§7310A Annual reports on Women’s Health

Summary

The Chief Officer of Women’s Health must send a report to Congress by December 1 each year. The report must say what the Office did in the last fiscal year to improve health care for women veterans, list any problems found and the Department’s plan to fix them, describe the Office’s funding and staff and whether more are needed, and give other oversight information Congress might want. It must also analyze how easily women veterans can get gender-specific services from non‑Department providers under contracts. That analysis must include data such as the average wait time from a veteran’s preferred appointment date to the actual appointment, the average driving time to appointments, and why some appointments with outside providers could not be scheduled. The report must review how care is organized for women — whether at general primary care clinics, separate but shared spaces, or women’s health centers — and give counts of facilities in each model by Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) and State, the rules used to pick a model, how investment decisions are made, any plans to change models, and whether facilities could be changed under the Department’s strategic capital planning (including minor changes). It must give staffing data by VISN and State (and by facility for designated women’s providers): counts of women’s health centers, patient aligned care teams, full- and part-time gynecologists, designated women’s health care providers, providers who completed a mini-residency in the one-year period before the report and the number of mini-residency slots for the one-year period after the report, and how many designated providers have enough women patients to keep skills. It must assess wheelchair access at women’s health centers (including radiology and mammography and equipment needs), options to see women mental‑health and primary‑care providers, and clothing size options like gowns and pajamas. “Appropriate congressional committees” means the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations and Veterans’ Affairs. “Gender-specific services” means mammography, obstetric care, gynecological care, and any other services the Secretary adds.