H.R. 6796

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

<DOC>

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.
<all>