An amendment numbered 8 printed in House Report 114-742 to require that the VA use distributive ledger technology when scheduling healthcare appointments to ensure transparency and accountability 1 year after enactment.

1. Adds SEC. 11. USE OF DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGY TO SCHEDULE APPOINTMENTS at the end of the bill

   Adds a section

   Inserted: SEC. 11. USE OF DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGY TO SCHEDULE APPOINTMENTS.

   Inserted: (a) Use of Distributed Ledger Technology.--

   Inserted: (1) In general.--Beginning not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall ensure that veterans seeking health care appointments at medical facilities of the Department are able to use an Internet website, a mobile application, or other similar electronic method to use distributed ledger technology to view such appointments and ascertain whether an employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs has modified such appointments.

   Inserted: (2) Contracts.--The Secretary shall carry out paragraph (1) by seeking to enter into one or more contracts with appropriate entities to develop the appointment distributed ledger technology system described in such paragraph.

   Inserted: (3) Privacy and ownership of information.--Any information relating to a veteran that is used or transmitted pursuant to this section--

   Inserted: (A) shall be treated in accordance with section 552a of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred to as the "Privacy Act") and other applicable laws and regulations relating to the privacy of the veteran;

   Inserted: (B) may only be used by an employee or contractor of the Department of Veterans Affairs to carry out paragraph (1); and

   Inserted: (C) may not be disclosed to any person who is not the veteran or such an employee or contractor unless the veteran provides consent to such disclosure.

   Inserted: (b) Report.--Not later than 180 days after the date on which the Secretary commences subsection (a)(1), the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on the implementation of this section.

   Inserted: (c) Definitions.--In this section:

   Inserted: (1) The term "distributed ledger technology" means technology using a consensus of replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data that is geographically spread across multiple digital systems.

   Inserted: (2) The term "mobile application" means a software program that runs on the operating system of a mobile device.

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   Inserted: (3) The term "mobile device" means a smartphone, tablet computer, or similar portable computing device that transmits data over a wireless connection.

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As printed