[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 102 (Tuesday, June 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S4039]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2917. Mr. CASSIDY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed 
to amendment SA 2910 proposed by Mr. Shelby to the bill H.R. 5895, 
making appropriations for energy and water development and related 
agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019, and for other 
purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of title II of division C, add the following:

     SEC. 2__. PILOT PROGRAM ON SECURE, PATIENT-CENTERED, PORTABLE 
                   MEDICAL RECORDS STORAGE SYSTEM OF DEPARTMENT OF 
                   VETERANS AFFAIRS.

       (a) Pilot Program.--Not later than 180 days after the date 
     of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans 
     Affairs shall commence a pilot program under which veterans 
     who are enrolled in the patient enrollment system of the 
     Department of Veterans Affairs under section 1705 of title 
     38, United States Code, use a portable medical records 
     storage system described in subsection (e) to store and share 
     with health care providers of the Department and community 
     health care providers records of their individual medical 
     history.
       (b) Selection of Locations.--The Secretary shall select not 
     less than one Veterans Integrated Services Network of the 
     Department in which to carry out the pilot program under 
     subsection (a).
       (c) Contracts.--
       (1) Authority.--The Secretary shall seek to enter into a 
     contract using competitive procedures with an appropriate 
     entity for the provision of the medical records storage 
     system described in subsection (e).
       (2) Notice of competition.--Not later than 60 days after 
     the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall 
     issue a request for proposals for the contract described in 
     paragraph (1). Such request shall be full and open to any 
     contractor that has an existing commercially available 
     medical records storage capability described in subsection 
     (e).
       (3) Selection.--Not later than 120 days after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall award a 
     contract to an offeror pursuant to the request for proposals 
     under paragraph (2) if at least one acceptable offer is 
     submitted.
       (d) Duration of Pilot Program.--
       (1) In general.--The Secretary shall carry out the pilot 
     program under this section for a period of not less than one 
     year.
       (2) After initial period.--After carrying out the pilot 
     program for one year, the Secretary may terminate the 
     program, continue the program, expand the program to include 
     additional locations, or implement the use of portable 
     medical records storage systems on a national basis.
       (e) Requirements of Portable Medical Records Storage 
     System.--A medical records storage system described in this 
     subsection is a physical device that meets the following 
     requirements:
       (1) Capability to store not less than four gigabytes of 
     electronic health records on a physical device, which is not 
     larger than the dimensions of a credit card, issued to each 
     veteran enrolled in the pilot program.
       (2) Capability to be used by substantially all electronic 
     health records systems certified by the Office of the 
     National Coordinator for Health IT on or before January 1, 
     2017.
       (3) Capability to limit access to electronic health records 
     stored on each device to the patient and health care 
     providers.
       (4) Capability for health care providers to securely 
     access, annotate, and add electronic health records to the 
     physical device, including in instances in which the health 
     care provider is not in possession of the physical storage 
     device.
       (5) Requirement that all electronic health records 
     transferred from a health care provider over the internet to 
     the physical storage device be encrypted.
       (6) Requirement that the portable medical records system 
     can operate without persistent storage of any electronic 
     health records on the internet or within a cloud computing 
     repository.
       (7) Capability to provide a replacement device containing 
     up-to-date electronic health records if the original physical 
     storage device has been removed from the owner's possession 
     or otherwise rendered inoperable.
       (f) Definitions.--In this section:
       (1) Dimensions of a credit card.--The term ``dimensions of 
     a credit card'' means three and three-eighths inches in 
     width, two and one-eighth inches in length, and five-one 
     hundred twenty-eighths of one inch in depth.
       (2) Electronic health records.--The term ``electronic 
     health records'' means electronic documentation of 
     physicians' notes, electronic viewing of lab test results, 
     diagnostic images and video, clinical decision support, and 
     interoperability with other systems.
       (g) Prohibition on New Appropriations.--No additional funds 
     are authorized to be appropriated to carry out the 
     requirements of this section. Such requirements shall be 
     carried out using amounts otherwise authorized to be 
     appropriated for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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