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.

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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

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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. <all>