HR3400-119

What This Bill Does

The TRAVEL Act of 2025 creates a traveling-physician authority inside VA health personnel law. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may assign physicians appointed under section 7401 or section 7431 to serve as traveling physicians for periods of not more than one year at a time. Those physicians may provide health care to veterans residing in American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or any other U.S. territory or possession, at VA facilities or other approved facilities in those places. VA may assign multiple traveling physicians and assign each physician to a specific territory or possession. Traveling physicians must coordinate with non-VA medical providers when practicable and necessary to ensure high-quality, coordinated hospital care and medical services. The bill authorizes relocation or retention bonuses similar to VA retention bonuses, updates related statutory terminology from retention allowances to retention bonuses, and extends the 38 U.S.C. 5503(d)(7) pension-payment date to December 31, 2032.

Who Benefits and How

Veterans in American Samoa, veterans in Guam, veterans in the Northern Mariana Islands, veterans in Puerto Rico, veterans in the U.S. Virgin Islands, veterans in other U.S. territories, VA facilities in territories, non-VA medical providers in territories, VA traveling physicians, and veterans receiving pension benefits benefit because the bill gives VA a flexible staffing mechanism, bonus authority, and provider-coordination pathway to bring VA clinicians to places where permanent VA specialty capacity may be limited.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration workforce managers, VA physician schedulers, VA budget staff, VA traveling physicians, non-VA medical providers in territories, approved facilities in territories, and VA pension administrators bear burdens because they must select and assign physicians, manage one-year rotations, pay relocation or retention bonuses, coordinate care across VA and non-VA facilities, administer territory-specific assignments, and update pension-payment administration.

Key Provisions

• Authorizes VA physicians appointed under sections 7401 or 7431 to serve as traveling physicians for up to one year at a time.
• Allows traveling physicians to serve veterans in American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and other U.S. territories or possessions.
• Allows VA to assign multiple physicians and assign each to a specific territory or possession.
• Requires traveling physicians to coordinate with non-VA providers when practicable and necessary.
• Requires VA to provide relocation or retention bonuses similar to section 7410(a) bonuses.
• Extends the section 5503(d)(7) pension-payment date to December 31, 2032.