Struggles of the Veterans Community Care Program
Imagine this: You’re a veteran who needs to see a doctor, but the VA hospital is far away. The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP) was created to help you get appointments with doctors closer to your home.
According to the VA official site, “VA provides care to Veterans through community providers when VA cannot provide the care needed. Community care is based on specific eligibility requirements, availability of VA care, and the needs and circumstances of individual Veterans.”
But here’s the problem: The VCCP is costing way more than expected, almost $30 billion in 2023 alone, according to the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute.
“The cost of the VCCP increased from $14.8 billion in FY2018 to $28.5 billion in FY2023, increasing 19% from FY 2023 to FY 2024. Costs are projected to continue to grow rapidly unless steps are taken to increase the accessibility of VHA’s direct care system and more cost-effectively manage community care referrals.”
Read next: Disabled Veteran Benefits Guide
Funding Issues
Funding isn’t the only problem. An Axios report notes that instead of making wait times shorter, it’s actually making them longer, even though it’s supposed to do the opposite.
“Veterans are waiting more than two weeks on average from the time a referral is made to even schedule an appointment through the community care program, according to audits by the Government Accountability Office. They’re supposed to have mental health appointments within 30 days,” according to an Axios report titled “Federal program said it would help veterans. Instead, it’s putting them on hold.”
Government reports show some veterans wait over two weeks to get appointments through the VCCP. That’s a long time, especially for those dealing with a mental health issue.
Furthermore, the VA has slowed down its hiring of healthcare workers this year, which raises questions about whether the VA will retain enough doctors and nurses to help all the veterans who need care.
Read next: Disabled Veteran Benefits Guide
Rising Costs
Experts are worried that the rising costs of the VCCP will drain money from the VA’s hospitals and clinics. This could mean cuts to important services, which would be bad news for veterans.
What kind of rising costs? According to a report issued by VeteransPolicy.org, “In FY 2022, more than 40% of enrolled Veterans were provided care through the VCCP. The number of such referrals has grown at a rate of 15-20% per year in recent years. The cost of the VCCP increased from $14.8 billion in FY2018 to $28.5 billion in FY2023, increasing 19% from FY 2023 to FY 2024.”
Such costs are projected to “continue to grow rapidly unless steps are taken to increase the accessibility of VHA’s direct care system and more cost-effectively manage community care referrals.”
VA officials say they still want to hire more people in areas like mental health and heart care, but with increased costs and less money available, it’s unclear if they’ll have to cut back in other areas.
Read next: Disabled Veteran Benefits Guide
Positive Feedback
The VeteransPolicy.org report doesn’t just criticize the VA, VHA, and the VCCP. According to the report, the Veterans Health Administration receives positive comments for “accessible and high-quality care in its direct care system,” noting, “As with all large health systems, regrettable situations sometimes occur that highlight opportunities for improvement.”
Additionally, “as the nation’s only national health system, as well as being a public system, the VHA is challenged by the specific circumstances of the highly diverse environments in which it operates and the constraints of being a government program.”
The report adds that veterans commonly get care “comparable to and often better than care provided by private sector providers.”
However, “while VHA has a stated goal of providing Veterans with ‘the soonest and best care,’ insufficient information is available to the VCCP to know whether referrals to community providers will result in the Veteran receiving either the soonest or the best care, recognizing that the soonest care does not necessarily equate to the best care.”
Fixing the VCCP
The report makes a variety of suggestions, but in context one of the most important to note?
The report says existing VA eligibility criteria “can lead Veterans to receive care from community providers that is a longer drive time or appointment wait time than what VHA could have offered. The criteria “should be refined or clarified” to make certain that clinical “referrals to the community are made when it is actually a more accessible or otherwise better option.”
Furthermore, “alternative options for assessing and measuring access to care (i.e., alternative to or in addition to wait times and drive times) should be considered.”
Read next: Disabled Veteran Benefits Guide
About the author
Editor-in-Chief Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter/editor for Air Force Television News and the Pentagon Channel. His freelance work includes contract work for Motorola, VALoans.com, and Credit Karma. He is co-founder of Dim Art House in Springfield, Illinois, and spends his non-writing time as an abstract painter, independent publisher, and occasional filmmaker.
