HR-5842 : Still Just a Bill

Helping Our Veterans with Chronic Pain and Opioid Addiction Act of 2016

This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to conduct a three-year pilot program to provide health and social services and coordination of care and case management to covered veterans in need of treatment for opioid addiction and chronic pain through VA facilities and through qualified non-VA health care providers.

A "covered veteran" is a veteran who is enrolled in the veterans' health care system and eligible for hospital, nursing home, and domiciliary care under such system.

The pilot program shall be carried out in at least five different states with VA medical facilities that demonstrate: (1) the need for additional resources to provide health care services to veterans for opioid abuse, (2) the highest rates per capita of opioid addiction in the United States, and (3) a lack of sufficient VA capacity to meet the demand for such treatment.

Under such program, the VA: (1) may enter into contracts with non-VA providers to provide health care services to veterans,  and (2) shall provide for the exchange of medical information between the VA and any such provider.

The VA shall conduct concurrent assessments of its capabilities and the capabilities of community providers to provide health care services for the treatment of veterans with opioid dependency abuse or chronic pain.

The VA shall: (1) require all appropriate VA health care facilities and all VA facilities providing mental health and social services to veterans to have a supply of naloxone or other medication for reversing opioid overdose, and (2) ensure that all appropriate employees at such facilities receive training on the administration of such medication.