S. 506 — Coordinating Care for Senior Veterans and Wounded Warriors Act

This section establishes a three-year pilot program, administered through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Center for Innovation for Care and Payment, to coordinate, navigate, and manage care and benefits for covered veterans across VA facilities, the Veterans Community Care Program (sec. 1703), Veterans Care Agreements (sec. 1703A), and Medicare providers. The program, conducted in 3 to 5 Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs) with large covered veteran populations—including rural or highly rural areas and medically underserved locations—assigns each participating veteran a case manager to develop individualized needs assessments and care coordination plans, facilitates access to needed services, and prioritizes private-sector contracts for design, implementation, and management using existing commercial models such as value-based care. The program's purposes include improving access to care, health outcomes, quality, and patient satisfaction; lowering costs; and eliminating care gaps, service duplication, and coordination issues (e.g., sharing patient information and records). VA must track metrics on participation (by VISN), reliance on VA and Medicare services, quality and patient outcomes, costs, access (including under sec. 1703B standards), provider and patient satisfaction, and care coordination; it must also monitor whether care relates to service-connected disabilities (sec. 101), enrollment priority groups (sec. 1705(a)), care types, and veteran demographics (including age). VA must submit quarterly reports for two years to the Senate and House Committees on Veterans' Affairs on the program's development, implementation, results, and design, with notification to those committees if private-sector contracting proves impracticable (including justification and alternative plans).