June 20, 2014

The House Committee on Veterans Affairs held a hearing on June 18 to discuss how the VA can better provide health care to veterans outside of the VA’s hospitals and clinics.   

The VA already has a civilian health care network designed to help provide veterans with timely access to care at a facility closer to home.    

Representatives from the VA’s Patient-Centered Community (purchased) Care contractors – TriWest and Health Net – testified that the program is growing in certain regions, but isn’t as robust or well utilized as DoD’s TRICARE network.   

Randy Williamson, director of the GAO’s health care program noted that the VA’s purchased care system suffers from many of the same flaws as the rest of VA health care system. Wait times are not tracked, claims processing errors are too common, patient data is not seamlessly communicated back to the VA, and appointment scheduling problems are widespread. "Once a veteran is authorized to use [purchased] care, the VA does not track how long the veteran waits to see the provider. So little is known about wait times," Williamson said.  

Building an adequate health care network to help ease demand at VA facilities is a common-sense approach. But the entire VA health care system is in need of a thorough review. That’s why MOAA asked the president to establish an independent, high-level commission to examine the VA health care system for the 21st century to ensure it provides veterans with timely access to quality care.