I 
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 Com-
mittee on Armed Services 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of Defense to establish a digital 
system for the submission of complaints relating to ac-
cess issues at military medical treatment facilities, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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’’. 
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SEC. 2. DIGITAL SYSTEM FOR ACCESS ASSISTANCE AT MILI-
TARY 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 dig-
ital 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 pa-
tient 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.— 
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(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 sys-
tem. 
(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 bene-
ficiaries with respect to such facility. 
(B) A comparison of the number of com-
plaints so filed regarding access to specialty 
care versus access to primary care. 
(C) A comparison of the number of com-
plaints so filed regarding access to pediatric 
versus non-pediatric care. 
(D) A comparison of the number of com-
plaints so filed regarding administrative hurdles 
to access versus other access issues. 
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(E) A summary of steps taken at such fa-
cility to reduce access to care complaints by 
covered beneficiaries. 
(c) COVERED BENEFICIARY DEFINED.—In this sec-
tion, the term ‘‘covered beneficiary’’ means an individual 
enrolled in a health care plan under the TRICARE pro-
gram and eligible to receive care at a military medical 
treatment facility. 
Æ 
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