38 U.S.C. § 8151
Section 8151 · Statement of congressional purpose
Amended 6 times on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 533 F. Supp. 2d 449 - Gibbons v. Fronton (2008)
Most recently applied in 111 F. Supp. 3d 745 - Blankenship v. United States (May 2015)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
It is the purpose of this subchapter to strengthen the medical programs at Department facilities and improve the quality of health care provided veterans under this title by authorizing the Secretary to enter into agreements with health-care providers in order to share health-care resources with, and receive health-care resources from, such providers while ensuring no diminution of services to veterans.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1996—Pub. L. 104–262 amended section generally. Prior to amendment, section read as follows: “It is the purpose of this subchapter to improve the quality of hospital care and other medical service provided veterans under this title, by authorizing the Secretary to enter into agreements with medical schools, health-care facilities, and research centers throughout the country in order to receive from and share with such medical schools, health-care facilities, and research centers the most advanced medical techniques and information, as well as certain specialized medical resources which otherwise might not be feasibly available or to effectively utilize other medical resources with the surrounding medical community, without diminution of services to veterans. Among other things, it is intended, by these means, to strengthen the medical programs at those Department hospitals which are located in small cities or rural areas and thus are remote from major medical centers. It is further the purpose of this subchapter to improve the provision of care to veterans under this title by authorizing the Secretary to enter into agreements with State veterans facilities for the sharing of health-care resources.”
1993—Pub. L. 103–210 inserted at end “It is further the purpose of this subchapter to improve the provision of care to veterans under this title by authorizing the Secretary to enter into agreements with State veterans facilities for the sharing of health-care resources.”
1991—Pub. L. 102–40 renumbered section 5051 of this title as this section.
Pub. L. 102–83 substituted “Secretary” for “Administrator” and “Department” for “Veterans’ Administration”.
1990—Pub. L. 101–366 substituted “health-care facilities,” for “hospitals,” in two places.