Improving VA Training for Military Sexual Trauma Claims Act

The training requirement was expanded from covering only 'members of teams established under subsection (a)' to covering 'each employee of the Department who processes such a claim, communicates with a claimant regarding evidence supporting such a claim, or decides such a claim.' This means far more VA staff must receive annual sensitivity and MST-specific training.

The duty to assist in obtaining records for MST claims was strengthened. Previously, VA was only required to obtain the service personnel record 'if there is no credible supporting evidence of a military sexual trauma in the evidence of record.' That condition was removed, so VA must now always obtain both the service personnel record and the service medical record for any MST claim, regardless of what other evidence exists.

In section (c), the language about sensitivity training for contracted health care professionals was reworded from 'health care professionals (including individuals who communicate with veterans to schedule examinations)' to 'health care professionals and individuals who communicate with veterans to schedule examinations,' making it clearer that those who schedule exams are independently covered by the training requirement rather than being treated as a subset of health care professionals.