Veterans’ Assuring Critical Care Expansions to Support Servicemembers (ACCESS) Act of 2025
The Veterans’ Assuring Critical Care Expansions to Support Servicemembers (ACCESS) Act of 2025 seeks to tighten, standardize, and expand how the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides care through the Veterans Community Care Program and VA mental health treatment programs. It codifies specific eligibility standards for community care, sets time-based access benchmarks (driving-time and wait-time requirements), requires prompt and clear communications with veterans (including eligibility notices, denial notices, and telehealth discussions), and extends a key payment deadline. The bill also overhauls VA mental health treatment pathways by creating a standardized screening process, defining priority versus routine admission criteria, and authorizing non-VA care when VA facilities cannot admit veterans within required timelines. It adds oversight, performance metrics, care coordination, transportation support, and robust reporting to Congress, and it establishes an online self-service tool to streamline care requests, referrals, and appeals. A plan to modernize the VA’s Center for Innovation for Care and Payment and a pilot program are also contemplated, along with routine reporting and a Comptroller General review. In short, ACCESS aims to improve access to timely, veteran-centered care—whether inside VA or through community providers—by clarifying eligibility, accelerating appointments, ensuring veteran preferences and supports are considered, and strengthening governance and data reporting across community and VA mental health services.
Key Points
- 1Codified eligibility standards for Veterans Community Care (community-based care) with concrete time-and-distance benchmarks:
- 2- Primary/mental health/extended care (except nursing home): appointment within 30 minutes driving time and within 20 days of request.
- 3- Specialty care: appointment within 60 minutes driving time and within 28 days of request.
- 4- Telehealth availability cannot be used to justify delaying in-person care for eligibility purposes; longer drive times or later appointment dates can be agreed to by the veteran and documented in the electronic health record.
- 5Mandatory veteran communications and telehealth discussions:
- 6- The Secretary must notify each eligible veteran in writing within two business days of awareness of eligibility.
- 7- Veterans receive periodic reminders of ongoing eligibility, and notifications may be provided electronically.
- 8- When discussing care options, the VA must inform the veteran about telehealth options if available, appropriate, and acceptable to the veteran.
- 9Expanded care options when VA cannot admit promptly:
- 10- If a veteran is eligible for priority or routine admission but VA cannot admit within required standards, the VA must offer care at a non-Department facility under contract that provides an equivalent program, is licensed by the state, and is accredited by CARF or Joint Commission.
- 11- The program requires care coordination, transportation assistance, and proper discharge planning, with clear sharing of care plans between facilities and providers.
- 12Strengthened oversight and mental health program reforms (Titles II, III):
- 13- Establish a standardized screening process within one year to determine priority versus routine admission to VA mental health residential rehab and related programs.
- 14- Define priority admission criteria (e.g., significant daily-life impact, unsafe living situation, suicide risk, overdose risk, failed prior treatment) and require consideration of veteran input and proximity to social supports.
- 15- Implement strict timing: screen within 48 hours of request and admit within 48 hours if eligible for priority admission; include screening for traumatic brain injury.
- 16- Create robust care coordination, including pre-admission planning, pre-discharge planning, and continued care communication with primary care and other providers; provide transportation and ensure record sharing with non-VA facilities when applicable.
- 17- Develop performance metrics to track screening, admission, outcomes, and staffing in VA and non-VA facilities; establish a formal appeals process (clinical appeals) with a 72-hour response timeline; publish public guidance on how to pursue clinical appeals.
- 18- Require annual and multi-year reporting to Congress on program operation, wait times, locations, bed capacity, costs, staffing, and recommended improvements; include a Comptroller General review within two years to assess access, wait times, policy training, rights to appeal, and placement decision processes.
- 19Plan for an interactive online self-service module (Title III):
- 20- A VA plan to enable veterans to request appointments, track referrals, receive reminders, and appeal/track care decisions online, integrating with the Center for Innovation for Care and Payment and third-party administrators.
- 21Administrative reforms and pilot considerations:
- 22- The bill anticipates modifications to the VA’s Center for Innovation for Care and Payment and requires a pilot program to advance care and payment innovations (details in the bill’s full text and future guidance).