
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[Laws in effect as of January 23, 2000]
[Document affected by Public Law 107-135 Section 203]
[Document affected by Public Law 107-95 Section 8(a)]
[CITE: 38USC1706]

 
                      TITLE 38--VETERANS' BENEFITS
 
                        PART II--GENERAL BENEFITS
 
    CHAPTER 17--HOSPITAL, NURSING HOME, DOMICILIARY, AND MEDICAL CARE
 
                          SUBCHAPTER I--GENERAL
 
Sec. 1706. Management of health care: other requirements

    (a) In managing the provision of hospital care and medical services 
under section 1710(a) of this title, the Secretary shall, to the extent 
feasible, design, establish and manage health care programs in such a 
manner as to promote cost-effective delivery of health care services in 
the most clinically appropriate setting.
    (b)(1) In managing the provision of hospital care and medical 
services under such section, the Secretary shall ensure that the 
Department maintains its capacity to provide for the specialized 
treatment and rehabilitative needs of disabled veterans (including 
veterans with spinal cord dysfunction, blindness, amputations, and 
mental illness) within distinct programs or facilities of the Department 
that are dedicated to the specialized needs of those veterans in a 
manner that (A) affords those veterans reasonable access to care and 
services for those specialized needs, and (B) ensures that overall 
capacity of the Department to provide such services is not reduced below 
the capacity of the Department, nationwide, to provide those services, 
as of October 9, 1996. The Secretary shall carry out this paragraph in 
consultation with the Advisory Committee on Prosthetics and Special 
Disabilities Programs and the Committee on Care of Severely Chronically 
Mentally Ill Veterans.
    (2) Not later than April 1, 1999, April 1, 2000, and April 1, 2001, 
the Secretary shall submit to the Committees on Veterans' Affairs of the 
Senate and House of Representatives a report on the Secretary's 
compliance, by facility and by service-network, with the requirements of 
this subsection.
    (3)(A) To ensure compliance with paragraph (1), the Under Secretary 
for Health shall prescribe objective standards of job performance for 
employees in positions described in subparagraph (B) with respect to the 
job performance of those employees in carrying out the requirements of 
paragraph (1). Those job performance standards shall include measures of 
workload, allocation of resources, and quality-of-care indicators.
    (B) Positions described in this subparagraph are positions in the 
Veterans Health Administration that have responsibility for allocating 
and managing resources applicable to the requirements of paragraph (1).
    (C) The Under Secretary shall develop the job performance standards 
under subparagraph (A) in consultation with the Advisory Committee on 
Prosthetics and Special Disabilities Programs and the Committee on Care 
of Severely Chronically Mentally Ill Veterans.

(Added Pub. L. 104-262, title I, Sec. 104(a)(1), Oct. 9, 1996, 110 Stat. 
3183; amended Pub. L. 105-368, title IX, Sec. 903(a), title X, 
Sec. 1005(b)(2), Nov. 11, 1998, 112 Stat. 3360, 3365.)


                               Amendments

    1998--Subsec. (b)(1). Pub. L. 105-368, Sec. 1005(b)(2), substituted 
``October 9, 1996'' for ``the date of the enactment of this section''.
    Subsec. (b)(2). Pub. L. 105-368, Sec. 903(a)(1), substituted ``April 
1, 1999, April 1, 2000, and April 1, 2001'' for ``April 1, 1997, April 
1, 1998, and April 1, 1999''.
    Subsec. (b)(3). Pub. L. 105-368, Sec. 903(a)(2), added par. (3).


                   Deadline for Prescribing Standards

    Pub. L. 105-368, title IX, Sec. 903(b), Nov. 11, 1998, 112 Stat. 
3361, provided that: ``The standards of job performance required by 
paragraph (3) of section 1706(b) of title 38, United States Code, as 
added by subsection (a), shall be prescribed not later than January 1, 
1999.''
