HR3767-119

What This Bill Does

The Health Professionals Scholarship Program Improvement Act changes how the Department of Veterans Affairs converts scholarship recipients into clinical employees. VA must ensure that each Health Professionals Scholarship Program participant receives a full-time clinical employment contract at a Department facility with the highest need, as determined by the Secretary, within 90 days after the later of program completion or independent licensure, certification, or credentialing. The employment contract must include competitive salary and benefits consistent with VA employment standards. VA must report to the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees within 180 days after enactment and every 180 days thereafter until September 30, 2027.

The bill also rewrites 38 U.S.C. 1715 to create a broad smoking prohibition on Veterans Health Administration premises. The ban covers veterans, patients, residents, VA employees, contractors, and visitors. It includes cigarettes, cigars, pipes, other tobacco combustion or heating, and electronic nicotine delivery systems such as e-cigarettes, vape pens, and e-cigars. Covered VHA facilities include VA medical centers, nursing homes, domiciliary facilities, outpatient clinics, and readjustment counseling centers under VA/VHA control and outside General Services Administration control.

Who Benefits and How

Health Professionals Scholarship Program participants benefit because VA must offer a timely clinical employment contract with competitive compensation after they complete training and obtain required credentials. Highest-need VA facilities benefit because the hiring commitment directs scholarship clinicians toward facilities VA identifies as having the greatest staffing need. Veterans receiving care at underserved VA facilities benefit if faster placement improves clinician availability. Veterans, patients, VA employees, contractors, and visitors at VHA facilities benefit from reduced exposure to tobacco smoke and vaping aerosols on VA premises.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Department of Veterans Affairs, VA human-resources staff, VA administrative staff, VA facility directors, Veterans Health Administration security staff, and Veterans Health Administration facility managers must comply with 90-day hiring timelines, prepare recurring reports, identify highest-need facilities, offer competitive salary and benefits packages, enforce the smoking restriction, and update facility practices. Veterans who smoke at VA facilities, patients who smoke at VA facilities, VA employees who smoke, tobacco product manufacturers, and vaping product manufacturers lose access or sales opportunities on VHA premises.

Key Provisions

• Requires VA to provide Health Professionals Scholarship Program participants a full-time clinical employment contract within 90 days after completion and licensure.
• Requires those contracts to be at highest-need VA facilities and include competitive salary and benefits.
• Requires VA implementation reports to House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees every 180 days until September 30, 2027.
• Prohibits smoking on premises of Veterans Health Administration facilities.
• Expands the smoking definition to include electronic nicotine delivery systems such as e-cigarettes, vape pens, and e-cigars.
• Repeals the older Veterans Health Care Act smoking provision and updates the title 38 table of sections.