VA Prescription Data Accountability Act 2017

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1545) to amend title 38, United States Code, to clarify the authority of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to disclose certain patient information to State controlled substance monitoring programs, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1545, the VA Prescription Data Accountability Act of 2017. H.R. 1545 would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to disclose information about any individual prescribed medication by a VA employee or a provider authorized by the VA to a State Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to the extent necessary to prevent misuse and diversion of prescription medication.

Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs are Statewide electronic databases that collect and distribute information on prescription medication to certain authorized individuals or entities. They are used to identify and address prescription drug abuse, addiction, and diversion.

While 90 percent of the VA's patient population are veterans, the VA treats certain nonveterans, including Active-Duty servicemembers who receive VA care through sharing agreements with the Department of Defense, dependents, caregivers of veterans, and VA staff, to name a few.

Current law authorizes the VA to disclose information to Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs for veterans and dependents of veterans only. The VA is not authorized to disclose information for other patients.

Moreover, technological barriers prevent the VA from transmitting dependent data to Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. That means that prescription drug information for nonveterans--10 percent of the VA's patient population, which translates to more than 700,000 veterans this fiscal year--is not being shared with Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs today.

In light of ongoing concerns about the potential for misuse or diversion of prescription medication, particularly opioid medications, it is imperative that the VA share information about all VA patients, veteran and nonveteran, to State Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. It is a matter of public safety.

H.R. 1545 is supported by the American Legion, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, and by the VA, who testified before the Subcommittee on Health earlier this year that this authority would ``ensure that VA is able to fulfill its public health role in sharing vital clinical information to help guide treatment decisions.''

Mr. Speaker, this bill is sponsored by the gentlewoman of New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, who is joined by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Health; the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations; and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Brownley), the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Health. I am grateful to all of them for sponsoring this legislation. It has my full support, and I urge all of our colleagues to join me in supporting it.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Costello).

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

In over 31 years of the practice of medicine, I have seen great changes, many of them to the good. One of the things that has disturbed me greatly is the opioid epidemic that we have in this great country at this time. I am an obstetrician. I have delivered a lot of babies in my career, and it was a rare event when we saw a baby that was addicted to opioids--as a matter of fact, almost never until, literally, about 20 years ago, and 10 years ago a full-fledged epidemic.

In our hospital at home, we have a neonatal intensive care unit that cares for nothing but opioid-addicted babies. In our State of Tennessee, Mr. Speaker, we have had more people who died of prescription drug overdose deaths than died in car wrecks. It now exceeds many cancer deaths in the country.

This bill has my 100 percent support, and I certainly want to thank Ms. Kuster for her great work on this bill. We have shared a trip to Afghanistan together, as we did with Mr. Takano, and had a chance to talk about these things in great detail. I want to thank her and also the ranking member for their support in this.

I once again encourage all Members to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to express my strong support for the significant package of the veteran's bills that we considered in the House both yesterday and today.

As the former Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee (2001 through 2005), I am acutely aware of the challenges our veterans face, especially as they transition from military to civilian life. As Chairman, I authored more than a dozen laws to expand health, education, job training and homelessness benefits for the men and women who served in uniform. Thankfully these laws continue to help our veterans today.

Still, there are new problems and new issues that urgently need our attention. Massive wait times, forged documents by VA officials, ineptitude, lack of equipment and under-staffing at VA medical facilities are just a few of the significant transgressions that have been exposed and are undermining the quality of service and the treatment our veterans receive.

In 2014 and 2016 Congress passed the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act (P.L. 113-146) and the Faster Care for Veterans Act (P.L. 114-286), respectively, to usher in a complete overhaul of VA systems and to institute new technological services for scheduling and in order to secure more timely appointments. Some, but not nearly enough, progress has occurred. Much more must be done.

I commend Chairman Phil Roe, MD and his team at the Veterans Affairs Committee on the package of bills before us this week. All seven will help improve the benefit programs and the delivery of healthcare service for our veterans.

For instance, The Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017 (H.R. 2288) will empower veterans who have been denied benefits to have more options as they pursue their appeals. Under the new bill, vets will be able to waive a hearing and submit additional evidence, pursue a hearing and submit additional evidence, or transfer the jurisdiction of their case to the Board of Veterans Appeals. The new options should help cut through some wait time.

The VA Scheduling Accountability Act (H.R. 467) would require an annual certification of compliance with scheduling directives. Additionally the bill blocks awards and bonuses to any leadership personnel at any medical center that fails to comply with the scheduling directives. Another bill before us, H.R. 1005 would allow the federal government to enter into agreements with state veteran's homes to pay for adult day health care for certain eligible veterans.

