S.Amdt. 371

SA 371. Ms. DUCKWORTH submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by her to the bill H.R. 2810, to authorize appropriations for fiscal
year 2018 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for
military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of
Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year,
and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as
follows:

At the end of subtitle C of title VII, add the following:

SEC. ___. PROVISION OF SUPPORT BY DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE TO
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS REGARDING
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD SYSTEM.

(a) In General.--The Secretary of Defense may support the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to the extent the Secretary of
Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs jointly
consider feasible and advisable, in the development and
implementation of an electronic health record system that--
(1) is derivative of the Military Health System Genesis
record being developed and implemented by the Secretary of
Defense as of the date of the enactment of this Act; and
(2) achieves complete interoperability with the Military
Health System Genesis.
(b) Annual Review.--The Secretary of Defense and the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall jointly conduct an annual
review of the efforts undertaken by the Secretary of Defense
and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to achieve complete
interoperability between the electronic health record of the
Department of Veterans Affairs and the Military Health System
Genesis.
(c) Annual Report.--
(1) Reports.--Not later than 60 days after completing each
annual review under subsection (b), the Secretary of Defense
and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall jointly submit to
the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Veterans' Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Armed
Services and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the House
of Representatives a report on the review.
(2) Elements.--Each report under paragraph (1) shall
include an assessment of the following:
(A) Milestones reached as part of the schedule developed by
the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans
Affairs of the development and implementation of an
electronic health record system under subsection (a).
(B) Costs associated with such development and
implementation.
(C) Actions, if any, of the Secretary of Defense in
supporting the Secretary of Veterans Affairs pursuant to
subsection (a) with respect to the development and
implementation of an electronic health record system and in
achieving complete interoperability with the Military Health
System Genesis.
(D) Status of the adoption of the national standards and
architectural requirements identified by the Interagency
Program Office of the Department of Defense and the
Department of Veterans Affairs in collaboration with the
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology of the Department of Health and Human Services.
(d) Termination.--The requirements under subsections (b)
and (c) shall terminate on the date on which the Secretary of
Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs jointly certify
to the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Veterans' Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Armed
Services and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the House
of Representatives that the electronic health records of both
the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans
Affairs are completely interoperable.
(e) Interoperability Defined.--In this section, the term
``interoperability'' means the ability of different
electronic health records systems or software to meaningfully
exchange information in real time and provide useful results
to one or more systems.
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