Sec. 405. Improved transparency concerning health care provided by Department of Veterans Affairs
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Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall publish in the Federal Register, and on an Internet website accessible to the public of each medical center of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the wait-time goals of the Department for the scheduling of an appointment by a veteran for the receipt of health care from the Department. If the Secretary modifies the wait-time goals described in subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall publish the new wait-times goals— on an Internet website accessible to the public of each medical center of the Department not later than 30 days after such modification; and in the Federal Register not later than 90 days after such modification.
Any modification under clause
(i)shall take effect on the date of publication in the Federal Register. Wait-time goals published under this paragraph shall include goals for primary care appointments, specialty care appointments, and appointments based on the general severity of the condition of the veteran. Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall publish on an Internet website accessible to the public of each medical center of the Department the current wait time for an appointment for primary care and specialty care at the medical center. Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall develop and make available to the public a comprehensive database containing all applicable patient safety, quality of care, and outcome measures for health care provided by the Department that are tracked by the Secretary. The Secretary shall update the database required by paragraph
(1)not less frequently than once each year. For all measures that the Secretary would otherwise publish in the database required by paragraph
(1)but has not done so because such measures are not available, the Secretary shall publish notice in the database of the reason for such unavailability and a timeline for making such measures available in the database. The Secretary shall ensure that the database required by paragraph
(1)is accessible to the public through the primary Internet website of the Department and through each primary Internet website of a Department medical center. Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall enter into an agreement with the Secretary of Health and Human Services for the provision by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs of such information as the Secretary of Health and Human Services may require to report and make publicly available patient quality and outcome information concerning Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers through the Hospital Compare Internet website of the Department of Health and Human Services or any successor Internet website. The information provided by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to the Secretary of Health and Human Services under paragraph
(1)shall include the following: Measures of timely and effective health care. Measures of readmissions, complications of death, including with respect to 30-day mortality rates and 30-day readmission rates, surgical complication measures, and health care related infection measures. Survey data of patient experiences, including the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or any similar successor survey developed by the Department of Health and Human Services. Any other measures required of or reported with respect to hospitals participating in the Medicare program under title XVIII of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395 et seq.). For any applicable metric collected by the Department of Veterans Affairs or required to be provided under paragraph
(2)and withheld from or unavailable in the Hospital Compare Internet website, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall publish a notice in the Federal Register stating the reason why such metric was withheld from public disclosure and a timeline for making such metric available, if applicable. Not later than three years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a review of the safety and quality metrics made publicly available by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs under this section to assess the degree to which the Secretary is complying with the provisions of this section.
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Sec. 405
Improved transparency concerning health care provided by Department of Veterans Affairs
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