Grow Our Own Directive: Physician Assistant Employment and Education Act of 2017

Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my colleague, General Bergman, in support of our bill, H.R. 3262, the Grow Our Own Directive: Physician Assistant Employment and Education Act of 2017.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the entire Nation are experiencing a shortage of quality physicians and healthcare providers. For doctors

alone, the Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that, by 2030, the country could face a doctor shortage of over 100,000 physicians. Access to care will only become a harder problem to solve the longer it takes to be addressed.

Nonphysician providers, like physician assistants, are an important part of the solution to this shortage. Physician assistants are highly trained providers that often focus their training on specialties like psychiatry, orthopedics, and internal medicine.

It is fitting that my bill would help get more PAs into the VA to serve veterans. After all, the profession started when a small group of four Navy corpsmen completed the first PA program started at Duke University. That first program was based on the fast-tracked training of doctors during World War II. Veterans and the military have always been a part of the physician assistant profession.

The PA workforce offers unique value to rural and underserved areas. In places like northern New Hampshire, in my district, PAs help resolve shortages for family physicians and primary care physicians, shortages that have existed for decades.

My bill would leverage the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve access to quality care for veterans and rural locations alike. It would create a pilot scholarship program that awards no less than 250 scholarships over 5 years to PAs.

Currently, the VA has approximately 2,000 PAs. My bill would increase the PA workforce at the VA by over 10 percent.

In exchange for these scholarships, PAs would be required to work at the VA, and their placement would be focused on sending providers to rural and underserved areas. We know that if a provider is placed in New Hampshire, they tend to stay there.

This bill would also help get veterans with medical training in the workforce and with good-paying jobs. It is crucial that we help our veterans find excellent career paths that utilize the skills they learned while in the military service, and it is an added bonus that these veterans get to take care of their brothers and sisters in arms.

The final provision in my bill was included in the Choice funding bill we debated just moments ago. This provision would provide PAs in the VA with competitive pay based on the community they serve. This provision is crucial because it helps recruit and retain these critical providers. The GAO recently reported that PAs experience the highest loss rate of any critical occupation, higher than doctors and nurse practitioners.

I would like to applaud my colleagues for coming together in a bipartisan way to craft the Choice funding bill. Not only will the bill fund the Choice Program for another 6 months, but it includes a number of important reforms that will improve service for all of our veterans. These provisions include improved authority for hiring in job shortage areas, measures to increase accountability within the VA, and my provision to boost the pay of PAs.

I would like to thank my esteemed colleague on the House Veterans Affairs' Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Chairman Bergman. His support for this legislation was crucial to its passage today. I thank our chairman, Dr. Roe, and our ranking member.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to immediately pass this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3262) to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a pilot program to provide educational assistance to certain former members of the Armed Forces for education and training as physician assistants of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to establish pay grades and require competitive pay for physician assistants of the Department, and for other purposes, as amended.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3262, as amended, the Grow Our Own Directive--or GOOD--Physician Assistant Employment and Education Act of 2017.

The PA profession has a long and storied connection with veterans as the first class of PAs was primarily composed of Army medics and Navy corpsmen who served in the Vietnam war.

And I might add, when I did basic training at San Antonio, Texas, at Fort Sam, one of the first PA classes was there.

Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs is the single largest employer of PAs in the country. Nevertheless, PAs are consistently identified as one of the top five professions where VA is experiencing the largest staffing shortages.

H.R. 3262, as amended, would help solve that by creating a pilot program to provide assistance to veterans who want to pursue education and training to become a PA and to serve their fellow veterans by working at VA medical facilities.

I am grateful to Congresswoman Ann Kuster for sponsoring this legislation and shepherding it through the legislative process, and I am confident that it will go a long way in resolving existing PA recruitment and retention issues, ensuring that VA medical facilities are appropriately staffed with high-quality PAs and, in turn, increasing access to care for veteran patients.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 3262, as amended, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), who is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on the full Veterans' Affairs Committee.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I certainly support this bill, and I want to thank both General Bergman and Ms. Kuster. We made a trip to Afghanistan together a couple of years ago. She has a dogged--and I will say ``dogged''-- commitment to the veterans in her district and to this country, and I want to thank her for bringing this piece of legislation up. I believe it will make a difference, I truly do, when it is implemented.

And I want to thank the ranking member, and his staff and mine, for bringing a lot of pieces of legislation to the House floor in the last couple of weeks. This week, especially, we have had some success here, and that means veterans had success. Certainly, the post-9/11 GI Bill that was passed this week is an enormous bill and will do good generations after no one ever remembers who was on this floor debating that bill. So I want to thank them and thank my colleagues and wish everyone a safe recess and a healthy recess.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise in support of H.R. 3262, as amended, the GOOD Act of 2017, which was introduced by a good friend, someone who has proven herself to be a dogged champion of veterans, the ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, Ms. Kuster. This important piece of legislation will allow veterans who served as medics and corpsmen in the military to receive scholarships to train as physician assistants.

The VA has over 45,000 provider vacancies to fill so that veterans are not waiting too long for care. In the United States, we face a provider shortage in general, especially in our rural communities, where most veterans live. This bill will help address these critical shortages by providing veterans with an incredible opportunity to aid their communities and their fellow veterans.

Ms. Kuster's hard work on this legislation and on behalf of veterans is admirable, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster), the author of this piece of legislation, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Mr. Speaker, as you heard, I urge my colleagues to support this smart piece of legislation. But I would like to close by adding, also, a thank-you to the chairman and to the majority side, once again showing bipartisanship offering two bills introduced by our side of the aisle that are being heard here on the floor which can be signed into law. It is greatly appreciated. It shows that the care of veterans always comes first. We on the minority side are appreciative of that courtesy.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, for years, the Department of Veterans Affairs has seen many of its medical personnel leave to pursue opportunities outside of the VA healthcare system, resulting in fewer healthcare providers and, ultimately, less access to care for our veterans. In the First District of Michigan, which I represent, we are largely a rural district, and our district and our veterans have suffered more than most on this.

The GOOD Act utilizes a two-pronged approach to address VA's continuing struggles in recruiting and retaining their physician assistant workforce. This bill creates a pilot program to provide that pathway for veterans to receive the education necessary to become a PA while, simultaneously, requiring the VA to establish a national strategic plan to recruit and retain a robust and long-term medical staff.

Our veterans have given so much for our country at exceptional costs, and they deserve access to timely and high-quality healthcare from skilled professionals. I am proud to join Ranking Member Kuster from our Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee in supporting this bipartisan legislation on behalf of our Nation's veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support the bill, H.R. 3262.