S. 221: Department of Veterans Affairs Provider Accountability Act

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S. 221: Department of Veterans Affairs Provider Accountability Act

116th Congress · introduced 2019-01-24 · Armed Forces and National Security · Latest: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

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Official title

Department of Veterans Affairs Provider Accountability Act

Plain summary

Department of Veterans Affairs Provider Accountability Act The bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to transmit specified information to the National Practitioner Data Bank and the applicable state licensing board when the VA brings a covered major adverse action against certain appointed VA medical employees. A covered major adverse action is an action originating from circumstances in which the behavior of the employee so substantially failed to meet clinical practice standards that it raised reasonable concern for the safety of patients. The bill requires the VA to transmit the employee's name and the description of and reason for the covered major adverse action. The VA must also update its credentialing system with a record of covered major adverse actions taken and an indication that information was transmitted as required. The VA shall enroll certain appointed VA medical employees into a continuous query of their record within the National Practitioner Data Bank and shall implement a mechanism for maintaining and updating the information collected through such query to facilitate the sharing of information between Veterans Integrated Service Networks. The VA may not enter into a settlement agreement relating to an adverse action by certain appointed VA medical employees under which it would be required to conceal a serious medical error or lapse in generally accepted standards of clinical practice. Such provision shall not apply to a negative record if the VA Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection and the Office of Special Counsel jointly certify that the negative record is not legitimate. The bill requires the VA to provide mandatory training to all health staff who handle hiring, privileging, and credentialing, regarding all policies of the VA on credentialing, privileging, and when and how to report adverse actions to the relevant entities.

Congressional Research Service summary (Passed Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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Alternatives

Needs sources: no published alternatives yet (for example a different bill, a law instead of an amendment, or keeping current law). We only show items backed by a published source. Suggest one.

How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes

Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Gardner, Cory [R-CO] · 5 cosponsors

Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.

Cosponsors on this site

Jerry Moran (R-KS), Susan M. Collins (R-ME), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Steve Daines (R-MT)

Agencies named in this bill

• Department of Veterans Affairs: its federal spending and other bills that name it

Found automatically: the agency's full official name appears in the bill title. A bill can affect agencies it does not name, so this list may be incomplete.

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Sources

• Congressional Research Service summary (Passed Senate)
• Congress.gov
• Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-116s221.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/116/s>

Record fed-us-cong116-s221 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong116 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong116