Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 111 Part 2.djvu/659

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PUBLIC LAW 105-85 —NOV. 18, 1997 111 STAT. 1739 incentives for recruiters, in part, to the ability of a recruiter to screen out unqualified candidates before enlistment. (4) Require that the Secretary of each military department include as a measurement of recruiter performance the percentage of persons enlisted by a recruiter who complete initial combat training or basic training. (5) Assess trends in the number and use of waivers over the 1991-1997 period that were issued to permit applicants to enlist with medical or other conditions that would otherwise be disqualifying. (6) Require the Secretary of each military department to implement policies and procedures (A) to ensure the prompt separation of recruits who are unable to successfully complete basic training, and (B) to remove those recruits from the training environment while separation proceedings are pending. (c) REPORT. — Not later than March 31, 1998, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report of the trends assessed under subsection (b)(5). The information on those trends provided in the report shall be shown by armed force and by category of waiver. The report shall include recommendations of the Secretary for changing, revising, or limiting the use of waivers referred to in that subsection. SEC. 532. IMPROVEMENTS IN MEDICAL PRESCREENING OF APPLICANTS FOR MILITARY SERVICE. (a) IN GENERAL.— The Secretary of Defense shall improve the medical prescreening of applicants for entrance into the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps. (b) SPECIFIC STEPS. —As part of those improvements, the Secretary shall take the following steps: (1) Require that each applicant for service in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps (A) provide to the Secretary the name of the applicant's medical insurer and the names of past medical providers, and (B) sign a release allowing the Secretary to request and obtain medical records of the applicant. (2) Require that the forms and procedures for medical prescreening of applicants that are used by recruiters and by Military Entrance Processing Commands be revised so as to ensure that medical questions are specific, unambiguous, and tied directly to the types of medical separations most common for recruits during basic training and follow-on training. (3) Add medical screening tests to the examinations of recruits carried out by Military Entrance Processing Stations, provide more thorough medical examinations to selected groups of applicants, or both, to the extent that the Secretary determines that to do so could be cost effective in reducing attrition at basic training. (4) Provide for an annual quality control assessment of the effectiveness of the Military Entrance Processing Commands in identifying medical conditions in recruits that existed before enlistment in the Armed Forces, each such assessment to be performed by an agency or contractor other than the Military Entrgmce Processing Commands.