Sec. 104. Access guidelines and standards for quality
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Subchapter I of chapter 17, as amended by section 102, is further amended by inserting after section 1703A the following new sections: The Secretary shall consult with all pertinent Federal entities to examine health care access measurements and establish localized benchmarking guidelines that can inform provider and veteran clinical decisionmaking. The Secretary shall establish such guidelines for all hospital care, medical services, and extended care services furnished or otherwise made available under laws administered by the Secretary, including through non-Department health care providers.
The Secretary shall establish standards for quality, in coordination or consultation with entities pursuant to section 1703(h)(3) of this title, regarding hospital care, medical services, and extended care services furnished by the Department pursuant to this title, including through non-Department health care providers pursuant to section 1703 of this title. In establishing standards for quality under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall consider existing health quality measures that are applied to public and privately sponsored health care systems with the purpose of providing covered veterans relevant comparative information to make informed decisions regarding their health care.
The Secretary shall collect and consider data for purposes of establishing the standards under paragraph (1). Such data collection shall include— after consultation with veterans service organizations and other key stakeholders on survey development or modification of an existing survey, a survey of veterans who have used hospital care, medical services, or extended care services furnished by the Veterans Health Administration during the most recent two-year period to assess the satisfaction of the veterans with service and quality of care; and datasets that include, at a minimum, elements relating to the following:
Timely care. Effective care. Safety, including, at a minimum, complications, readmissions, and deaths. Efficiency. Not later than one year after the date on which the Secretary establishes standards for quality under subsection (a), the Secretary shall publish the quality rating of medical facilities of the Department in the publicly available Hospital Compare website through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for the purpose of providing veterans with information that allows them to compare performance measure information among Department and non-Department health care providers.
Not later than two years after the date on which the Secretary establishes standards for quality under subsection (a), the Secretary shall consider and solicit public comment on potential changes to the measures used in such standards to ensure that they include the most up-to-date and applicable industry measures for veterans. . The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 17, as amended by section 102, is further amended by inserting after the item relating to section 1703A the following new items: 1703B.
Access guidelines. 1703C. Standards for quality. .