A House panel this week will hold a hearing on how the Department of Veterans Affairs administers a program aimed at allowing vets to avoid long wait lists by seeking medical care outside of the troubled VA system.
The House Veterans Affairs Committee has invited department officials, healthcare executives and veteran advocates to testify at the Wednesday hearing, which follows a string of criticism about administration of the $10 billion Veterans Choice Program.
VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson will be among the witnesses.
Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., has been critical of the VA’s efforts to implement the Veterans Choice Program, which was signed into law in 2014 as part of an overhaul of the troubled VA.
The law allows vets to seek medical care at a list of approved outside facilities to avoid the long lines and delays that plague the VA system.
But Miller believes the VA is not working hard enough to ensure veterans can use the program.
According to the committee, the VA by the end of April had spent just $501.3 million of the $10 billion allotted for the program. Of that, $300 million was spent on government contractors hired to administer it.
Miller has pointed to a survey by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which found the VA had offered the choice program to less than 20 percent of eligible vets.
Earlier this year, President Obama proposed siphoning money from the Choice Program and using it for other VA expenses.
Department officials told the Washington Examiner the program was underused because vets prefer to get care at the VA, which is better equipped to help them.
