Women Veterans Access to Quality Care Act of 2015
The source supplies the latest action, but no lifecycle stage.
Latest action (19 Mar 2015): Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
What this bill does
H.R. 1356, the Women Veterans Access to Quality Care Act of 2015, would direct the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to take several steps aimed at improving health care for women veterans. It would require the VA to set structural standards ensuring medical facilities can meet gender-specific needs, including privacy, safety, and dignity, and to factor these standards into how the VA prioritizes funding for major facility projects and leases. The bill would also require the VA to use women veterans' health outcomes in evaluating medical center directors and to publicly post facility-level health outcome data comparing men and women. It would mandate a full-time obstetrician or gynecologist at every VA medical center, along with a pilot program to expand related residency positions, and would set up procedures for sharing certain veteran contact and service information with state veterans agencies, with an opt-out option.
The bill would primarily affect women veterans seeking VA health care, VA medical center staff and directors, and state and county veterans service offices that assist with benefits. It would also require a Government Accountability Office (Comptroller General) report examining how well VA medical centers currently meet women veterans' health needs.
The bill was introduced on March 13, 2015, by Rep. Mike Coffman and referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. It did not receive a vote and did not advance further in the 114th Congress.
Plain-English summary generated by Bill100 AI from the official record. Always verify against the source below.
Official summary
Women Veterans Access to Quality Care Act of 2015
Directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to: (1) establish standards to ensure that all VA medical facilities have the structural characteristics necessary to adequately meet the gender-specific health care needs of veterans at such facilities, including privacy, safety, and dignity; (2) integrate such standards into its prioritization methodology with respect to requests for funding major medical facility projects and major medical facility leases; and (3) report on such standards, including regarding the facilities that fail to meet such standards and the costs of projects and leases required to meet them.
Requires the VA to: (1) use health outcomes for women veterans furnished health care by the the VA in evaluating the performance of VA medical center directors, (2) publish on its website information on such performance and on health outcomes for women veterans for each VA medical facility, (3) ensure that every VA medical center has a full-time obstetrician or gynecologist, and (4) carry out a pilot program to increase the number of residency program positions and graduate medical education positions for obstetricians and gynecologists at VA medical facilities in not less than three Veterans Integrated Service Networks.
Directs the VA to develop procedures to share information that includes military service and separation data, personal email addresses and telephone numbers, and mailing addresses of veterans with state veterans agencies in electronic format as a means of facilitating the furnishing of assistance and benefits to such veterans. Allows a veteran to elect to prevent their information from being shared.
Directs the Government Accountability Office to carry out an examination of whether VA medical centers are able to meet the health care needs of women veterans.
Timeline
19 Mar 2015
Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
Common questions
- What does H.R. 1356 do?
- H.R. 1356, the Women Veterans Access to Quality Care Act of 2015, would direct the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to take several steps aimed at improving health care for women veterans. It would require the VA to set structural standards ensuring medical facilities can meet gender-specific needs, including privacy, safety, and dignity, and to factor these standards into how the VA prioritizes funding for major facility projects and leases. The bill would also require the VA to use women veterans' health outcomes in evaluating medical center directors and to publicly post facility-level health outcome data comparing men and women. It would mandate a full-time obstetrician or gynecologist at every VA medical center, along with a pilot program to expand related residency positions, and would set up procedures for sharing certain veteran contact and service information with state veterans agencies, with an opt-out option. The bill would primarily affect women veterans seeking VA health care, VA medical center staff and directors, and state and county veterans service offices that assist with benefits. It would also require a Government Accountability Office (Comptroller General) report examining how well VA medical centers currently meet women veterans' health needs. The bill was introduced on March 13, 2015, by Rep. Mike Coffman and referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. It did not receive a vote and did not advance further in the 114th Congress.
- Has H.R. 1356 become law?
- The source does not supply a confirmed lifecycle stage for H.R. 1356. Check the latest action and official source below.
- Who sponsored H.R. 1356?
- H.R. 1356 was sponsored by Rep. Coffman, Mike [R-CO-6] (R-CO), with 104 cosponsors.
- What's the latest action on H.R. 1356?
- Referred to the Subcommittee on Health. (19 Mar 2015).
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