HR 2623
Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act of 2025
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Bill overview
This bill, the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act of 2025, directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish up to five specialized centers of excellence across its medical facilities. These centers will focus on delivering innovative therapies for specific mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, and substance use disorders. The bill establishes a rigorous process for designating these centers, including a peer review panel to assess proposals and requires the VA to regularly report on their activities and findings.
Key provisions
- Designates up to five VA medical facilities as ‘Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence.’
- Establishes a peer review panel to evaluate proposals for center designation.
- Requires centers to have arrangements with accredited medical schools and schools of psychiatry/social work.
- Mandates the development of advisory committees with veteran and medical representatives.
- Sets requirements for data collection and evaluation capabilities.
- Authorizes the development of a national consortium of providers for innovative therapies.
- Defines ‘covered conditions’ as anxiety, bipolar disorder, chronic pain, depression, Parkinson’s disease, PTSD, and substance use disorder, with the Under Secretary having authority to add others.
- Defines ‘innovative therapies’ as specific substances (e.g., Ketamine, Psilocybin) and other therapies designated by the Under Secretary.
Who is affected
- Veterans
- Department of Veterans Affairs
Sponsors
Official sponsors from legislative records.
Primary sponsor
Cosponsors
Aumua Amata Coleman [R-AS-At Large] Radewagen
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119th CONGRESS — 1st Session
H. R. 2623
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to designate medical facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs as innovative therapies centers of excellence, and for other purposes.
This Act may be cited as the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act of 2025
.
The Secretary, upon the recommendation of the Under Secretary for Health, shall designate not less than five Department medical facilities as the locations for innovative therapies centers of excellence.
Subject to the availability of appropriations for such purpose, the Secretary shall establish and operate innovative therapies centers of excellence at the locations designated pursuant to paragraph (1).
The Secretary may not designate a Department medical facility as a location for a center under subsection (a) unless the peer review panel established under subsection (d) has determined under that subsection that the proposal submitted by such facility as a location for a new center under subsection (a) is among those proposals that meet the highest competitive standards of scientific and clinical merit.
The Secretary may not designate a Department medical facility as a location for a center under subsection (a) unless the Secretary, upon the recommendation of the Under Secretary for Health, determines that the facility has, or may reasonably be anticipated to develop, each of the following:
An arrangement with an—
accredited medical school that provides education and training in innovative therapies and with which the Department medical facility is affiliated under which residents receive education and training in use of innovative therapies to treat covered conditions;
an accredited school of social work.
The ability to attract the participation of scientists who are capable of ingenuity and creativity in medical research efforts.
An advisory committee composed of veterans and appropriate medical and research representatives of the Department medical facility and of the affiliated school or schools to advise the directors of such facility and such center on policy matters pertaining to the activities of the center during the period of the operation of such center.
The capability to conduct effectively evaluations of the activities of such center.
The capability to coordinate (as part of an integrated national system) education, clinical, and research activities within all facilities with such centers.
The capability to jointly develop a consortium of providers with interest in treating covered conditions with innovative therapies at Department facilities without such centers in order to ensure better access to state-of-the-art diagnosis, care, and education for innovative therapies throughout the medical system of the Department.
The capability to develop a national repository in the medical system of the Department for the collection of data on health services delivered to veterans seeking innovative therapies.
The Under Secretary for Health shall establish a panel to assess the scientific and clinical merit of proposals that are submitted to the Secretary for the establishment of centers under this section.
The membership of the panel shall consist of experts in innovative therapies.
Members of the panel shall serve for a period of no longer than two years, except as specified in subparagraph (C).
Of the members first appointed to the panel, one half shall be appointed for a period of three years and one half shall be appointed for a period of two years, as designated by the Under Secretary at the time of appointment.
The panel shall review each proposal submitted to the panel by the Under Secretary and shall submit its views on the relative scientific and clinical merit of each such proposal to the Under Secretary.
The panel shall not be subject to chapter 10 of title 5.
Not later than two years after the date of the enactment of this section, and annually thereafter, the Under Secretary of Health shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives a report on the activities of the centers of excellence designated under this section during the period covered by the report. Each such report shall include—
an identification of key findings made at such centers during such period;
recommendations to improve the delivery of innovative therapies to veterans; and
such other matters as the Under Secretary determines relevant.
There are authorized to be appropriated $30,000,000 for each fiscal year for the support of the research and education activities of the centers established pursuant to subsection (a). The Under Secretary for Health shall allocate to such centers from other funds appropriated generally for the Department medical services account and medical and prosthetics research account, as appropriate, such amounts as the Under Secretary for Health determines appropriate.
In this section;
covered conditionmeans any of the following:
Anxiety.
Bipolar disorder.
Chronic pain.
Depression.
Parkinson’s disease.
Substance use disorder.
Such other conditions as may be designated by the Under Secretary.
The term innovative therapy
means any of the following:
5-Methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine.
Ibogaine.
Ketamine.
Psilocybin.
Such other therapies as may be designated by the Under Secretary.
The table of sections at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 7330D the following new item: