Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB607 Compare Versions

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Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 607
5	5	To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish an integrated project
6	6	team to improve the process for scheduling appointments for health
7	7	care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
8	8	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
9	9	FEBRUARY18, 2025
10	10	Ms. H
11	11	ASSAN(for herself and Mr. BOOZMAN) introduced the following bill;
12	12	which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
13	13	A BILL
14	14	To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish
15	15	an integrated project team to improve the process for
16	16	scheduling appointments for health care from the De-
17	17	partment of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
18	18	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
19	19	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
20	20	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
21	21	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving Veteran Ac-4
22	22	cess to Care Act’’. 5
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25	25	•S 607 IS
26	26	SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF INTEGRATED PROJECT TEAM 1
27	27	OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS TO 2
28	28	IMPROVE HEALTH CARE APPOINTMENT 3
29	29	SCHEDULING. 4
30	30	(a) I
31	31	NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Veterans Af-5
32	32	fairs, through the Veterans Health Administration and the 6
33	33	Office of Information and Technology of the Department 7
34	34	of Veterans Affairs, or any successor offices or administra-8
35	35	tions of similar function, shall establish an integrated 9
36	36	project team to improve the process for scheduling ap-10
37	37	pointments for health care from the Department of Vet-11
38	38	erans Affairs. 12
39	39	(b) P
40	40	URPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to en-13
41	41	sure the Department of Veterans Affairs delivers to pa-14
42	42	tients and employees of the Department in a timely man-15
43	43	ner the scheduling capabilities developed by the integrated 16
44	44	project team established under subsection (a) to imme-17
45	45	diately improve delivery of care, access to care, customer 18
46	46	experience and service, and efficiency with respect to the 19
47	47	delivery of care. 20
48	48	(c) O
49	49	BJECTIVES.—The objectives of the integrated 21
50	50	project team established under subsection (a) are the fol-22
51	51	lowing: 23
52	52	(1) To develop or continue the development of 24
53	53	a scheduling system that enables both personnel and 25
54	54	patients of the Department of Veterans Affairs to 26
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58	58	view available appointments for all care furnished by 1
59	59	the Department, including— 2
60	60	(A) available appointments for all pro-3
61	61	viders of the Department; 4
62	62	(B) available appointments at all clinics, 5
63	63	hospitals, and other health care facilities of the 6
64	64	Department; and 7
65	65	(C) available appointments at all offices 8
66	66	providing patient care within the health care 9
67	67	system of the Department, including primary 10
68	68	care and all forms of specialty care. 11
69	69	(2) To develop or continue the development of 12
70	70	a self-service scheduling platform, available for use 13
71	71	by all patients of the Department, which shall— 14
72	72	(A) enable such patients to view available 15
73	73	appointments and fully schedule appointments 16
74	74	for all care furnished by the Department, in-17
75	75	cluding— 18
76	76	(i) appointments for all providers of 19
77	77	the Department; 20
78	78	(ii) appointments at all clinics, hos-21
79	79	pitals, and other health care facilities of 22
80	80	the Department; and 23
81	81	(iii) appointments at all offices pro-24
82	82	viding patient care within the health care 25
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85	85	•S 607 IS
86	86	system of the Department, including pri-1
87	87	mary care and all forms of specialty care; 2
88	88	(B) if a referral is required for an appoint-3
89	89	ment, provide a method for the patient to re-4
90	90	quest a referral and subsequently book an ap-5
91	91	pointment if the referral is approved; and 6
92	92	(C) provide such patients with the ability 7
93	93	to cancel or reschedule appointments. 8
94	94	(3) To create a process through which all pa-9
95	95	tients of the Department can telephonically speak 10
96	96	with a scheduler who can assist the patient to deter-11
97	97	mine appointment availability and can fully schedule 12
98	98	appointments on behalf of the patient for all care 13
99	99	furnished by the Department, including— 14
100	100	(A) appointments for all providers of the 15
101	101	Department; 16
102	102	(B) appointments at all clinics, hospitals, 17
103	103	and other health care facilities of the Depart-18
104	104	ment; and 19
105	105	(C) appointments at all offices providing 20
106	106	patient care within the health care system of 21
107	107	the Department, including primary care and all 22
108	108	forms of specialty care. 23
109	109	(4) To carry out such other functions, over-24
110	110	sight, metric development and tracking, change man-25
