Medical Disability Examination Improvement Act of 2025

This bill aims to make VA disability medical exams faster, fairer, and easier to access. It tests doing more exams at VA hospitals and clinics, starting small and growing over time, to see if this improves cost, speed, quality, and capacity . It also orders a study to fix delays for rural and housebound veterans, including looking at tech that could let them get exams without long trips, with a report due in one year . New and probationary VA staff who order or review exams must get extra training and have a second review of their work until they reach high accuracy, so fewer veterans get sent to unnecessary or poor‑quality exams . For three years, the VA must check a sample of exams every quarter and, when an exam is found inadequate, give the veteran a new exam (if needed) and move their claim to the front of the line . Contractors who do exams must be able to send any evidence a veteran brings straight into the claims file, so nothing gets lost . The VA must also review and improve its scheduling systems to ensure clear communication, easier scheduling, some choice of time and place for the veteran, and customer satisfaction surveys .

Key points:

• Who is affected: Veterans filing disability claims; VA staff and exam contractors .
• What changes: Pilot exams at VA facilities, rural access study, stronger staff training and oversight, quarterly quality reviews with priority fixes, better evidence handling, and improved scheduling and communication .
• When: Training within 180 days of enactment; rural study and scheduling review/plan within one year; quarterly exam reviews start within one year and run for three years; the pilot grows in phases across VA regions through at least fiscal year 2035 .