Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 116 Part 4.djvu/163

 PUBLIC LAW 107-314—DEC. 2, 2002 116 STAT. 2591 of improving the access to, and quality and cost effectiveness of, the health care provided by the Veterans Health Administration and the Military Health System to the beneficiaries of both Departments. "(C) Identify and assess further opportunities for the coordination and sharing of health care resources between the Departments that, in the judgment of the Committee, would not adversely affect the range of services, the quality of care, or the established priorities for care provided by either Department. "(D) Review the plans of both Departments for the acquisition of additional health care resources, especially new facilities and major equipment and technology, in order to assess the potential effect of such plans on further opportunities for the coordination and sharing of health care resources. "(E) Review the implementation of activities designed to promote the coordination and sharing of health care resources between the Departments. "(6) The Committee chairman, under procedures jointly developed by the two Secretaries, may require the Inspector General of either or both Departments to assist in activities under paragraph (5)(E). "(d) JOINT INCENTIVES PROGRAM. — (1) Pursuant to subsection (b)(4), the two Secretaries shall carry out a program to identify, provide incentives to, implement, fund, and evaluate creative coordination and sharing initiatives at the facility, intraregional, and nationwide levels. The program shall be administered by the Committee established in subsection (c), under procedures jointly prescribed by the two Secretaries. "(2) To facilitate the incentive program, effective October 1, Effective date. 2003, there is established in the Treasury a fund to be known as the 'DOD-VA Health Care Sharing Incentive Fund'. Each Secretary shall annually contribute to the fund a minimum of $15,000,000 from the funds appropriated to that Secretary's Department. Such funds shall remain available until expended. "(3)(A) For each fiscal year during which the program under this subsection is in effect, the Comptroller General shall conduct a review of the implementation and effectiveness of the incentives program under this subsection. Upon completion of each such annual review, the Comptroller General shall submit to the Committees on Armed Services and Veterans' Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives a report on the results of that review. Each such report shall be submitted not later than February 28 of the year following the fiscal year covered by the report. In addition, the Comptroller General shall conduct such a review during the first five months of fiscal year 2004 and, not later than February 28, 2004, shall submit to those committees a report on the implementation and effectiveness of the incentives program under this subsection to that date. "(B) Each report under this paragraph shall describe activities carried out under the program under this subsection during the preceding fiscal year (or, in the case of the first such report, to the date of the submission of the report). Each report shall include at least the following: "(i) An analysis of the initiatives funded by the Committee, and the funds so expended by such initiatives, from the DOD- VA Health Care Sharing Incentive Fund, including the purposes Reports. Deadline. Deadline. Reports.

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