I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 961
To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a pilot program
to provide veteran health savings accounts to allow veterans to receive
primary care furnished under non-Department direct primary care service
arrangements, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY4, 2025
Mr. R
OY(for himself and Mr. CRANE) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a
pilot program to provide veteran health savings accounts
to allow veterans to receive primary care furnished under
non-Department direct primary care service arrange-
ments, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Veterans Access to 4
Direct Primary Care Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. PILOT PROGRAM ON ESTABLISHMENT OF VETERAN 1
HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS TO ALLOW VET-2
ERANS TO ACCESS DIRECT PRIMARY CARE 3
SERVICE ARRANGEMENTS. 4
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Beginning one year after the 5
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Vet-6
erans Affairs shall carry out a five-year pilot program 7
under which the Secretary shall provide eligible veterans 8
with the option to choose to receive primary care services 9
furnished by a non-Department of Veterans Affairs health 10
care provider under a direct primary care service arrange-11
ment through the use of a veteran health savings account 12
described in subsection (c). The pilot program shall be 13
conducted under the Center for Innovation for Care and 14
Payment under section 1703E of title 38, United States 15
Code. 16
(b) E
LIGIBLEVETERAN.—For purposes of the pilot 17
program under this section, an eligible veteran is a veteran 18
who is enrolled in the patient enrollment system of the 19
Department of Veterans Affairs under section 1705 of 20
title 38, United States Code. 21
(c) V
ETERANHEALTHSAVINGSACCOUNTS.—The 22
Secretary shall provide to an eligible veteran who partici-23
pates in the pilot program a veterans health savings ac-24
count that may be used— 25
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(1) to purchase primary care services furnished 1
through a non-Department direct primary care serv-2
ice arrangement; and 3
(2) for associated costs, including— 4
(A) periodic fees paid to a physician for a 5
defined set of medical services or for the right 6
to receive medical services on an as-needed 7
basis; 8
(B) amounts paid or prepaid for medical 9
services designed to screen for, diagnose, cure, 10
mitigate, treat, or prevent disease and promote 11
wellness; and 12
(C) prescription or non-prescription medi-13
cines or drugs. 14
(d) E
LIGIBILITY FOR DEPARTMENT MEDICAL 15
C
ARE.—A veteran who chooses to receive a veteran health 16
savings account described under subsection (c) may not 17
receive medical care furnished by the Department of Vet-18
erans Affairs that is included in the direct primary care 19
service arrangement described in such subsection during 20
the period the veteran participates in the pilot program. 21
(e) P
REVENTION OF FRAUDULENTACTIVITY.—The 22
Secretary shall establish a mechanism to prevent fraudu-23
lent activity in connection with payments made under this 24
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section and to ensure participating veterans use health 1
savings accounts only as authorized under this section. 2
(f) A
MOUNTSDEPOSITED INACCOUNTS.—The Sec-3
retary of Veterans Affairs shall— 4
(1) determine the annual amount to be depos-5
ited in a veteran health savings account described in 6
subsection (c) using calculations conducted by the 7
Secretary and in consultation with an actuarial serv-8
ice; and 9
(2) ensure that each participating eligible vet-10
eran receives such amount on an annual basis dur-11
ing the period the veteran participates in the pilot 12
program. 13
(g) D
IRECTPRIMARYCARESERVICEARRANGE-14
MENT.—In this section, the term ‘‘direct primary care 15
service arrangement’’ means an agreement under which 16
a defined set of medical services are provided to a patient 17
by a physician for fixed periodic fees. 18
(h) R
EPORTS.— 19
(1) I
MPLEMENTATION REPORTS .—For each cal-20
endar quarter during the two-year period beginning 21
on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-22
retary shall submit to the Committees on Veterans’ 23
Affairs of the Senate and House of Representatives 24
a report on the implementation of this section. One 25
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such report shall include a description of the final 1
design of the pilot program. 2
(2) A
NNUAL REPORTS .—Not later than one 3
year after the date on which the final implementa-4
tion report required by paragraph (1) is submitted, 5
and annually thereafter, the Secretary shall submit 6
to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Sen-7
ate and House of Representatives a report on the re-8
sults of the pilot program under this section. 9
(i) N
OADDITIONALAPPROPRIATIONS.—Amounts re-10
quired to carry out this section shall be made available 11
from amounts otherwise authorized to be appropriated for 12
the Veterans Health Administration. 13
(j) T
ERMINATION.—The authority of the Secretary to 14
deposit funds in a veteran health savings account under 15
this section shall terminate on the date that is five years 16
after the date of the enactment of this Act. 17
Æ
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