This bill directs the Secretaries of Defense and Veterans Affairs to develop and carry out action plans at military and VA medical facilities to strengthen sharing of health care resources and improve veteran access. The plans must address cross-credentialing and privileging of providers, expedited access to installations for VA staff and enrolled veterans, a designated local liaison coordinator, ongoing monitoring with performance goals, information technology integration for medical records and billing, and oversight and accountability for adverse events and complaints. Plans must be approved by the DoD-VA Joint Executive Committee co-chairs, the local installation commander, and the VA medical center director, and submitted to the appropriate congressional committees. One year after plan submission, DoD and VA must provide annual joint briefings to Congress with data on patients served, provider credentialing, costs and reimbursements, patient safety incidents, and IT integration. The section sunsets on September 30, 2028.
If you are an enrolled veteran in an area with a nearby military medical treatment facility that the Secretary of Defense identifies as having excess capacity, the bill requires steps to increase access to care at that facility. VA and DoD health care staff may be cross-credentialed to jointly treat enrolled veterans. The agencies must set up a secure, confidential process for enrolled veterans to report care concerns that is sent to both agencies. A publicly available website must list sharing agreements between DoD and VA facilities.
The bill requires DoD and VA to report costs incurred and reimbursements and to account for any use of the DOD-VA Health Care Sharing Incentive Fund in annual briefings to Congress. No publicly available information on estimated implementation costs or overall budget impact is provided in the bill text.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.