Veterans' Mental Health Care Access Act

Veterans' Mental Health Care Access Act

This bill amends the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to make a veteran eligible for mental health care at a non-Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facility regardless of:

• the date on which the veteran enrolled in the VA health care system,
• whether the veteran has attempted to schedule an appointment for such care at a VA facility, or
• the location of the veteran's residence.

[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1604 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1604

To amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to 
  expand the eligibility of veterans to receive mental health care at 
             non-Department of Veterans Affairs facilities.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 25, 2015

 Mr. MacArthur (for himself and Mr. O'Rourke) introduced the following 
     bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to 
  expand the eligibility of veterans to receive mental health care at 
             non-Department of Veterans Affairs facilities.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Veterans' Mental Health Care Access 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) There is a widely recognized crisis of post-traumatic 
        stress disorder and other service-related mental health 
        disorders among veterans.
            (2) Every day on average in the United States, 22 veterans 
        commit suicide.
            (3) Of those 22 veterans, 17 never pursued mental health 
        care from a facility of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
            (4) Veterans need to be able to immediately access mental 
        health care from any provider within or outside of the 
        Department of Veterans Affairs.

SEC. 3. PROVISION OF MENTAL HEALTH CARE UNDER VETERANS CHOICE PROGRAM.

    Section 101(b)(2) of the Veterans Access, Choice, and 
Accountability Act of 2014 (38 U.S.C. 1701 note) is amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (C)(ii), by striking ``or'';
            (2) in subparagraph (D), by striking the period at the end 
        and inserting ``; or''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
                    ``(E) notwithstanding paragraph (1)(A), seeks 
                mental health care at an entity described in clause (i) 
                or (ii) of subsection (a)(1)(B), regardless of--
                            ``(i) the date on which the veteran 
                        enrolled in the patient enrollment system of 
                        the Department under section 1705 of title 38, 
                        United States Code;
                            ``(ii) whether the veteran has attempted to 
                        schedule an appointment for the receipt of such 
                        care at a facility of the Department; or
                            ``(iii) the location of the residence of 
                        the veteran.''.
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