Department of Veterans Affairs Emergency Medical Staffing Recruitment and Retention Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H.R. 4150, as amended, introduced by my very good friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Ruiz). This legislation will improve the recruitment and retention of medical professionals at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
H.R. 4150, as amended, allows the VA to arrange flexible physician work schedules to allow for the staffing and full implementation of a hospitalist physician system and to accommodate the unusual work schedule requirements for emergency medicine physicians. We all recognize the need for flexibility when working the rigorous and irregular hours that are routinely required of emergency medicine doctors. Giving the VA the ability to have flexible working hours that best suit the demand for delivering health care to the veterans who rely on those doctors just makes sense.
The current 80-hour, biweekly pay period limitation for these doctors creates challenges at the VA medical centers to adequately and sensibly staff the emergency rooms. Generally, most healthcare providers work a traditional 40-hour workweek. However, for hospitalists and emergency room physicians, they may need to work more than that in a week to provide safe, quality health care to veterans who seek services at the VA.
Ensuring access to care for veterans has been a major focus of this committee's, and this bill will help to eliminate the access barrier and provide a more efficient and effective way to ensure that the emergency rooms across the VA healthcare system are ready to take care of our veterans. Importantly, the bill also includes protections for physicians by requiring their consent before they can move to the flexible schedule.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. Speaker, before I close, I want to just add how proud I am that we got this bill over the finish line, working together with the majority, working together with the stakeholders. I want to give special words of gratitude to the staff in my office and the staff on the Veterans' Affairs Committee for working extra hours to get this bill done.
This makes enormous sense to do, and it should have been done sooner, but I am very glad we could get it done in this Congress. I look very much forward to working with Dr. Roe in the next Congress to do similar bills and bills of greater magnitude in the future. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this legislation. I urge my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 4150, as amended.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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