VA must modernize appointment scheduling within two years
H.R. 6038 — Improving Veteran Access to Care Act · Filed by Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Nov 12, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop and implement a plan within one year to improve how veterans schedule medical appointments. The plan must include a modern online scheduling system, a phone-based scheduling service, and self-service tools that let veterans view available appointments and book them directly for primary care, mental health, and specialty services. The VA must fully implement the plan within two years and report progress to Congress.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a straightforward mandate for the VA to modernize appointment scheduling systems and report on implementation. It is a procedural/operational improvement bill, not a substantive policy change or appropriation.
What the text implies
- The bill ties scheduling improvements to the VA's ongoing Electronic Health Record Modernization Program, which has a history of cost overruns and delays; implementation timelines may slip if EHR deployment lags.
- The requirement to preserve non-digital scheduling options may create parallel systems and operational complexity, potentially increasing costs rather than reducing them.
The full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
healthcare IT vendors (scheduling software providers); VA contractors (system integration and deployment)