S.Amdt. 3571

SA 3571. Mr. MORAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him 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 C of title VII, add the following:

SEC. 724. IMPROVEMENT OF AVAILABILITY OF CARE FOR VETERANS
FROM FACILITIES AND PROVIDERS OF THE DEPARTMENT
OF DEFENSE.

(a) Outreach on Available Care.--Not less frequently than
annually, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs shall conduct outreach to increase awareness
among veterans enrolled in the system of annual patient
enrollment of the Department of Veterans Affairs established
and operated under section 1705(a) of title 38, United States
Code, of the ability of those veterans to receive care at
military medical treatment facilities.
(b) Training on Referrals.--The Secretary of Veterans
Affairs shall ensure training for staff and contractors
involved in scheduling, or assisting in scheduling,
appointments for care under the community care program
specifically includes training regarding options for referral
to facilities and providers of the Department of Defense.
(c) Preferred Providers.--Subsection (g) of section 1703 of
title 38, United States Code, is amended--
(1) in the subsection heading, by inserting ``and Preferred
Providers'' after ``Network''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(3) The Secretary shall consider providers under
subsection (c)(2) to be preferred providers under this
section.''.
(d) Action Plans.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary
of Veterans Affairs shall develop and implement action plans
at covered facilities--
(A) to expand the partnership between the Department of
Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs with respect
to the provision of health care;
(B) to improve communication between the Department of
Veterans Affairs and pertinent command and director
leadership of military medical treatment facilities;

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(C) to increase utilization of military medical treatment
facilities with excess capacity;
(D) to increase case volume and complexity for graduate
medical education programs of the Department of Defense and
the Department of Veterans Affairs;
(E) to improve resource sharing agreements or permits, as
applicable, between the Department of Defense and the
Department of Veterans Affairs, which would also ensure
lessened barriers to shared facility spaces; and
(F) to increase access to care for veterans described in
subsection (a) in areas in which a military medical treatment
facility is located that is identified by the Secretary of
Defense as having excess capacity.
(2) Matters to be included.--The action plans required
under paragraph (1) shall include the following:
(A) Cross-credentialing and privileging of health care
providers, including nurses, medical technicians, and other
support staff, to jointly care for beneficiaries in medical
facilities of the Department of Defense and the Department of
Veterans Affairs.
(B) Expediting access to installations of the Department of
Defense for staff and beneficiaries of the Department of
Veterans Affairs.
(C) Including in-kind or non-cash payment or reimbursement
options for expenses incurred by either the Department of
Defense or the Department of Veterans Affairs.
(D) Allowing eligible veterans to seek certain services at
military medical treatment facilities without referral or
preauthorization from the Department of Veterans Affairs, for
which reimbursement to the Department of Defense will be
made.
(E) The designation of a coordinator within each covered
facility to serve as a liaison between the Department of
Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs and to lead
the implementation of such action plan.
(F) A mechanism for monitoring the effectiveness of such
action plan on an ongoing basis, to include establishing
relevant performance goals and collecting data to assess
progress towards those goals.
(G) Prioritize the integration of relevant information
technology and other systems or processes to enable seamless
information sharing, referrals and ancillary orders, payment
methodologies and billing processes, and workload attribution
when Department of Veterans Affairs personnel provide
services at Department of Defense facilities or when
Department of Defense personnel provide services at
Department of Veterans Affairs facilities.
(H) Any other matter that the Secretary of Defense and the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs consider appropriate.
(3) Approval of action plans.--Before implementing any
action plan required under paragraph (1) at a covered
facility or covered facilities, the Secretary of Defense and
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall ensure that approval
for the action plan is obtained from--
(A) the co-chairs of the Department of Veterans Affairs-
Department of Defense Joint Executive Committee established
under section 320 of title 38, United States Code;
(B) the local installation commander for the covered
facility of the Department of Defense; and
(C) the director of the relevant medical center of the
Department of Veterans Affairs with respect to any covered
facility or covered facilities of the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
(4) Reports.--
(A) Initial report.--Not later than 90 days after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense and
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall submit to the
appropriate committees of Congress a report containing the
action plans required under paragraph (1).
(B) Subsequent report.--Not later than one year after
submitting the report required under subparagraph (A), the
Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a
report containing--
(i) a status update on the progress of implementing the
action plans required under paragraph (1); and
(ii) recommendations for developing subsequent action plans
for each facility with respect to which there is a sharing
agreement in place.
(e) Requirements Relating to Sharing Agreements.--
(1) Lead coordinator.--The Secretary of Defense and the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall ensure that there is a
lead coordinator at each facility of the Department of
Defense or the Department of Veterans Affairs, as the case
may be, with respect to which there is a sharing agreement in
place.
(2) List of agreements.--The Secretary of Defense and the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall maintain on a publicly
available website a list of all sharing agreements in place
between medical facilities of the Department of Defense and
the Department of Veterans Affairs.
(f) Treatment of Existing Laws Regarding Sharing of Health
Care Resources.--The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary
of Veterans Affairs shall carry out this section
notwithstanding any limitation or requirement under section
1104 of title 10, United States Code, or section 8111 of
title 38, United States Code.
(g) Funding.--The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs may use funds available in the DOD-VA Health
Care Sharing Incentive Fund established under section
8111(d)(2) of title 38, United States Code, to implement this
section.
(h) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section or the
amendments made by this section shall be construed to require
veterans to seek care in facilities of the Department of
Defense.
(i) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Appropriate committees of congress.--The term
``appropriate committees of Congress'' means--
(A) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Veterans Affairs of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Veterans Affairs of the House of Representatives.
(2) Community care program.--The term ``community care
program'' means the Veterans Community Care Program under
section 1703 of title 38, United States Code.
(3) Covered facility.--The term ``covered facility''
means--
(A) a military medical treatment facility ias defined in
section 1073c(j) of title 10, United States Code; or
(B) a medical facility of the Department of Veterans
Affairs located nearby a military medical treatment facility
described in subparagraph (A).
(4) Sharing agreement.--The term ``sharing agreement''
means an agreement for sharing of health-care resources
between the Department of Defense and the Department of
Veterans Affairs under section 1104 of title 10, United
States Code, or section 8111 of title 38, United States Code.
(5) Veteran.--The term ``veteran'' has the meaning given
that term in section 101 of title 38, United States Code.
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