turn 
the tide on this epidemic.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance 
of my time.
  Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join us in passing 
H.R. 1545.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my 
time to close.
  In over 31 years of the practice of medicine, I have seen great 
changes, many of them to the good. One of the things that has disturbed 
me greatly is the opioid epidemic that we have in this great country at 
this time. I am an obstetrician. I have delivered a lot of babies in my 
career, and it was a rare event when we saw a baby that was addicted to 
opioids--as a matter of fact, almost never until, literally, about 20 
years ago, and 10 years ago a full-fledged epidemic.
  In our hospital at home, we have a neonatal intensive care unit that 
cares for nothing but opioid-addicted babies. In our State of 
Tennessee, Mr. Speaker, we have had more people who died of 
prescription drug overdose deaths than died in car wrecks. It now 
exceeds many cancer deaths in the country.
  This bill has my 100 percent support, and I certainly want to thank 
Ms. Kuster for her great work on this bill. We have shared a trip to 
Afghanistan together, as we did with Mr. Takano, and had a chance to 
talk about these things in great detail. I want to thank her and also 
the ranking member for their support in this.
  I once again encourage all Members to support this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by

[[Page H4475]]

the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 1545.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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