Veterans Health Care and Programs Improvement Act of 1983

(Measure indefinitely postponed in Senate, H.R. 2920 passed in lieu)

Veterans' Health Care and Programs Improvement Act of 1983 - Title I: Veterans Administration Health Care Programs - Authorizes the Administrator of Veterans Affairs to conduct a pilot program of adult day health care for eligible veterans. Limits the expense of the United States to six months of care, except as specified. Permits such care only if it would be cheaper than providing nursing home care. Permits the Veterans Administration (VA) to provide in kind assistance rather than financial compensation to facilities providing adult day health care.

Permits the Administrator to establish adult day health care programs at four geographically disparate Administration facilities. Directs the Administrator to study the medical efficacy and cost effectiveness of such care. Terminates such program at the end of FY 1987. Requires the Administrator to include descriptions of the activities carried out under this program in each annual report to Congress.

Extends for another year, through FY 1985, the period during which Vietnam-era veterans may request psychological readjustment counseling from the Veterans Administration.

Directs the Administrator of Veterans Affairs to conduct a comprehensive study of the readjustment of Vietnam-era veterans to civilian life. Requires that such study include a nationwide survey of the prevalence and incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder and related readjustment problems among such veterans and a survey of their health status in relation to that of the general population.

Directs the Administrator to report to Congress on such study by March 1, 1985.

Extends the preventive health-care services program through FY 1988.

Authorizes the Administrator to reimburse eligible veterans for reasonable charges for chiropractic services. Directs the Administrator to establish a schedule of reasonable charges. Requires the Administrator to make annual reports to the Veterans Affairs Committees for four years concerning the use and reimbursement of chiropractic services.

Authorizes the Administrator to refer veterans eligible for hospital, nursing home, domiciliary, and medical care through the Veterans Administration to community residential facilities. Makes each veteran responsible for the cost of care and services provided by such facilities. Directs the Administrator to promulgate regulations regarding such facilities to ensure the health and safety of placed veterans. Requires the Administrator's approval of a facility before placement assistance is provided..

Increases the amount of reimbursement which the Administrator shall pay to a State for furnishing domiciliary, hospital, or nursing home care to eligible veterans who receive such care in State facilities.

Extends from FY 1983 to 1984 the authority of the Administrator to contract for hospital care or medical services in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands without reference to patient loads or incidence of provision of medical services for veterans treated by the Veterans Administration in the contiguous 48 States. Directs the Administrator to report to the Veterans' Affairs Committees on how the health care needs of veterans in such territories are being met, particularly taking into account the VA's "Report of Special Audit, Veterans Administration Medical and Regional Office Center, San Juan Puerto Rico."

Directs the Administrator to prescribe regulations restricting payments for travel expenses to nonbeneficiaries of medical care at VA facilities, in order to achieve compliance with the Veterans' Health Care and Programs Improvement Act of 1983. Limits the funds which may be obligated for such purpose in FY 1984.

Establishes minimum levels of obligation for the provision of nursing home care, adult day health care and preventive health care services. Requires that any excess monies from the travel expenses obligations be redirected into such or other programs. Directs the Administrator to report to the Veterans' Affairs Committees on the amounts estimated, requested, and obligated for travel expenses, adult day health care, and preventive health care.

Requires the Comptroller General to make determinations and report to such Committees on the extent to which obligations for such purposes under such provisions outrun appropriations. States that if obligations under the travel expenses provisions do not outrun appropriations to a specified extent, then restrictions on travel expenses will lose effect. States that if the Administrator is unable to comply with the travel expenses provisions without diverting funds intended for another purpose, then certain of those provisions shall lose effect as if repealed. Requires the Administrator and the Comprtroller to report to the Committees on compliance and the degreee to which actual obligations matched estimated expenditures.

Title II: Provisions to Improve the Recruitment and Retention of Certain Personnel - Permits the Administrator to appoint licensed practical or vocational nurses, physical therapists, and certified or registered respiratory therapist for the medical care of veterans. Requires such personnel to have such medical scientific, or technical qualifications as the Administrator shall prescribe.

Sets forth the period of appointments and the probationary period for such personnel. Establishes wage scales and other terms and conditions of employment. Permits the Administrator to pay such personnel additional pay if necessary to obtain and retain their services. Requires the Administrator and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to submit a joint report to the Veterans' Affairs Committees concerning the conversion of selected health care occupations to title 38 (Veterans), U.S. Code.

Requires the Administrator to report to such Committees by the end of FY 1985 on efforts to develop programs of education and training for career advancement for para-professionals employed in the Department of Medicine and Surgery.

Title III: Women Veterans - Directs the Administrator to establish an Advisory Committee on Women Veterans to advise the Administrator on the administration of benefits for and needs of women veterans. Directs Committee to report annually to the Administrator on the activities of the Veterans Administration pertaining to women, together with assessments of needs and recommendations for future action. Directs the Administrator to submit such report to Congress.

Makes women veterans eligible through FY 1989 for outpatient treatment at private facilities for medical conditions relating to gender. Directs the Administrator to include in the VA budget justification for FY 1985-1989 a report to the appropriate congressional committees on the extent to which such treatment was provided. Requires the Administrator to report to the Veterans' Affairs Committees by the end of FY 1988 as to whether or not such authority should be extended.

Title IV: Presumption Concerning Dysthymic Disorder - Creates a presumption of service- connection for disability purposes for dysthymic disorder (or depressive neurosis) manifest to a degree of ten percent or more in a veteran who is a former prisoner of war.

Title V: Status and Role of Administrator of Veterans Affairs - Expresses the sense of Congress that the Administrator should be made a fully participating member of the Cabinet.

Title VI: Radiation Exposure Study and Guide - Directs the Administrator to provide for an epidemiological study of the long-term adverse health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation from the detonation of a nuclear device, either in connection with a test or with the American occupation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, following World War II. Requires the Director of the Office of Technology Assessment to monitor the development of protocols for and the conduct of such study and report to Congress on such at fixed intervals.

Sets forth procedures and reporting requirements for different stages of the study and for any determinations concerning the feasibility of such a study.

Directs the Administrator to develop and publish within a year an indexed reference guide to provide VA personnel with information regarding the current state of medical and other scientific information on any long-term adverse health effects in humans of exposure to radiation. Requires the Administrator to submit such guide to Congress. Directs the Administrator to periodically review it. Directs the President to insure Federal coordination on radiation exposure research and to report to Congress on same.

Authorizes appropriations.

Title VII: Miscellaneous and Technical Amendments - Makes various technical amendments.