Sec. 710. Improvements to access to health care in military medical treatment facilities
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/bill/114/hr/4909/eh/section-710·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
The Secretary of Defense shall implement standard processes to ensure that, in the case of a beneficiary contacting a military medical treatment facility over the telephone for, at a minimum, scheduling an appointment, requesting a prescription drug refill, and other matters determined appropriate by the Secretary, the needs of the beneficiary are met during the first such telephone call. The Secretary shall— develop metrics, collect data, and evaluate the performance of the processes implemented under paragraph (1); and carry out satisfaction surveys to monitor the satisfaction of beneficiaries with such processes, including with respect to the satisfaction regarding access to appointments and patient care.
The Secretary shall implement standard processes to schedule beneficiaries for appointments at military medical treatment facilities. The standard processes implemented under paragraph
(1)shall include the following: Requiring clinics at military medical treatment facilities to allow a beneficiary to schedule an appointment for wellness visits or follow-up appointments during the six-month or longer period beginning on the date of the request for the appointment. A process to remind a beneficiary of future appointments in a manner that the beneficiary prefers, which may include sending postcards to the beneficiary prior to appointments and making reminder telephone calls, emails, or cellular text messages to the beneficiary at specified intervals prior to appointments. The Secretary shall implement standards for the productivity of health care providers at military medical treatment facilities. In developing such standards, the Secretary shall consider civilian benchmarks for measuring the productivity of health care providers, the optimal number of appointments (patient contact hours) required to maintain access according to the standards developed by the Secretary, and readiness requirements. The Secretary shall implement strategies for managing the use of face-to-face appointments at military medical treatment facilities. Such strategies may include— maximizing the use of telehealth and virtual appointments for beneficiaries at the discretion of the health care provider and the beneficiary; the implementation of remote patient monitoring of chronic conditions to improve outcomes and reduce the number of follow-up appointments for beneficiaries; and maximizing the use of secure messaging between health care providers and beneficiaries to improve the access of beneficiaries to health care and reduce the number of visits for health care needs. The Secretary shall implement subsections (a), (b), and
(c)by not later than February 1, 2017. Not later than March 1, 2017, the Secretary shall provide the Committees on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Senate a briefing on the implementation of subsections (a), (b), and (c). In this section, the term beneficiaries means members of the Armed Forces and covered beneficiaries (as defined in section 1072(5) of title 10, United States Code).