I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1860
To designate Regional Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Care Coordinators
to expand the work of the Breast and Gynecologic Oncology System
of Excellence at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH5, 2025
Ms. G
ARCIAof Texas (for herself and Ms. BROWNLEY) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To designate Regional Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Care
Coordinators to expand the work of the Breast and
Gynecologic Oncology System of Excellence at the De-
partment of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Women Veterans Can-4
cer Care Coordination Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS REGIONAL 1
BREAST CANCER AND GYNECOLOGIC CAN-2
CER CARE COORDINATORS. 3
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than one year after 4
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 5
Veterans Affairs shall hire or designate a Regional Breast 6
Cancer and Gynecologic Cancer Care Coordinator at each 7
Veteran Integrated Services Network (hereinafter in this 8
section referred to as ‘‘VISN’’). Each Care Coordinator 9
hired or designated under this subsection shall report di-10
rectly to the Director of the Breast and Gynecologic On-11
cology System of Excellence (hereinafter in this section re-12
ferred to as the ‘‘BGOSoE’’). 13
(b) E
LIGIBLEVETERANS.—A veteran is eligible to re-14
ceive care coordination provided by a Care Coordinator 15
hired or designated under subsection (a) if the veteran— 16
(1) is diagnosed with a breast or gynecologic 17
cancer, or has been identified as having a 18
precancerous breast or gynecologic condition; and 19
(2) is eligible for health care furnished through 20
the Veterans Community Care Program under sec-21
tion 1703 of title 38, United States Code, at a non- 22
Department facility. 23
(c) L
OCATIONS.—The Secretary shall establish re-24
gions for purposes of care coordination provided by Re-25
gional Breast Cancer and Gynecologic Cancer Care Coor-26
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dinators hired or designated under subsection (a). In es-1
tablishing such regions, the Secretary shall— 2
(1) assign all Department facilities to an appro-3
priate region under the supervision of the BGOSoE 4
Director and a designated Regional Breast and 5
Gynecologic Cancer Care Coordinator; and 6
(2) take into account existing VISNs and the 7
specific needs of veterans in each region, including 8
veterans living in rural communities. 9
(d) D
UTIES OFREGIONALBREAST ANDGYNECO-10
LOGICALCANCERCARECOORDINATORS.—The Regional 11
Breast Cancer and Gynecologic Cancer Care Coordinator 12
hired or designated under subsection (a) shall be respon-13
sible for carrying out the following duties: 14
(1) Ensuring the coordination of care between 15
clinicians of the Department and breast and 16
gynecologic cancer community care providers. 17
(2) Working with the Office of Community Care 18
of the relevant medical facility of the Department re-19
garding care furnished under such section. 20
(3) Making regular contact with each veteran 21
based on the veteran’s specific medical needs when 22
the veteran receives care from a community care 23
provider. 24
(4) Monitoring— 25
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(A) the services furnished to veterans by 1
the Department and community care providers; 2
(B) the health outcomes of veterans with 3
respect to a cancer diagnosis, including remis-4
sion, metastasis, and death; and 5
(C) the data relating to breast and 6
gynecologic cancer care (using relevant data-7
bases of the Veterans Health Administration or 8
other Department databases), including— 9
(i) the demographics of veterans who 10
have breast or gynecologic cancer; and 11
(ii) the number of veterans being 12
treated for breast or gynecologic cancer. 13
(5) Providing particular information to veterans 14
with breast or gynecologic cancer, including— 15
(A) how to seek emergency care at the 16
emergency department closest to the residence 17
of the veteran, including that it is generally ad-18
visable for veterans to notify the Department of 19
emergency care received at a non-Department 20
facility within 72 hours of receiving care to fa-21
cilitate the authorization of payments for such 22
emergency treatment; and 23
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(B) information about mental health re-1
sources, including with respect to information 2
encouraging follow-up care for depression. 3
(6) Documenting certain information on vet-4
erans receiving care for breast or gynecologic care in 5
the electronic health records of the Department, in-6
cluding— 7
(A) the documentation of the contact de-8
scribed in paragraph (3); 9
(B) the contact information of the breast 10
or gynecologic cancer care community care pro-11
viders of such veterans; and 12
(C) the breast or gynecologic cancer diag-13
nosis of veterans. 14
(7) Carrying out such other duties as may be 15
determined appropriate by the Secretary. 16
(e) R
EPORT.—Not later than three years after the 17
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall sub-18
mit to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate 19
and the House of Representatives a report containing the 20
following: 21
(1) A comparison of the health outcomes of vet-22
erans who received cancer care at a Department fa-23
cility and those who received care furnished by non- 24
Department medical providers pursuant to section 25
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1703 of title 38, United States Code, include with 1
respect to the following: 2
(A) Treatment and types of health out-3
comes, including (for the most recent three 4
years of available data)— 5
(i) the number of veterans who were 6
diagnosed with a breast or gynecologic can-7
cer, or precancerous breast or gynecologic 8
condition; 9
(ii) the percentage of such veterans 10
who have experienced a cancer-related 11
death; and 12
(iii) the percentage of such veterans 13
who have entered remission for gynecologic 14
cancer. 15
(B) Timeliness of care furnished under 16
chapter 17 of title 38, United States Code, in-17
cluding how quickly initial post-diagnosis ap-18
pointments and appointments to develop a 19
treatment plan are scheduled and provided. 20
(C) Patient safety associated with such 21
care at Department facilities or community care 22
providers, including the number of errors in 23
medical care that rise to the level of ‘‘never 24
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events’’ (such as a foreign body left in a veteran 1
during surgery). 2
(2) An evaluation of what changes or additional 3
resources are needed to further improve breast and 4
gynecologic cancer care and coordination. 5
(3) Any other matter the Secretary determines 6
appropriate. 7
(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
(1) The term ‘‘community care provider’’ means 9
a health care provider described in section 1703(c) 10
of title 38, United States Code, who has entered into 11
a contract or agreement to furnish hospital care, 12
medical services, or extended care services (other 13
than care related to breast and gynecologic cancer) 14
to veterans under section 1703 of title 38, United 15
States Code. 16
(2) The term ‘‘breast and gynecologic cancer 17
community care provider’’ means a breast or 18
gynecologic cancer care provider described in section 19
1703(c) of title 38, United States Code, who has en-20
tered into a contract or agreement to furnish hos-21
pital care, medical services, or extended care services 22
to provide care related to breast or gynecologic can-23
cer to veterans under section 1703 of title 38F, 24
United States Code. 25
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(3) The term ‘‘breast cancer’’ has the meaning 1
given such term by the Director of the Breast and 2
Gynecologic Oncology System of Excellence. 3
(4) The term ‘‘gynecologic cancer’’ means cer-4
vical cancer, ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, vaginal 5
cancer, vulvar cancer, and gestational trophoblastic 6
neoplasia. 7
(5) The term ‘‘non-Department facility’’ has 8
the meaning given that term in section 1701 of title 9
38, United States Code. 10
Æ
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