SENSE OF CONGRESS CONCERNING COOPERATION BETWEEN THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE IN THE PROCUREMENT OF MEDICAL ITEMS.

SEC. 223. SENSE OF CONGRESS CONCERNING COOPERATION BETWEEN THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE IN THE PROCUREMENT OF MEDICAL ITEMS. (a) Findings.—Congress makes the following findings: (1) The procurement and distribution of medical items, including prescription drugs, is a multibillion-dollar annual business for both the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. (2) Those departments prescribe common high-use drugs to many of their 12,000,000 patients who have similar medical profiles. (3) The health care systems of those departments should have management systems that can share and communicate clinical and management information useful for both systems. (4) The institutional barriers separating the two departments have begun to be overcome in the area of medical sup-plies, in part as a response to recommendations by the General Accounting Office and the Commission on Servicemembers and Veterans Transition Assistance. (5) There is significant potential for improved savings and services by improving cooperation between the two departments in the procurement and management of prescription drugs, while remaining mindful that the two departments have different missions. (b) Sense of Congress.—It is the sense of Congress that the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs should increase, to the maximum extent consistent with their respective missions, their level of cooperation in the procurement and management of prescription drugs.