H.R. 8486 — Data Driven Suicide Prevention and Outreach Act of 2026

This section establishes a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) grant program, to be carried out by the Center for Innovation for Care and Payment not later than one year after enactment, under which the VA Secretary awards grants to eligible organizations to develop artificial intelligence predictive models evaluating risk factors contributing to veteran suicide. Eligible organizations include nonprofits, academic institutions, private research organizations, or similar entities with demonstrated expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions, health care data analysis (including de-identification of personally identifiable and protected health information), predictive modeling in clinical settings, advanced statistical methods for large health datasets, and VA data security standards. The Secretary selects at least two organizations based on criteria such as Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) geographic distribution and veteran population density, proximity to VA facilities, collaboration experience, and capacity to deploy solutions in large health systems, giving priority to those in high-suicide or high-Veterans Crisis Line areas, with federal health system experience, explicable and interoperable tools, relevant staff, secure infrastructure, and agreement to share models VA-wide; no two grantees may be in the same VISN. Grantee models must integrate Veterans Benefits Administration data, such as military service records, with Veterans Health Administration clinical data, though grantees retain ownership of models and proprietary technology. Program authority terminates on September 30, 2029.