Clarity on Care Options Act
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMrs. Kiggans of Virginia introduced the following bill; which was …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Clarity on Care Options Act requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to create and maintain a publicly searchable directory of healthcare providers that accept patients through the CHAMPVA program. CHAMPVA covers healthcare for eligible spouses and children of veterans who died or were permanently disabled due to military service. The bill addresses the challenge beneficiaries face in finding doctors willing to accept CHAMPVA payments.
Who Benefits and How
CHAMPVA beneficiaries (family members of disabled or deceased veterans) benefit most directly by gaining easy access to information about which providers accept their insurance. Currently, many beneficiaries struggle to find participating providers, especially in underserved areas. Healthcare providers who accept CHAMPVA may also benefit from increased visibility and patient volume through the directory.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of Veterans Affairs faces new administrative burdens: they must establish the directory within 180 days, maintain it ongoing, and submit detailed annual reports to Congress for five years. VA Community Care Network administrators must conduct annual surveys of all providers in their networks. Healthcare providers in these networks face a minor burden of responding to annual queries about their CHAMPVA participation.
Key Provisions
- Creates a mandatory, publicly accessible directory of providers accepting CHAMPVA assignments
- Requires network administrators to query all providers annually about CHAMPVA participation
- Sets a 90-day deadline for initial provider queries and 180-day deadline for directory launch
- Mandates 5 years of annual Congressional reports on provider participation rates
- Requires reports to identify geographic gaps where CHAMPVA beneficiaries lack nearby participating providers
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish and maintain a publicly available directory of health care providers that accept assignments under the CHAMPVA program, and mandates annual reporting to Congress on provider participation rates.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Increase transparency in CHAMPVA program by making provider participation information publicly accessible and requiring regular Congressional oversight"
Likely Beneficiaries
- CHAMPVA program beneficiaries (family members of disabled or deceased veterans)
- Veterans seeking healthcare information for their dependents
- Healthcare consumers seeking providers that accept CHAMPVA
Likely Burden Bearers
- Department of Veterans Affairs (administrative burden of maintaining directory and reporting)
- Healthcare provider network administrators (must conduct annual queries)
- Federal taxpayers (cost of implementation and ongoing maintenance)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Veterans Affairs
- "administering_entity"
- → Entity administering provider network under 38 USC 1703
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
To accept responsibility for the care of a CHAMPVA program beneficiary and thereby agree to accept the amount determined allowable under the CHAMPVA program as full payment for services and supplies rendered to the beneficiary.
The Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs under section 1781 of title 38, United States Code, and Part 17 of title 38, Code of Federal Regulations.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology