Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Advances Cramer’s Bill to Improve Access to Care for Rural Veterans

WASHINGTON, D.C. - For veterans living in highly rural states, accessing timely health care can be a daily struggle. Long drives, excessive wait times, and backlogged U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities often make receiving timely routine care a major challenge. Today, the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee (SVAC) overwhelmingly advanced U.S. Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Tim Sheehy's (R-MT) Critical Access for Veterans Care Act, which is designed to support veteran care closer to home.

The legislation establishes a five-year pilot program to improve care coordination and simplify access for veterans receiving care at Critical Access Hospitals through the VA Community Care Program. Specifically, it creates a preauthorization pathway for outpatient services at participating facilities for veterans who live within 35 miles of a Critical Access Hospital and are eligible under community care criteria. This means fewer administrative barriers, shorter waits, and easier access to the care veterans deserve.

The Critical Access for Veterans Care Act focuses on Medicare frontier states like North Dakota, Nevada, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska, areas where travel distances and limited VA resources make access especially difficult.

"The Critical Access for Veterans Care Act recognizes the barriers veterans face in rural North Dakota and tests a more efficient way of delivering the care they were promised through local Critical Access Hospitals," said Cramer. "It's about making health care accessible, convenient, and practical for those who have served our country."

In North Dakota, there's just one VA Medical Center in Fargo with eight Community-Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) spread across the state inBismarck, Devils Lake, Dickinson, Grafton, Grand Forks, Jamestown, Minot, and Williston. North Dakota has 37 Critical Access Hospitals across the state, but only five of those towns also host a VA CBOC. This leaves veterans in the remaining communities with less access to care than other citizens.

As part of a SVAC legislative hearing on Dec. 11, the North Dakota Rural Health Association and a coalition of 22 rural North Dakota health care providers submitted letters of support for Cramer's legislation. They wrote, "Far too long veterans have been stuck in a system where access has been overshadowed by bureaucratic procedure. This legislation offers a streamlined, practical approach which builds on existing infrastructure and recognized designations in rural health care to meaningfully improve veteran access to care." The American Hospital Association, America's Warrior Partnership, and the National Rural Health Association also supported the legislation.

Cramer published an op-ed in The Washington Times, in December, highlighting his Critical Access for Veterans Care Act. He wrote, "The promise to our veterans was quality care, not government-rationed care, and reforms are needed to deliver on this promise."