H.R. 8199 — SCHEDULES Act of 2026

This section establishes a comprehensive standard, to be set by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA), for the maximum time between entry of a veteran's referral into the VA care coordination system and the veteran's appointment for care, whether at a VA facility or in the community; authorizes the Secretary to modify the standard as appointment scheduling processes are updated; and requires publication of the standard or any modification in the Federal Register and on a public VA website at least 30 days in advance. This section further requires quarterly reports to Congress on the number and percentage of referrals from each VA facility meeting (i) the new comprehensive standard, (ii) the existing three-business-day standard for VA facility appointments, and (iii) the existing seven-calendar-day standard for community care appointments, disaggregated by each facility's five most in-demand care categories (e.g., mental health, cardiology, neurology, oncology). Each report must rank all VA medical centers from best to worst in meeting the comprehensive standard (disaggregated by state), with annual reports additionally including four-quarter aggregated data, steps taken to improve timeliness, and an estimated date for full compliance with the comprehensive standard. The VA must make all reports publicly available on the Veterans Health Administration website.