A Veterans DPC Bill Has Waited in Committee for 15 Months. The VA's Access Data Shows Why It Matters.

Legislation by DPC Insider
#veterans#VA healthcare#HR961#legislation#DPC access#community care#primary care shortage
Sources: VA has touted appointment wait time reductions, but new data shows a more mixed reality · White House says it's cut VA wait times, but new study paints more complicated picture · H.R.961 — Veterans Access to Direct Primary Care Act · Lawmakers consider more than 2 dozen bills to modernize and expand VA programs

The VA lost nearly 19,000 workers since January 2025. In Omaha, veterans now wait an average of 127 days for a neurology appointment. In Dallas, 130. Both numbers were below 90 days the year before.

The White House says wait times have stabilized or improved. A Government Executive review of 134 VA medical centers across 10 specialties found something more complicated: 42% of specialties saw wait times increase. Just 7% of VA facilities met the system’s own 28-day standard for neurology access. Five of 10 practice areas met the access goal overall, same as the prior year.

Sitting in the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, since February 2025, is a bill that would let VA-enrolled veterans access direct primary care outside the system. No hearing has been scheduled. No markup has been announced. The bill hasn’t moved in 15 months.

What HR961 Would Do

The Veterans Access to Direct Primary Care Act, introduced by Rep. Chip Roy of Texas and Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona, directs the VA to run a five-year pilot program. Veterans enrolled in the VA system could choose to receive primary care from a non-VA physician through a DPC arrangement, with payment through a veteran health savings account.

The structure follows what the One Big Beautiful Bill established for civilian HSAs last year: DPC membership fees qualify as defined expenses, the arrangement sits outside insurance billing, and the physician gets paid a flat periodic fee for primary care access rather than per-visit codes. Under HR961, veteran accounts could cover DPC membership fees, associated costs for defined primary care services, and prescription drugs.

The bill has three cosponsors, all Republican. It was referred to committee the day it was introduced and has stayed there.

The DPC Case for Veterans

The VA’s primary care struggle is a version of a problem DPC was built to address: too many patients, too little time, too much administrative overhead between the physician and the person who needs care.

Veterans managing combat-related injuries or chronic service conditions need more from primary care than 15-minute slots can provide. Traumatic brain injuries require longitudinal tracking. Hypertension and diabetes don’t manage themselves between annual appointments. PTSD intersects with physical health in ways that take time to surface and treat.

DPC practices typically carry 400 to 600 patients rather than the 2,000-plus panels common in fee-for-service settings. That means same-day appointments, direct access by phone or text, and visits long enough to address what’s actually happening. For a veteran managing several overlapping conditions from service, that model offers something different from what most VA primary care can deliver right now.

The VA already routes veterans to outside providers through its community care program when the system can’t meet access standards within the required window. VA community care spending runs approximately $34 billion per year. HR961 is asking whether DPC arrangements could provide more consistent primary care than the current community care path for eligible veterans.

Why the Bill Hasn’t Moved

Three Republican cosponsors after 15 months is thin. The bill touches several politically contested areas at once: veterans healthcare privatization concerns, the VA’s relationship with private providers, and federal benefit accounts. Any of those would attract scrutiny. All three together make a committee hearing more complicated to schedule.

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee was reviewing more than two dozen veterans health bills earlier this year, with a focus on combining several into an omnibus package. Whether a DPC pilot lands in that package depends on whether any member with more legislative weight decides it’s worth a push.

VA community care expansion has critics who argue that routing veterans away from the VA system erodes it rather than fixing it. A DPC pilot doesn’t settle that argument. It would create a defined, five-year test of whether the model works for this specific population. Whether Congress wants that data is a different question.

What This Means

For DPC physicians, HR961 names a patient population that is genuinely underserved in ways the model addresses well. Veterans with chronic, complex conditions are exactly the patients who benefit from a smaller panel, more access, and a physician who knows their history.

For veterans, the bill would create a choice that doesn’t currently exist. The VA’s community care standard says veterans can seek outside care when the system can’t meet its access window. DPC-style arrangements aren’t currently among those options.

For Congress, the bill has been in committee since February 2025 while the VA’s staffing cuts and worsening access numbers became harder to explain away. A hearing doesn’t commit to anything. It would at least make clear whether there’s an appetite to test a different approach.

Memorial Day is the day the country says it takes the obligations to veterans seriously. The access data and the pending legislation are both sitting there, waiting for that to mean something specific.