Veterans Community Care Scheduling Improvement Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3482) to amend title 38, United States Code, to establish an online program through which an employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs may schedule an appointment for a covered veteran with a non- Department health care provider under the Veterans Community Care Program, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 3482, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3482, as amended, offered by my friend and colleague, Representative Tom Barrett of Michigan.

This bill would make much-needed improvements to make community care work better for our veterans. For far too long, the scheduling process has posed structural barriers that delay our veterans from accessing the timely healthcare that they have earned.

Veterans often face administrative red tape that makes getting their care difficult when they are trying to see a provider in their own community. This bill would cut through that bureaucracy by bringing the VA's scheduling into the 21st century.

This bill would authorize the External Provider Scheduling program across every VA medical center. It would equip VA employees with a modernized system to view, search, and sort real-time availability for both VA and non-VA providers. Under this bill, a VA scheduler could book an appointment and send the referral documents electronically without endless phone calls.

This would let veterans across the entire country schedule many of their community care appointments in minutes, instead of waiting days on end.

This bill would also include rigorous performance benchmarks to hold VA accountable for achieving real results to deliver better healthcare. VA would be required to track patron satisfaction and wait times so we can ensure taxpayer resources are making a real impact.

Finally, thanks to an amendment adopted in committee, the costs associated with this legislation are fully offset.

It is our duty to make sure veterans receive timely access to the healthcare they need right in the communities where they live.

I also thank the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs, Concerned Veterans for America, the National Rural Health Association, and The American Legion for their support of this truly bipartisan legislation.

This is a good, commonsense bill, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3482, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Barrett), who is the sponsor of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all Members to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their endorsement of this critical piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, the men and women who served and sacrificed for our Nation deserve the best healthcare that our country can offer, and they certainly shouldn't have to wait weeks or longer just to find out if they can make an appointment to see a doctor.

This is an issue that has plagued the VA healthcare system for decades. The good news is that the VA community care program is helping us turn things around by allowing veterans to receive medical services from local healthcare providers outside of the traditional VA hospitals and clinics right in their own communities closer to home. But the system is far from perfect.

Veterans across the country will tell you that community care appointments can be harder to schedule and too often are not even offered as an option.

This has led to longer wait times, farther drives to appointments, and greater inconvenience.

I personally experienced this myself when trying to get scheduled for a routine audiology appointment. I got called by a VA scheduler, then they had to call a number of providers, then they called me back, and when they actually set the appointment, it was on a date that I was here in Washington and not back home in Michigan. I had to reschedule the entire thing and start all over again.

Obviously, this isn't what we want for any of our veterans, and that is why I urge my colleagues to support my Veterans Community Care Scheduling Improvement Act, the bill before us today.

This bill would permanently require VA facilities to use a single digital interface called the External Provider Scheduling system to finally allow VA staff to simultaneously view all available appointments at both VA facilities and those participating in the community care program. It would all be in one centralized interface.

The VA has already rolled this out nationwide through internal process as we were working on this bill, and the results speak for themselves.

VA employees today can now book as many as 25 appointments each day compared to just a small handful through the manual process they were following before.

My legislation simply makes this positive change permanent by requiring the VA to keep this simplified, streamlined system in place beyond the pilot program they have today. Ensuring this progress is not undone by a future administration will give our veterans the access and certainty that they have earned.

It may sound simple, but the least we can do for those who served is make sure they can get a doctor's appointment when they need it.

I thank Congresswoman Budzinski for working with me on this important legislation to support our Nation's heroes, and I thank Chairman Bost and the full committee for bringing it to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3482, the Veterans Community Care Scheduling Improvement Act, as amended.

One of the biggest concerns I hear from veterans is that it takes too long to get an appointment, whether at VA or through community care. As is the case with many things at VA, outdated and cumbersome technology makes it very difficult to schedule appointments. In addition, there are not enough requirements for community providers to make their schedules available in an electronic format to make it easier for VA schedulers to check availability.

The Veterans Community Care Scheduling Improvement Act, as amended, is a solid step forward toward fixing issues that have plagued the Veterans Health Administration since before the Phoenix wait-time scandal in 2014. Veterans deserve timely access to care whether that is at VA or in the community, and it is our responsibility to ensure that they get it.

The system authorized by H.R. 3482 would leverage technology to allow VA schedulers to see community care providers' schedules and book appointments directly into them, streamlining the process and allowing them to get booked days or weeks faster.

The bill also requires that VA use this technology to view VA's direct care appointments as well as the community care, giving veterans an apples-to-apples comparison of first available appointments. This crucial new ability will allow veterans to make an informed choice about where they wish to receive their care.

While I believe that the system authorized by this act could have a substantial impact on veterans' access to timely care, I am concerned that it will only be as good as VA's ability to recruit community care providers to participate. I think there should be more requirements in the VA's community care network contracts to mandate community provider participation.

The ongoing procurement of the next-generation contract will be an opportunity to do just that. The VA must also ensure that there is buy- in from all levels of the organization because technology is only as good as its implementation and adoption. However, I will say that this is a good first step in that direction.

I thank Representative Barrett and Representative Budzinski for their work on this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 3482, the Veterans Community Care Scheduling Improvement Act, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.