I 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7136 
To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a comprehensive 
standard for timing between referrals and appointments for care from 
the Department of Veterans Affairs and to submit a report with respect 
to that standard, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 30, 2024 
Mr. SCOTT FRANKLIN of Florida (for himself, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, 
and Mr. VAN ORDEN) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 
A BILL 
To require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish 
a comprehensive standard for timing between referrals 
and appointments for care from the Department of Vet-
erans Affairs and to submit a report with respect to 
that standard, 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 ‘‘Scheduling for Com-
munity Health and Easy Data to Understand for Legisla-
tors to Evaluate Services Act of 2024’’ or the ‘‘SCHED-
ULES Act of 2024’’. 
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SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE STANDARD 
FOR TIMING BETWEEN REFERRAL AND AP-
POINTMENT FOR CARE FROM DEPARTMENT 
OF VETERANS AFFAIRS. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARD.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs shall establish a comprehensive standard for 
timing between the date on which a referral for care 
for a veteran under the laws administered by the 
Secretary is entered into the care coordination sys-
tem of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the 
date on which an appointment for care for the vet-
eran occurs, whether at a facility of the Department 
or through care in the community. 
(2) MODIFICATION.—The Secretary may modify 
the standard established under paragraph (1) as the 
appointment scheduling processes of the Department 
for care at a facility of the Department or through 
care in the community are updated. 
(3) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 30 days be-
fore establishing under paragraph (1) or modifying 
under paragraph (2) the comprehensive standard re-
quired under this subsection, the Secretary shall 
publish such standard in the Federal Register and 
on a publicly available internet website of the De-
partment. 
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paragraph (A), disaggregated by each of the 
five, or more, most in-demand categories of care 
provided at such facility (such as mental health, 
cardiology, neurology, oncology, etc.). 
(C) A list of all medical centers of the De-
partment ranked from best to worst in meeting 
the standard under subsection (a), including a 
disaggregated list by State. 
(3) ANNUALLY INCLUDED INFORMATION.—Not 
less frequently than annually, the Secretary shall in-
clude in the report required under paragraph (1)— 
(A) aggregated data for the four-quarter 
period preceding the date of the report; 
(B) a description of steps taken by the De-
partment to improve the timeliness of the provi-
sion of care by the Department and an estimate 
of when the Department will be fully compliant 
with the standard under subsection (a). 
(4) 
PUBLIC
AVAILABILITY.—The 
Secretary 
shall make each report required under paragraph (1) 
publicly available on a website of the Veterans 
Health Administration. 
Æ 
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