The No Hero Left Untreated Act (H.R. 1162) will create a one year pilot program at the VA to use innovative therapy to treat veterans who suffer from invisible wounds, which include post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury (TBI), military sexual trauma, chronic pain, or opiate addiction. As the author of the Veterans Health Programs Improvement Act (P.L. 108-422) which authorized regional veteran polytrauma centers for multiple injuries including TBI, I fully support H.R. 1162 as a way to ensure that the VA is able to adapt to the newest and best practices for treating veterans with these unique traumas and conditions.

The Quicker Veterans Benefits Delivery Act of 2017 (H.R. 1725) will require stronger reporting requirements from the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding the necessity for in-person disability examinations; and the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2017 (H.R. 1329) will increase the cost-of-living-adjustment for disabled veterans who receive compensation to equal the same rate of increase for citizens who receive Social Security in 2018.

Finally, the VA Prescription Data Accountability Act (H.R. 1545) will help combat drug addiction among our veterans by creating better information and data sharing between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the states' recording programs.

Mr. Speaker, let me remind my colleagues that while this package of veterans bills marks another step forward, we cannot be lulled into thinking that the Department of Veterans Affairs and the delivery of veterans' benefits and healthcare will be forever fixed simply with the enactment of new legislation, no matter how well written.

Good legislation is the necessary, minimum first step. But equally important is the full and consistent implementation of the new laws, along with regular and aggressive oversight by this Congress. We must be vigilant and continue to push to ensure that all veterans get the care they have earned--at the time they need it--not months or years later.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Walz) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe) for their support of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to speak on my bill, H.R. 1545, the VA Prescription Accountability Act. This bill demonstrates the power of bipartisanship in this Congress, especially on the House VA Committee.

I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup) for his willingness to co-lead this bill with me, and also the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Brownley) for cosponsoring this commonsense legislation.

This bill is common sense because it improves upon the Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, also known as PDMPs across this country. PDMPs are proven resources in combating our Nation's opioid epidemic. PDMPs improve the public health and our general well-being.

In 2012, the VA was finally authorized to connect its patient population to State PDMPs. But, unfortunately, an issue with the VA's antiquated computer systems meant that literally hundreds of thousands of nonveteran patients at the VA were left excluded from the data reported to PDMPs by the VA.

As the ranking member of the House Veterans' Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, I am all too familiar with the continued issues with computer systems across the entirety of the VA. This issue underscores the need for the VA and this Congress to ensure effective and rapid reform to the VA's computer systems. When those systemic shortcomings potentially exacerbate the Nation's opioid epidemic, I saw the importance to take action.

Through my Bipartisan Heroin Task Force, we in Congress have learned the importance of ensuring prescription opioids are not misused. The consequences are truly dire. Over 30,000 Americans die in opioid- related overdoses every year. That number just continues to rise.

This bill represents a small but practical step forward in addressing this crisis.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of this low-cost bill. It will help ensure these important programs work as intended by closing the gap in prescription information. I urge my Senate colleagues to quickly take up the bill and pass it in the Senate as well.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1545 offered by the gentlewoman from New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster), who is the ranking member of our Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, and, as importantly, a champion of policies that make sure the scourge of opioid addiction is addressed in this Congress, and is a leading expert on it.

This legislation would make significant progress towards curbing substance abuse disorders and diversion of prescription medication in our veteran population.

As you heard, currently, a veteran's dependent can receive a prescription for a controlled substance from a provider in the community, and then they receive the same prescription for the same controlled substance from a VA provider without either provider's knowledge of what happened.

Congress, in the past, has attempted to remedy this problem but, due to confusion within the VA, was unsuccessful. I believe that Congresswoman Kuster's legislation would clear up this confusion and allow the VA to better serve both veterans and their dependents by allowing the VA and community providers to recognize and treat substance abuse disorders instead of contributing to them by unintentionally overprescribing.

Mr. Speaker, I fully support this legislation. I would encourage all of my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster), my good friend and the ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, and a critical partner in serving our veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano), our vice ranking member of the full Committee on Veterans' Affairs and a true champion of veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join us in passing

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my colleague from New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster) and her bill to improve information sharing between providers to ensure that they are able to follow safe prescribing practices.

The VA Prescription Data Accountability Act helps to close a loophole in statute that limits the data that the VA can share with Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, or PDMPs. These databases track the prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances to help find suspected fraud and intervene with patients who are at high risk for prescription drug abuse. These databases are only as useful as the information they collect.

Since 2011, the VA has been able to share prescription data with PDMPs, but only for the veteran patients it sees. Statutory and technical challenges have prevented the Department from sharing data from nonveteran patients with PDMPs. Approximately 10 percent of the VA's patients are nonveterans. We are talking about 700,000 patients each year.

Now, Ms. Kuster's bill expands the authority of the VA to share all patient data with PDMPs. This will allow us to better monitor the use of prescription drugs and help combat a growing opioid epidemic.

On average, 650,000 opioid prescriptions are dispensed daily in the United States, and 78 people die from opioid-related overdoses. Properly tracking prescription drugs is one of the first steps to turn the tide on this epidemic.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.