Safeguarding VA’s Healthcare Workforce Act

Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall carry out a pilot program under which the Secretary may fill a vacant shift at a medical facility of the Department of Veterans Affairs with a non-Department health care provider.

To carry out the pilot program, the Secretary shall seek to enter into at least one agreement with an entity that employs or contracts with health care providers. Pursuant to such an agreement, the Secretary shall pay the entity a fixed rate for each shift filled by such entity under the pilot program.

The Secretary may not, under the pilot program, fill a vacant shift at a medical facility of the Department with a non-Department health care provider unless the number of vacant shifts at such facility reaches a minimum number or percentage prescribed by the Secretary.

The Secretary shall carry out the pilot program in medical facilities of not more than two Veterans Integrated Services Networks. In selecting a facility for the pilot program, the Secretary shall give preference to a facility—

(1) located in a rural area; or

(2) that historically has a high rate of vacant shifts.

To protect the privacy of a veteran who receives hospital care or medical services under the pilot program, the Secretary shall restrict the access, to medical records of the Department, of a provider who fills a vacant shift under the pilot program, to only such records of a veteran to whom such provider provides hospital care or medical services.

The Secretary shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives a report on the pilot program not later than—

(A) 21 months after the date on which the Secretary begins to carry out the pilot program; and

(B) 90 days after the date on which the pilot program terminates.

Each such report shall include the following elements:

(A) How frequently the Secretary filled a vacant shift under the pilot program.

(B) The medical specialties relating to vacant shifts that were most frequently filled under the pilot program.

(C) The number of veterans who received hospital care or medical services under the pilot program.

The pilot program shall terminate three years after the date on which the Secretary begins to carry out the pilot program.