Doctors, VA and Advocates Tell Subcommittee Direct Scheduling Could Cut Waits for Community Care

Members of the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee discussed H.R. 3482, the Veterans Community Care Scheduling Improvement Act, and heard testimony from providers that a direct scheduling link between VA staff and community providers can shorten wait times.

Dr. Edward O’Brien, associate professor of medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina and a former VA attending physician, described how his institution used an External Provider Scheduling (EPS) link to schedule community appointments. "Scheduling the community care appointment through EPS reduces veteran wait time by an average of 8.8 days," Dr. O’Brien said, adding that the approach reduced average wait times by about 33% across sites using EPS in his area.

Dr. O’Brien said that as of May 2025 his team had scheduled 1,863 appointments via EPS and that about 34% of those appointments were at MUSC. He told the committee MUSC currently schedules directly into 26 subspecialties and had roughly 415 community providers sharing real‑time availability in the system.

The American Legion and other witnesses supported the bill’s intent. Cole Lyle, Director of the Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Division for the American Legion, said robust training for schedulers and better provider engagement are necessary for successful scaling.

Representative Barrett, who chairs the Technology Modernization subcommittee, argued the bill addresses long‑standing inconsistencies across VA sites and could eliminate inefficiencies such as repeated phone calls or mismatched appointment times between veterans and providers.

VA witnesses said they support improving patient scheduling but cautioned that specific legislative mandates could constrain the department’s flexibility. Ms. Sherry Waters, Acting DCIO and Executive Director for the Health Portfolio Product Delivery Services, said the VA is developing human‑centered scheduling solutions and has ongoing work to create self‑service platforms and improve processes.

Committee members asked whether the VA should track savings from EPS deployment and set performance goals. Dr. O’Brien and veteran service organization witnesses said VA should measure time and cost savings and consider performance goals to hold the department accountable.

Next steps: Witnesses and members urged expanded outreach to community providers and better liaisoning with large academic medical centers to increase provider participation in EPS as the committee considers scaling the pilot model across more VA sites.