The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee has advanced H.R. 740, known as the Veterans’ Assuring Critical Care Expansions to Support Servicemembers (ACCESS) Act. Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata, Vice Chairman of the committee, is a cosponsor of the bill, which was introduced by Chairman Mike Bost in January. A companion bill was led by Senator Jerry Moran.
The ACCESS Act is one of 25 veterans’ bills that were reported out by the committee last week and is now eligible for consideration by the full U.S. House of Representatives.
“It was good to see 25 bills advanced last week by our Committee to deal with numerous Veterans’ concerns,” said Vice Chairman Amata. “Congratulations to Chairman Bost on this bill. Our Veterans nationwide want more choices and reduced wait times, including the option of seeing community providers. The bottom line is the importance of getting services to our Veterans promptly.”
H.R. 740 builds upon previous reforms such as the MISSION Act and CHOICE Act, aiming to improve access for veterans through community providers under the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Community Care Program. The VA MISSION Act, signed into law in June 2018, expanded veterans’ ability to seek care outside VA facilities.
If enacted, the ACCESS Act would set current community care access standards as a baseline for care provided outside VA facilities, strengthen wait time requirements, expand access to critical health services, and introduce an online patient self-service scheduling system.
Several major veteran service organizations support the legislation, including Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), Elizabeth Dole Foundation, AMVETS, Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), Military Order of the Purple Heart, Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), Mission Roll Call (MRC), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Veteran Action, Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), Concerned Veterans for America, and Americans for Prosperity.
Chairman Bost stated: “The Veterans’ ACCESS Act strengthens and promotes the Veterans Community Care Program. It picks up where the MISSION Act and the Choice Act started. Many of us remember the waitlist scandals of 2014. It is as clear now as then: veterans deserve healthcare choice.” He added: “This bill would take key steps toward better care for veterans. But this is not the end of the road. We wanted to require that VA’s referral standards prioritized veterans’ preference for care. We also wanted to increase access to Residential Rehabilitation Treatment programs.”
