Us Congress House Bill HB7091

Us Congress 2023-2024 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/25/24
• Refer: 1/25/24
• Refer: 1/26/24

Caption

Counting Veterans’ Cancer Act of 2024

Impact

The act is expected to improve health outcomes by ensuring that veterans diagnosed with cancer are accurately represented in state and national cancer statistics. This includes better tracking of cancer trends, aiding public health officials and researchers to tailor cancer education, screening programs, and treatment effectiveness evaluations. Greater access to comprehensive cancer data may also lead to improved health services planning and resource allocation for veteran-specific cancer care.

Summary

House Bill 7091, known as the 'Counting Veterans’ Cancer Act of 2024', aims to enhance the sharing of cancer-related data between facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and State cancer registries. The bill is prompted by findings indicating a significant number of cancer cases among veterans—approximately 26,500—were unreported to the National Program of Cancer Registries. By mandating the VA to provide comprehensive data regarding cancer diagnoses and treatments of veterans, the legislation seeks to close existing gaps in cancer data collection and improve cancer care for veterans.

Contention

One notable point of contention surrounding HB7091 is the compliance requirement placed on veterans' medical facilities, which may face operational challenges in implementing the data-sharing mandates. Concerns may arise over the need for timely reporting without necessitating cumbersome data use agreements, as well as potential privacy issues regarding the sharing of veterans' health information. Stakeholders will likely debate how to balance the need for expanded data collection with the operational realities of VA facilities.