Sponsors
The bill aims to shorten and make VA appointment scheduling more transparent for veterans and the public, but it increases reporting costs, staff burden, privacy risks, and the potential for metric-driven gaming of care.
Veterans will get clearer and faster scheduling: the VA must meet published timing targets (3 business days for facility appointments; 7 calendar days for community care referrals), improving predictability and likely reducing wait times for care.
Taxpayers and the public gain greater transparency and accountability through quarterly, service-line and state-level performance reports from the VA, making it easier to track where access problems exist.
Poor-performing VA centers will be publicly identified, which increases pressure for corrective actions and can drive targeted improvements in access at struggling facilities.
VA staff and facilities will face increased administrative burden to collect, validate, and publish detailed quarterly metrics by service line and state, adding workload for frontline staff and federal employees.
Public ranking and targets could incentivize gaming or manipulating scheduling data and prioritizing measurable metrics over clinicians' judgment, which may harm patient care.
Preparing and publishing frequent, detailed reports will incur fiscal costs that could divert resources from direct care unless additional funding is provided.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires the VA to set a referral-to-appointment timing standard, publish it, and provide quarterly and annual public reports on timeliness by facility, care type, and State.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Richard Lynn Scott · Last progress March 26, 2026
Requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to create and publish a clear timing standard that measures how long it takes from when a veteran referral is entered into VA care coordination to when an appointment actually occurs, whether at a VA facility or through community care. The VA must post the standard (and any changes) publicly at least 30 days before they take effect and deliver quarterly and annual reports to Congress and the public showing how many referrals meet the standard, broken out by facility, care type, and State, with a specific breakout for a 3-business-day VA-facility scheduling standard and a 7-calendar-day community-care scheduling standard.