Ensuring all veterans have access to timely care is one of Chairman Roe’s highest priorities, and one of the committee’s first hearings of the 115th Congress was to examine the Choice Program and the future of community care.
Nearly three years ago when committee oversight and subsequent media reports uncovered that veterans around the country were waiting for care, Congress passed the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act (P.L. 113-146), which established the Choice Program. The Choice Program allows veterans who meet certain qualifications to seek care from health care providers outside VA.
The Choice Act included language to state that the Department of Veterans Affairs is authorized to continue services until August 7, 2017, or until the funds provided under the Choice Act ran out, whichever occurred first. Secretary Shulkin told the committee during a March 2017 hearing on community care that allowing the Choice Program to sunset would be a “disaster for American veterans” and warned we would see the “same situation we saw in April 2014 in Phoenix.” In response to reports from VA that the funds appropriated for the Choice program would not be completely used by the August 7th deadline, Congress passed legislation that was signed into law in April 2017 to eliminate the statutory sunset date for the Choice Program and instead allow the program to continue until the original funding has been expended.
On June 17, 2017, Secretary Shulkin notified Congress that, due to an increased demand for care through Choice, VA expects the funding for the Choice Program to be depleted by mid-August.
At a June 2017 hearing on the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) budget, Poonam Alaigh, M.D., Acting Under Secretary for Health at VHA, responded to Chairman Roe’s question about what would happen if Congress fails to replenish the Choice fund. Dr. Alaigh noted that, if Congress fails to act, veterans will not be able to access care outside VA through Choice; wait times will go up to the level they were before the Phoenix waitlist scandal; and Third Party Administrators (TPAs) around the country will be laid off.
House and Senate VA committee leaders worked together to pass the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017 to authorize and appropriate funding for the VA to continue the Veterans Choice Program and strengthen VA care. President Trump signed the legislation into law on August 12, 2017. In addition to providing critical funding to continue the Veterans Choice Program, the legislation also authorizes 28 major medical facility leases and puts in place reforms that strengthen the VA’s ability to recruit, train and retain their workforce.
The 28 major medical facility leases authorized in the
VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017 include Ann Arbor, Mich., Birmingham, Ala., Boston, Mass., Charleston, S.C., Corpus Christi, Texas, Daytona Beach, Fla., Denver, Colo., Fredericksburg, Va., Gainesville, Fla. (two leases), Hampton Roads, Va., Indianapolis, Ind., Jacksonville, Fla., Missoula, Mont., Northern Colorado, Colo., Ocala, Fla., Oxnard, Calif., Pike County, Ga., Pittsburgh, Pa., Portland, Maine, Raleigh, N.C., Rochester, N.Y., San Diego, Calif., Santa Rosa, Calif., Tampa, Fla., Lakeland/Tampa, Fla., Terre Haute, Fla., and Rapid City, S.D.
On November 3, 2017, Chairman Roe and Ranking Member Walz introduced H.R. 4242, the VA Care in the Community Act. Read more about it at republicans-veterans.house.gov/communitycare.
