The Department of Veterans Affairs this week boasted that more than 2 million health appointments have been scheduled through the new VA Choice Program, even though the VA itself has tried to scale that program back and raid its funding in the short time it’s been up and running.
The Choice Program, authorized in 2014 under the Choice Act, gives veterans the option to seek private healthcare services if they have waited more than 30 days for an appointment from the Veterans Health Administration, or if they live more than 40 miles from a VA facility. It was created after a scandal erupted in which the VA was found to be manipulating data to make it appear as if veterans were quickly getting appointments, when instead thousands were waiting months or even years.
“While two million appointments have been scheduled using the Choice Program and we are making progress, we will not rest until all veterans who choose VA to be their healthcare provider are receiving the care they need when they need it,” VA Secretary Robert McDonald said. “We will continue to make strides towards an integrated care network.”
Despite those words, the Obama administration has been fighting the Choice Program since its inception. Less than nine months after signing the Choice Act into law, Obama proposed a budget plan that would have decreased funding for the program.
Additionally, the VA proposed using Choice Act funding to bail itself out of a $3 billion jam that threatened to close hospitals around the country. The VA reported this shortfall to Congress just a few weeks before those closures would have happened, leaving Congress no choice but to repurpose the money.
Aside from these efforts to diminish the program, Republicans have complained that the VA has shown that it isn’t good at implementing this or any other program.
“VA obviously has an interest in shifting the blame for issues with the program, but really the chief problem with Choice is that we’ve had to rely on VA to implement it, and the department is just not very good at implementing things,” one House aide told the Washington Examiner.
This aide said the VA had the authority to create a program like the one outlined in the Choice Act even before Congress passed it two years ago, and refused.
“The reason Congress had to create the Choice Program was to force VA administrators to offer non-VA care to veterans who couldn’t receive it in a timely or convenient fashion from the department – something they weren’t doing prior to the scandal despite having the authority to do so,” he said.
Lawmakers are still looking for ways to get care to veterans outside the VA. Just last month, a draft bill was introduced by House Republican leadership that would allow veterans to seek care from a government chartered nonprofit corporation instead of the VA.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced legislation in April that would expand veterans’ healthcare options by allowing disabled and eligible veterans to enroll in the Choice Program.
In the last year, the Choice Provider Network has expanded by 85 percent and includes more than 350,000 providers and facilities. From October 2015 to March 2016, Choice Program authorizations for care increased 103 percent, according to the VA.
More than 1,700 hospitals and clinics are headed up by the Veterans Health Administration and more than 9 million veterans receive care from these facilities.
