[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 123 (Thursday, July 17, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4475-S4476]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 2935. Ms. HASSAN (for herself and Mr. Boozman) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S. 2296, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2026 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of subtitle F of title X, add the following:
SEC. 1067. IMPLEMENTATION OF AND REPORT ON EFFORTS OF
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS TO IMPROVE
HEALTH CARE APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING.
(a) In General.--Not later than one year after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a plan
to improve the process for scheduling appointments for health
care from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
(b) Elements of Plan.--
(1) In general.--The plan required by subsection (a) shall
include such actions, resources, technology, and process
improvements as the Secretary determines necessary to ensure
the Department delivers to patients and employees of the
Department in a timely manner improved delivery of health
care, access to health care, customer experience and service
relating to the receipt of health care, and efficiency with
respect to the delivery of health care.
(2) Objectives.--
(A) In general.--The Secretary shall ensure that the plan
required by subsection (a) addresses the following
objectives:
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(i) To develop or continue the development of a scheduling
system that enables both personnel and patients of the
Department to view available appointments for care furnished
by the Department, including primary care, mental health
care, and all forms of specialty care.
(ii) To develop or continue the development of a self-
service scheduling platform, available for use by all
patients of the Department, which shall--
(I) enable such patients to view available appointments
and, subject to the process described in clause (iii), fully
schedule appointments for all care furnished by the
Department;
(II) if a referral is required for an appointment, provide
a method for the patient to request a referral and
subsequently book an appointment if the referral is approved;
and
(III) provide such patients with the ability to cancel or
reschedule appointments.
(iii) To create a process through which all patients of the
Department can telephonically speak with a scheduler who can
assist the patient to determine appointment availability and
can fully schedule appointments on behalf of the patient for
all care furnished by the Department.
(iv) To carry out such other functions, oversight, metric
development and tracking, change management, cross-Department
coordination, and other related matters as the Secretary
determines appropriate as it relates to scheduling tools,
functions, and operations with respect to health care
appointments furnished by the Department.
(B) Explanation of inability to implement certain
objectives, features, or services.--If the Secretary
determines that an objective under subparagraph (A), or any
feature or service in connection with that objective, cannot
be implemented or otherwise incorporated into a final product
pursuant to the plan required by subsection (a), the
Secretary shall include with the plan submitted under such
subsection a report containing--
(i) an explanation as to why that objective, feature, or
service cannot be implemented or incorporated, as the case
may be; and
(ii) a plan for implementing the plan required by
subsection (a) without that objective, feature, or service.
(c) Implementation.--Not later than two years after
submitting to the appropriate committees of Congress the plan
required by subsection (a), the Secretary shall fully
implement the plan.
(d) Coordination With Electronic Health Record
Modernization Program.--In developing the plan required by
subsection (a), the Secretary shall ensure that the elements
and objectives of such plan set forth under subsection (b)
are developed in consideration of the deployment schedule and
capabilities of the Electronic Health Record Modernization
Program of the Department to ensure a smooth transition to
using the tools and features under such plan as relevant and
appropriate.
(e) Implementation Reports.--Not later than each of one
year and two years after the date on which the Secretary
submits the plan required by subsection (a), the Secretary
shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a
report on the progress of the Secretary in implementing such
plan, including--
(1) the costs incurred to implement the plan as of the date
of the report;
(2) the expected costs to complete implementation of the
plan (including costs for management and technology);
(3) the schedule for deployment of any capabilities
developed pursuant to the plan; and
(4) the goals and metrics achieved, challenges, and lessons
learned in implementing the plan.
(f) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to require the Secretary to include in the plan
required by subsection (a) any technology or process that
would preclude or impede the ability of a veteran to contact
or schedule an appointment directly with a facility or
provider through a non-online scheduling process, should the
veteran choose to do so.
(g) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Appropriate committees of congress.--The term
``appropriate committees of Congress'' means the Committee on
Veterans' Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on
Veterans' Affairs of the House of Representatives.
(2) Fully schedule.--The term ``fully schedule'', with
respect to an appointment for health care, means that the
appointment booking is completed, rather than simply
requested.
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