COVER Act

Creating Options for Veterans Expedited Recovery Act or the COVER Act - Establishes the Veterans Expedited Recovery Commission to:

• examine the efficacy of the evidence-based therapy model used by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs for treating mental health illnesses of veterans and identify areas to improve wellness-based outcomes;
• conduct a patient-centered survey within each of the Veterans Integrated Service Networks to examine the experience of veterans with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) when seeking medical assistance for mental health issues through the VA health care system, their experience with non-VA facilities and health professionals for such issues, their preferences regarding available treatments for such issues and which methods they believe to be most effective, their experience with complementary alternative treatment therapies, the prevalence of prescribing prescription medication among veterans seeking treatment through the VA health care system to address mental health issues, and the Secretary's outreach efforts regarding the availability of benefits and treatments for such issues;
• examine available research on complementary alternative treatment therapies for mental health issues (including music, yoga, and meditation therapy) and identify what benefits could be made with the inclusion of such treatments for veterans; and
• study the potential increase in the approval by the Secretary of claims for compensation relating to mental health issues for veterans who served in Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn.

Directs the Secretary, upon a report by the Commission, to submit: (1) an action plan for implementing recommendations and a time frame for implementing complementary alternative treatments, or (2) a justification for not doing so and an alternative solution to improve the efficacy of the therapy model.