Pub. L. 94-581, tit. I, sec. 117

Sec. 117. (a) The Chief Medical Director of the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the Veterans’ Administration shall carry out or provide for a study to determine the short-range and long-range direction of the hospital and medical program carried out under title 38, United States Code, for eligible veterans and persons with inference to the increasing average age of the eligible veteran population. Not later than twelve months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Chief Medical Director, through the Administrator of Veterans’ Affairs, shall submit to the appropriate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the House of Representatives a report on the results of such study, including, but not limited to, specific plans for— (1) adjusting the number of Veterans’ Administration hospital, nursing home, intermediate care, and domiciliary beds; (2) adjusting the program for contracting for such nursing home care (including intermediate and personal care) in community facilities; (3) expanding alternatives to institutional care, including provision of home health (including homemaker and special nutrition) services; (4) emphasizing treatment programs particularly suited to meeting the health care needs of an aging population ; (5) emphasizing education and training of health care personnel specializing in the treatment of elderly persons and diseases and infirmities characteristic of an aging population; (6) emphasizing biomedical and health services research designed to ameliorate geriatric care problems; and (7) meeting the special architectural, transportation, and environmental needs of an aging population. 90 STAT. 2855 (b) Not later than ninety days after the effective date of this Act, the Administrator shall take all appropriate steps to ensure that, to the maximum extent feasible, each individual eligible for new or expanded care and services as a result of the amendments made by this Act is personally notified, in a clear and simple manner, about such new or expanded eligibility and the way to secure such care and services, and shall send copies of all such notification forms to the appropriate committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate, along with a description of how such forms were distributed.