Relating to veterans health care services

This bill relates to veterans health care services. The bill creates the position of veterans case manager within the department of veterans affairs. The veterans case manager shall be appointed by the executive director of the Iowa department of veterans affairs in consultation with the director of the department of inspections and appeals and the director of the department of health and human services, to assist veterans in obtaining the greatest degree of health care and health care benefits available and to promote policies that would benefit veterans seeking health care. The veterans case manager shall serve at the pleasure of, and report directly to, the executive director of the department of veterans affairs. The bill specifies the duties of a veterans case manager. The bill requires the department of inspections and appeals to adopt rules that require hospitals, upon identifying a person admitted to the hospital as a veteran, to contact the veterans case manager, assess whether the veteran is a danger to the veteran’s self or others, hold the veteran for hours if that person is experiencing or at risk of experiencing a mental health crisis, assess whether the veteran is a danger to the veteran’s self or others prior to discharging the veteran, and prevent the use of less or different care than nonveterans solely because of a person’s veteran status. The bill requires the department of inspections and appeals, in consultation with the department of veterans affairs, to adopt rules that provide that if a person is eligible for benefits through the United States department of veterans affairs or any other third-party payor, specifying that the payor of last resort for reimbursement to a hospital is the medical assistance program established in Code chapter 249A. The rules shall also require the hospital to request information from a person or a person’s personal representative regarding the person’s veteran status and to report to the veterans case manager only the names of persons identified as potential veterans along with the names of their spouses and any dependents. Information reported by the hospital shall be verified by the department. These rules shall not apply to the admission of a person for outpatient health services. The bill requires the department of inspections and appeals to adopt rules that require hospitals to collaborate with the veterans case manager to identify barriers veterans may face in obtaining prescription drug benefits, and require, upon the admission of a person eligible for benefits through the United States department of veterans affairs to a hospital, the hospital to cooperate with the veterans case manager to assess the extent for which the person is eligible for prescription drug benefits. The bill requires the board of medicine, board of dentistry, board of physician assistants, board of podiatry, and board of nursing to establish rules requiring a person licensed under those boards to receive continuing education credits regarding the treatment of veterans as a condition of license renewal. Each licensing board, in consultation with the veterans case manager, shall have the authority to determine how often a licensee must receive continuing education credits.