A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to develop a pilot program in cumberland county to provide health care services to veterans.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.(a)  Pilot Program. – The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, in coordination with Community Care of North Carolina and Maxim Healthcare Services, shall develop and implement a two‑year pilot program in Cumberland County to provide health care services to veterans. The pilot program shall consist of the following initiatives:
(1)	A health care initiative to provide to veterans increased access to health care resources through the care coordination efforts of community health workers.
(2)	A workforce initiative to recruit and train unemployed and underemployed veterans as community health workers for the health care initiative described in subdivision (1) of this section.
SECTION 1.(b)  Termination. – The pilot program authorized by this section shall terminate on June 30, 2019.
SECTION 1.(c)  Evaluation. – By February 1, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services shall conduct and submit to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services a comprehensive evaluation of the pilot program authorized by this section. The comprehensive evaluation shall include at least all of the following:
(1)	The specific ways in which the pilot program's health care initiative provided to veterans increased access to health care resources.
(2)	The total number of unemployed and underemployed veterans who were recruited and trained as community health workers under the pilot program's workforce initiative.
(3)	The specific ways in which the Department of Health and Human Services spent the funds appropriated under Section 2 of this act.
SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services the sum of four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2017‑2018 fiscal year and the sum of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2018‑2019 fiscal year to support the development and implementation of the pilot program authorized by Section 1 of this act.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2017.