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113	113	•S 607 IS
114	114	agement, cross-Department coordination, and other 1
115	115	related matters as the Secretary determines appro-2
116	116	priate as it relates to scheduling tools, functions, 3
117	117	and operations with respect to health care appoint-4
118	118	ments furnished by the Department. 5
119	119	(d) C
120	120	OORDINATION WITHELECTRONICHEALTH 6
121	121	R
122	122	ECORDMODERNIZATIONPROGRAM.— 7
123	123	(1) I
124	124	N GENERAL.—The integrated project team 8
125	125	established under subsection (a) shall carry out the 9
126	126	objectives under subsection (c) in consultation and 10
127	127	coordination with the deployment schedule and capa-11
128	128	bilities of the Electronic Health Record Moderniza-12
129	129	tion Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs 13
130	130	to ensure a smooth transition to using the tools and 14
131	131	features, where relevant and appropriate, that may 15
132	132	be created pursuant to this section, along with the 16
133	133	features in the Electronic Health Record Moderniza-17
134	134	tion Program. 18
135	135	(2) R
136	136	ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in this 19
137	137	subsection shall be construed to require the inte-20
138	138	grated project team established under subsection (a), 21
139	139	the Veterans Health Administration, or the Office of 22
140	140	Information and Technology of the Department to 23
141	141	defer or delay the deployment of scheduling capabili-24
142	142	ties required by this section because of future poten-25
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146	146	tial planned capabilities of the Electronic Health 1
147	147	Record Modernization Program. 2
148	148	(e) D
149	149	EADLINES.— 3
150	150	(1) E
151	151	STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days 4
152	152	after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-5
153	153	retary of Veterans Affairs, through the Veterans 6
154	154	Health Administration and the Office of Information 7
155	155	and Technology of the Department of Veterans Af-8
156	156	fairs, or any successor office, shall fully establish the 9
157	157	integrated project team under subsection (a). 10
158	158	(2) C
159	159	OMPLETION OF OBJECTIVES .—Not later 11
160	160	than one year after the date of the enactment of this 12
161	161	Act, the integrated project team established under 13
162	162	subsection (a) shall complete the objectives under 14
163	163	subsection (c). 15
164	164	(f) R
165	165	EPORT ONOBJECTIVES.—If the Secretary of 16
166	166	Veterans Affairs determines that an objective under sub-17
167	167	section (c), or any feature or service in connection with 18
168	168	that objective, cannot be implemented or otherwise incor-19
169	169	porated into a final product, the Secretary shall, within 20
170	170	45 days of that determination, submit to the appropriate 21
171	171	committees of Congress a report— 22
172	172	(1) detailing that objective, feature, or service 23
173	173	and providing an explanation as to why that objec-24
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176	176	•S 607 IS
177	177	tive, feature, or service cannot be implemented or in-1
178	178	corporated, as the case may be; and 2
179	179	(2) setting forth a plan for implementing this 3
180	180	section without that objective, feature, or service. 4
181	181	(g) I
182	182	MPLEMENTATION REPORTS.—Not later than 5
183	183	each of one year and two years after the date of the enact-6
184	184	ment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall 7
185	185	submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report 8
186	186	on the progress of the Secretary in fulfilling the require-9
187	187	ments of this section, including— 10
188	188	(1) costs incurred to implement such require-11
189	189	ments as of the date of the report; 12
190	190	(2) the expected costs to complete implementa-13
191	191	tion of such requirements (including costs for man-14
192	192	agement and technology); 15
193	193	(3) the schedule for deployment of any capabili-16
194	194	ties developed by the integrated project team estab-17
195	195	lished under subsection (a); and 18
196	196	(4) goals and metrics achieved, challenges, and 19
197	197	lessons learned. 20
198	198	(h) R
199	199	ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-21
200	200	tion shall be construed to preclude or impede the ability 22
201	201	of a veteran to contact or schedule an appointment directly 23
202	202	with a facility or provider through a non-online scheduling 24
203	203	process, should the veteran choose to do so. 25
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207	207	(i) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 1
208	208	(1) A
209	209	PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -2
210	210	GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-3
211	211	gress’’ means the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of 4
212	212	the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 5
213	213	of the House of Representatives. 6
214	214	(2) F
215	215	ULLY SCHEDULE.—The term ‘‘fully sched-7
216	216	ule’’, with respect to booking an appointment, means 8
217	217	that the appointment booking is completed, rather 9
218	218	than simply requested. 10
219	219	Æ
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