TRAVEL Act of 2025
Officially: “TRAVEL Act of 2025” Read the full text
What it does
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1Short title
This section would let the Act be called the Territorial Response and Access to Veterans' Essential Lifecare Act, or the TRAVEL Act of 2025.
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1. Short title This Act may be cited as the the Territorial Response and Access to Veterans’ Essential Lifecare Act or the TRAVEL Act of 2025 .
2Department of Veterans assignment of traveling physicians to serve territories and possessions
This section would add a new section 7415 to title 38 of the United States Code and add a matching entry to that chapter's table of sections. Under the new section, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs could assign a physician appointed under section 7401 of title 38 to serve as a traveling physician for a period of up to one year. A traveling physician would provide health care to veterans living in American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands of the United States, and any other territory or possession of the United States, at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities located in those territories and possessions. While providing this care, a traveling physician would have to coordinate with medical providers outside the Department to the extent necessary to ensure veterans receiving hospital care and medical services get high quality, coordinated care. Beyond the pay a traveling physician already receives under section 7431 of title 38, the Secretary would have to give traveling physicians a relocation or retention bonus, which would have to be substantially similar to the relocation or retention bonuses offered under sections 5753 and 5754 of title 5, United States Code, respectively, as the Secretary considers appropriate.
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2. Department of Veterans assignment of traveling physicians to serve territories and possessions (a) In general Subchapter I of chapter 74 of title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 7415. Traveling physicians (a) In general The Secretary may assign a physician appointed under section 7401 of this title to serve as a traveling physician for a period of not more than one year. A traveling physician shall provide health care to veterans residing in American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands of the United States, and any other territory or possession of the United States at Department facilities located in such territories and possessions. (b) Coordination of care In providing care under this section, traveling physicians shall coordinate with non-Department medical providers to the extent necessary to ensure high quality and coordinated care for veterans receiving hospital care and medical services. (c) Pay In addition to pay under section 7431 of this title, the Secretary shall provide a relocation or retention bonus to traveling physicians under this section. A relocation or retention bonus under this subsection shall be substantially similar to a relocation or retention bonus offered under sections 5753 and 5754, respectively, of title 5, as the Secretary considers appropriate. . (b) Clerical amendment The table of sections at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 7414 the following new item: 7415. Traveling physicians. .
Where it is
In the House.