Military CARE Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6796 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6796

 To require the Secretary of Defense to establish a digital system for 
  the submission of complaints relating to access issues at military 
         medical treatment facilities, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 17, 2025

  Mr. Horsford (for himself, Mrs. Kiggans of Virginia, Mr. Bacon, Ms. 
  Houlahan, Ms. Goodlander, Mr. Bishop, Ms. McBride, and Mr. Moylan) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require the Secretary of Defense to establish a digital system for 
  the submission of complaints relating to access issues at military 
         medical treatment facilities, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Military Care, Access, Reporting, 
and Evaluation Act'' or the ``Military CARE Act''.

SEC. 2. DIGITAL SYSTEM FOR ACCESS ASSISTANCE AT MILITARY MEDICAL 
              TREATMENT FACILITIES.

    (a) Digital System for Access Assistance.--Not later than 18 months 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense 
shall establish a digital system under which--
            (1) a covered beneficiary who receives health care at a 
        military medical treatment facility may electronically--
                    (A) file a complaint relating to access to care at 
                such military medical treatment facility; and
                    (B) view the status of such complaint at any time, 
                including the status of any interim or final action 
                taken to address the complaint;
            (2) any complaint filed under paragraph (1)(A) shall be 
        promptly transmitted to an appropriate patient advocate of the 
        Department of Defense; and
            (3) complaints filed under paragraph (1)(A) with respect to 
        a military medical treatment facility may be automatically 
        aggregated and submitted to the Director of the Defense Health 
        Agency on a quarterly basis.
    (b) Report on Complaints Filed Under Digital System.--
            (1) Submission.--Not later than March 1 of each year 
        following the establishment of the system under subsection (a), 
        the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committees on 
        Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Senate a 
        report on the total number of complaints filed under such 
        system.
            (2) Elements.--Each report under paragraph (1) shall 
        include, for each military medical treatment facility with 
        respect to which a complaint was filed under the system under 
        subsection (a), the following:
                    (A) An identification of the most common access to 
                care complaints filed by covered beneficiaries with 
                respect to such facility.
                    (B) A comparison of the number of complaints so 
                filed regarding access to specialty care versus access 
                to primary care.
                    (C) A comparison of the number of complaints so 
                filed regarding access to pediatric versus non-
                pediatric care.
                    (D) A comparison of the number of complaints so 
                filed regarding administrative hurdles to access versus 
                other access issues.
                    (E) A summary of steps taken at such facility to 
                reduce access to care complaints by covered 
                beneficiaries.
    (c) Covered Beneficiary Defined.--In this section, the term 
``covered beneficiary'' means an individual enrolled in a health care 
plan under the TRICARE program and eligible to receive care at a 
military medical treatment facility.
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