FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY APRIL 10, 2015
Contact: Amanda Maddox (Isakson), 202-224-7777
Josh Zembik (Blumenthal), 202-224-6452
As
Unacceptably-long Wait Times for Veterans Persist, Isakson, Blumenthal
Call on VA Secretary to Provide Detailed Plan on Use, Integration of
Care Outside VA System
Senators
Urge VA To Do Everything Possible To Ensure Veterans Are Aware Of All
Health Care Options Available, Inside and Outside VA Health System
WASHINGTON
– U.S. Senators Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.,
chairman and ranking member of the Senate
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, respectively, today wrote to Department
of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald to request he provide
clear guidance to local VA medical centers and their patients regarding
options for veterans to receive health care
from local, community-based providers outside of VA hospitals and
facilities.
"Non-VA
care is used by VA to reduce and end unacceptably long wait times, to
provide services when there is a lack of available VA specialists, and
to decrease excessive travel distances for
treatment,” the senators wrote.
"We believe that it is vitally important veterans and providers receive
accurate information on care available at the local Department of
Veterans Affairs
Medical Centers (VAMC) and in the community in order to understand the
care options feasible. All too often, veterans and providers are unaware
of these options and local facilities offering or approving non-VA care
seems to vary arbitrarily from one VAMC
to the next.”
The
letter requests that Secretary McDonald and VA provide a detailed plan
for correcting inconsistencies and underutilization of health care
options for veterans when they receive that care outside
of VA facilities. This plan should include next steps for disseminating
information to third-party administrators and local VAMC’s to ensure
that veterans and providers are aware of all options available,
utilizing data about increases or decreases in outside
spending, conducting a review and making a recommendation regarding
consolidating all programs that VA uses to provide veterans with care in
their community in the future.
April 10, 2015
Dear Secretary McDonald:
We
write to ask that you promptly provide clear guidance to both local VA
Medical Centers (VAMC) and their patients on using medical care and
services provided in the community, known as “non-VA
care”. As spending on non-VA care surged forty-six percent to over $7
billion in the last fiscal year, we are concerned VA has yet to set
forth a consistent and sustainable policy for this program.
As
you are aware, non-VA care is used by VA to reduce and end unacceptably
long wait times, to provide services when there is a lack of available
VA specialists, and to decrease excessive travel
distances for treatment. We believe it is vitally important veterans
and providers receive accurate information on care available at the
local VAMC and in the community in order to understand the care options
feasible. All too often, veterans and providers
are unaware of these options and local facilities offering or approving
non-VA care seems to vary arbitrarily from one VAMC to the next. We
have heard from veterans across the country that have tried to utilize
non-VA care and were turned away with no explanation
of other options that might be available. The recent hearing on March
24th before the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs has confirmed and
dramatized these failings, which are unfortunate and unacceptable.
Therefore,
we ask you to provide us with a detailed plan for improving and
integrating all non-VA care options used by VA not later than May 20,
2015. The plan should include VA’s proposed or planned
action to:
1.
Correct inconsistencies and underutilization of different care options
available to veterans, particularly when a veteran may be eligible for
more than one care option and costs of such options
based on utilization rates of Choice, Patient Centered Community Care
(PC3), Individual Agreements, and Project ARCH over the next three
fiscal years.
2.
Disseminate information to the third party administrators and local
VAMCs to ensure that veterans and providers are aware of all options
available to produce a plan for utilizing each program
efficiently and effectively.
3. Utilize data about increases or
decreases in spending on non-VA care options to make decisions about
internal staffing needs.
4.
Conduct a review of all traditional non-VA care programs (PC3,
Individual Agreements, Fee-basis, etc.) and make recommendations about
the program best suited to provide veterans with care in
the community in the future. This review should include the rates VA
pays non-VA providers, utilization of the programs, and identify a
manner to communicate to VAMCs the non-VA care programs available to
provide veterans care in the community.
Reforms
will help improve veterans care options. We hope for a plan by May 20,
2015. We look forward to working with you to bring consistency to
utilization of the various non-VA care programs authorized
by Congress. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Johnny Isakson
Richard Blumenthal
###
The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is chaired by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., in the 114th Congress.
Isakson
is a veteran himself – having served in the Georgia Air National Guard
from 1966-1972 – and has been a member of the Senate VA Committee since
he joined the Senate in 2005. Isakson’s home
state of Georgia is home to more than a dozen military installations
representing each branch of the military as well as more than 750,000
veterans.