Houston Chronicle by Bill Lambrecht May 24, 2019
New rules due shortly from the Department of Veterans Affairs will enable tens of thousands more Texas veterans to get treatment outside the VA system, providing more choices but also triggering worries that the nation’s largest health care system could be “hollowed out†over time.
Veterans who must drive at least 30 minutes to a VA medical clinic or wait 20 days for an appointment can get primary and mental health care outside VA system, one of the changes in the Trump administration’s revamped community care program that takes effect June 6.
As it stands, veterans who must drive 40 miles or wait 30 days have private options. About 40 percent of the 9 million veterans enrolled in VA programs will qualify, suggesting that the new rules could bring a major shift in VA-funded outside appointments in the years ahead.
The expansion of private care - which Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie has compared to the G.I. Bill in significance - could be especially appealing to veterans in rural areas. It enables President Donald Trump to fulfill a campaign promise to give veterans more choice. Conservative supporters of the president relish the prospect of private options outside a publicly run system after failing for years to destroy the Affordable Care Act.
VA senior officials briefing reporters this week promised “a single and simple community care program†and “an excellent experience†for veterans. Given the breadth of change, the veterans’ agency has set up a “joint operations center†anticipating problems, they said.
“This is a large undertaking. We understand that there might be issues with any such implementation,†said one official, like the others speaking on the condition they not be named.
Congress last year gave the VA authority to make the shift as worries persisted about VA shortcomings and a wait time scandal five years ago that cost top Veterans Affairs officials their jobs. Those problems ushered in the VA Choice Program, the system of private care now in place with the 40-mile, 30-day eligibility rules.
But some of the nation’s leading veterans service organizations, along with Democrats in Congress, worry that opening the door to private care widely will erode the Veterans Health Administration over time.
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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas_legislature/article/Texas-veterans-brace-for-new-system-of-outsourced-13892823.phpI just received a letter from the VA about this Today.
