Ensuring Veterans Access to Care Act of 2014
Latest action. Read the second time. Placed on Senate legislative calendarThe list of measures reported out of committee and eligible for floor action. Being on the calendar is not a promise of a vote.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) under General Orders. Calendar No. 408.
Ensuring Veterans Access to Care Act of 2014 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to: (1) implement an upgraded and centralized electronic system for scheduling individuals' appointments for VA health care, and (2) contract for an independent assessment of the process at each VA medical facility for scheduling such appointments.
Sets forth measures concerning the training and hiring of VA health personnel that:
protect primary care physicians from liability for failing to perform their period of obligated service under the Health Professionals Educational Assistance Program due to VA staffing changes or an oversupply of primary care physicians;
allow individuals, as part of that Program, to enroll in the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences to pursue a medical education with a primary care specialization;
require the Secretary to annually identify the five VA health care occupations for which there are the largest staffing shortages, to recruit and appoint health care providers to those positions, and to give scholarship priority under the Health Professionals Educational Assistance Program to applicants pursuing careers in those occupations;
direct the Secretary to implement a clinic management training program to provide in-person, standardized education on health care management to all managers of, and health care providers at, VA medical facilities; and
include service at VA medical facilities as obligated service under the National Health Service Corps Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs.
Establishes measures to improve veterans' access to health care from non-VA providers by:
requiring the Secretary to make enhanced use of the Secretary's existing authorities to give veterans access to health care at non-VA facilities if they cannot get timely access to care at VA health facilities;
extending a joint Department of Defense (DOD)-VA program to identify, implement, and evaluate creative health care coordination and sharing initiatives at facility, intraregional, and nationwide levels;
requiring the Secretary to transfer the authority to pay for health care through non-VA facilities from the VA's Veterans Integrated Service Networks and medical centers to the Veterans Health Administration's Chief Business Office;
The summary continues for 8 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on June 3, 2014. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on June 4, 2014: Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 408.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 113th Congress (2013-14), 296 of the 9,091 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Bernard Sanders (I-VT) introduced it on June 3, 2014, and 32 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 32 Democrats.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on June 3, 2014, 4482 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4481 days ago, on June 4, 2014.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 113th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2015 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers