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Women Veterans Specialty Care Access Act
To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ensure that women veterans may schedule appointments for women's specialty care under the laws administered by the Secretary without requiring a referral, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to allow women veterans to directly schedule appointments for women's specialty care, including gynecology, obstetrics, maternity, and postpartum care, without first obtaining a referral from a primary care provider. Women veterans enrolled in the VA system would be able to schedule these appointments through any VA medical center or clinic offering this care, using telephone, online scheduling tools, or other VA scheduling methods. The bill prohibits the VA from requiring any additional approval, referral, or screening steps beyond what is needed to access the care. The changes apply to eligible women veterans enrolled in the VA's patient enrollment system. The bill does not alter existing eligibility requirements for receiving women's specialty care under VA laws.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
2 cosponsors
Actions (3)
- Apr 29, 2026 Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. · senate
- Mar 5, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. · senate
- Mar 5, 2026 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Committee action
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Meetings where this bill was on the agenda
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 5, 2026
Mrs. Blackburn (for herself and Ms. Hassan) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ensure that women veterans may schedule appointments for women’s specialty care under the laws administered by the Secretary without requiring a referral, 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 “Women Veterans Specialty Care Access Act”.
SEC. 2. DIRECT SCHEDULING OF WOMEN’S SPECIALTY CARE FOR WOMEN VETERANS.
(a) In General.—The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall ensure that any covered veteran may directly schedule an appointment for women’s specialty care, including through the Veterans Community Care Program under section 1703 of title 38, United States Code, without requiring a referral from a primary care provider of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
(b) Availability.—The Secretary shall ensure that direct scheduling under subsection (a) is available—
(1) through each medical center or clinic of the Department that offers women’s specialty care; and
(2) via telephone, online scheduling tools, and any other modality used by the Department for scheduling of specialty care.
(c) Prohibition on Additional Administrative Barriers.—The Secretary may not require any additional approval, referral, or screening step as a condition of a covered veteran accessing women’s specialty care.
(d) Rule of Construction.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter or waive eligibility or access standards for the receipt of care or services under section 1703 of title 38, United States Code.
(e) Definitions.—In this section:
(1) Covered veteran.—The term “covered veteran” means a woman veteran enrolled in the system of annual patient enrollment of the Department of Veterans Affairs established and operated under section 1705(a) of title 38, United States Code, who is eligible for the receipt of women’s specialty care under the laws administered by the Secretary.
(2) Women’s specialty care.—The term “women’s specialty care” means gynecology care, obstetrics care, maternity care, and postpartum care. <all>
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