Veterans Affairs Medical-Surgical Purchasing Stabilization Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5418) to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out the Medical Surgical Prime Vendor program using multiple prime vendors, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material into the Record on H.R. 5418, as amended.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5418, as amended, the Veterans Affairs Medical-Surgical Purchasing Stabilization Act. This legislation was introduced by General Bergman and is cosponsored by Representatives Peters, Banks, Dunn, and Kuster.

VA's medical-surgical prime vendor program is an ambitious effort to save money by establishing a medical-surgical formulary in leveraging the Department's massive buying power. Unfortunately, the results have fallen far short of expectations.

I held a hearing on this subject last December and continue to monitor it closely.

The formulary was originally created with little clinical input, and it does not contain what clinicians need.

Over the past year, physicians, surgeons, and nurses have been organized into teams to reevaluate the formulary. At one point, a group of clinicians was essentially put in a room for a week to concentrate on the task, but the formulary remains troubled.

Now, VA is restructuring the program to put the prime vendors in charge of negotiating the supplier contracts, but it remains crucial that VA get the formulary right. This is a matter of safety as well as finances.

H.R. 5418, as amended, would put clinicians with appropriate expertise back in charge of the formulary, which is the first step toward stabilizing the Medical-Surgical Prime Vendor Program.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5418, as amended, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), the Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee chairman.

Mr. Speaker, it is hard for me to believe we are going to pass a piece of legislation that has this much common sense in it.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5418, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5418, as amended. The Veterans Affairs Medical-Surgical Purchasing Stabilization Act ties into what we were just discussing.

For many years, we have heard complaints that the VA formulary did not meet the needs of VA healthcare providers, thus making the delivery of healthcare to our Nation's heroes even more challenging.

As VA worked toward a solution, the Government Accountability Office recommended that clinicians who treat veterans should be at the center of the decision making.

Involving clinicians at every step of building a medical supply formulary is the same best practice employed by other private sector and nonprofit hospitals.

We have got wonderful physicians on this committee. It makes sense that they should be there. I have heard it time and time again over the years that we get better results when we do that.

That is why this committee was concerned when VA proposed that it would outsource the development of its medical-surgical supply formulary to vendors who had no experience treating patients. This proposal goes against best practices in the private and nonprofit healthcare industry.

This legislation would prevent VA from outsourcing formulary development. It would also ensure VA follows best practices and sticks to a timeline so that VA facilities and vendors have a predictable, functional medical supply.

Now VA must demonstrate it is willing to put the right leadership and resources in place to appropriately manage the project and ensure the actual end users of the formulary, the clinicians treating veterans, have the supplies as needed.

Mr. Speaker, again, another good piece of legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this is a good piece of legislation, I support its passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, the Medical-Surgical Prime Vendor Program is VA's system of contracts to

purchase and distribute medical and surgical supplies.

VA attempted to create a centralized MSPV formulary to standardize the products its clinicians can buy as an idea to concentrate VA's buying power to extract savings from fewer suppliers.

But the formulary was developed with inadequate input from experienced clinicians, and as a result, it contains unwanted supplies while omitting necessary products.

Because of these problems, usage of MSPV has failed to meet its objectives, putting some of the prime vendors and suppliers under financial strain, and threatening the stability of the program.

H.R. 5418 preserves the MSPV's current structure, consisting of multiple regional prime vendors, and it prohibits a move to a single nationwide prime vendor.

The bill also requires that each VA employee making decisions related to the structure have medical expertise relevant to those items.

H.R. 5418 ensures medical professionals have the tools and resources they need to deliver world-class care to our veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this bill.