Improving Veteran Access to Care Act
HB6038, titled the Improving Veteran Access to Care Act, would require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop and submit to Congress a plan to improve how veterans schedule VA health care appointments. The plan must address both patient-facing and employee-facing scheduling processes and include actions, resources, technology, process improvements, and a timeline for implementation. It specifically calls for a scheduling system that lets patients and staff view available appointments across primary care, mental health, and specialty care, and for a self-service platform that allows veterans to view, book, cancel, or reschedule appointments, including a referral-request pathway when referrals are required.
The bill also requires the VA to create a telephone scheduling option so veterans can speak with a scheduler who can help identify availability and complete bookings by phone. In addition, the Secretary must coordinate the plan with the VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization Program to avoid conflicts with that rollout, and must report to Congress on implementation progress, costs, timelines, goals, metrics, challenges, and lessons learned. If any objective or feature cannot be implemented, the VA must explain why and provide a fallback implementation plan. The bill also makes clear that veterans must still be able to schedule directly through non-online methods if they choose.
If enacted, the bill would not directly change veterans’ eligibility for care, but it would impose new planning, reporting, and implementation obligations on the Department of Veterans Affairs. It would affect VA scheduling operations, information technology systems, employee workflows, and patient access tools, while requiring coordination with the Electronic Health Record Modernization Program. The main statutory effect is to direct the VA to modernize appointment scheduling and to keep Congress informed of progress and costs.
The available context suggests generally positive, bipartisan interest in improving veterans’ access to care, as reflected by the bill’s introduction by members from both parties. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and then to the Subcommittee on Health, with no recorded votes or committee transcript excerpts indicating opposition or debate. Overall, the measure appears to be framed as a practical administrative improvement rather than a partisan policy fight.
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials, but the bill itself anticipates possible implementation challenges. The most likely areas of concern are whether the VA can build a fully functional self-service scheduling platform, how to integrate that work with the Electronic Health Record Modernization Program, and whether the agency can meet the required timelines and costs. The bill also preserves non-online scheduling access, which suggests sensitivity to concerns that digital tools could disadvantage veterans who prefer or need phone-based or in-person scheduling.