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H.R. 5600, No Hero Left Untreated Act 1 (October 13, 2016)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo3263 and id is 1 raw text is: 




                  CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
                             COST ESTIMATE

                                                                 October 13, 2016


                                  H.R. 5600
                         No Hero Left Untreated Act

          As ordered reported by the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs
                              on September 21, 2016


H.R. 5600 would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish a one-year
pilot program to treat a limited number of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder,
traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, chronic pain, or opiate addiction by using
Magnetic eResonance Therapy technology (MeRT technology). The bill also would
require VA to report to the Congress on the results of that pilot program. MeRT technology
is a customized neurological treatment that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate brain tissue.
The Brain Treatment Center (BTC) in Southern California developed the MeRT
technology and has proprietary rights to the treatment. Over the 2012-2015 period, the
center has treated more than 400 veterans at four locations in the state of California and the
state of Washington.

Under this proposal, VA would be required to carry out the one-year pilot program with no
more than 50 veterans in one or two medical facilities. Because the technologuy is
proprietary, we expect that VA would contract with BTC to provide MeRT technology to
those veterans. On the basis of information from BTC, CBO expects the average patient at
VA would undergo an initial assessment at a cost of $1,000 and at least 20 MeRT sessions
over a 30-day period at a cost of $22,000.
On that basis, CBO estimates that implementing this bill would cost $1 million over the
2017-2021 period; that spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

Enacting the legislation would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore,
pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 5600 would not
increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year
periods beginning in 2027.

H.R. 5600 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal
governments.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Ann E. Futrell. The estimate was approved by
H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.

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