# Plain Language Summary: TRAVEL Act of 2025

This bill creates a new program that allows the Department of Veterans Affairs to send doctors to U.S. territories to provide medical care to veterans living there. The territories included are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and any other U.S. territories or possessions. Right now, veterans in these remote locations often have limited access to VA medical services, so this bill aims to solve that problem by temporarily assigning VA physicians to travel to these areas and work at VA facilities there.

The doctors in this program, called "traveling physicians," can be assigned for up to one year at a time. While they're working in the territories, they'll provide regular medical care to veterans at VA facilities and will also work with local doctors and hospitals to make sure veterans get coordinated, high-quality care. This coordination is important because the territories may not have all the specialized medical services that larger mainland VA hospitals offer, so traveling physicians will need to work with community providers to fill those gaps.

To make this program work, the bill allows the VA to offer doctors extra pay on top of their regular salary—either a bonus to help them relocate to a territory or a bonus to encourage them to stay longer. These bonuses would be similar to what the federal government already offers other employees who take temporary assignments in difficult-to-fill locations. Essentially, the bill recognizes that asking doctors to leave their homes and work in remote territories requires financial incentives to attract qualified physicians.

TRAVEL Act of 2025

King-Hinds, Kimberlyn

The Territorial Response and Access to Veterans' Essential Lifecare Act or the TRAVEL Act of 2025This bill authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to assign a physician who has been appointed in the Veterans Health Administration to serve as a traveling physician for a period of not more than one year. Such physician must provide health care to veterans at VA facilities located in American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and any other territory or possession of the United States.Traveling physicians must coordinate with non-VA providers when necessary to ensure high quality and coordinated care for veterans receiving hospital care and medical services.The VA must provide a relocation or retention bonus to traveling&nbsp;physicians.