[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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