Defunding VA Choice
Last year Congress and the White House made a big deal about passing a huge overhaul bill for the Veterans’ Affairs Department after the department suffered from some of the worst healthcare shortfalls in their history. A key part of that bill was the Veterans’ Choice Program which allowed covered veterans to seek private treatment when the VA system was clogged. Now, a few months later, the White House wants to take money out of the program because of the non-participation of Veterans in the program, according to the Associated Press;
Only 27,000 veterans have made appointments for private medical care since the VA started mailing out “Choice Cards” in November, the VA said in a report to Congress this month. The number is so small, compared to the 8.6 million cards that have been mailed out, that VA Secretary Robert McDonald wants authority to redirect some of the $10 billion Congress allocated for the program to boost care for veterans at the VA’s 970 hospitals and clinics.
Republicans and Democrats insist the problem is the department and that it needs to do a better job promoting the choice program. They also want to change a quirk in the law that makes it hard for some veterans in rural areas to prove they live at least 40 miles from a VA health site.
The government measures the distance as the crow flies, rather than by driving miles, leaving thousands of veterans ineligible.
Well, here’s another thing. I got my Choice card just two weeks ago, now I don’t need it, I’m about 15 miles from a VA clinic. I know at least one another of you guys got it at about the same time, because she emailed me some questions about the card on the same day that I got mine, and she lives across the country from me. How can they suddenly withdraw money from a program because of non-participation when some of us only found out about it a few days ago?
And, oh, by the way, when Obamacare launched and registration for that program was anemic, I don’t remember the White House asking Congress to withdraw funds from the program – just a few months after it became law.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
I got mine a couple of weeks ago. I am about 15 miles from the VA here in Houston so I doubt I will use it.
It’s typical Govt./VA smoke and mirrors bullshit. THey mailed out 8 million cards, 8 million of us are not all going to have to go to the doctor next week.
What a rash of shit.
Stevie Wonder can see this crap.
And I wonder how efficient their screening process was/is.
I got my VA Choice card at the end of January.
I’m currently on Active Duty. I’m pretty sure I’m not eligible to actually use VA services yet.
Especially since I’m covered by Tri-Care.
Same here, got it a couple weeks ago and was like was it is…
Mind you, in my ideal world distance would not matter. If the VA can’t see you within 24 hours of calling in for an appointment, you should be able to go to a hospital of your choosing and they can foot the bill.
Let the VA hospitals be forced to explain why they aren’t setting up appointments in a timely manner instead of putting the burden on vets.
I think mine showed up a month or so ago.
IMO, this is just another example of the current
DC clown kreweAdministration ignoring laws they don’t like and/or making it up as they go. But what do I know?I got mine around then as well. I thought it would come in handy for me, since I didn’t have a car, and the nearest VA Hospital is about 40 miles away. Then I started to try and wade through the stuff that came with it. Lots of hoopty-hoop stuff and from what I can gather, only certain things would be covered.
I put it in my dresser drawer along with my other VA notices and booklets and promptly forgot about it. If it isn’t pretty clear about how to use it, then don’t bother sending it to me. I have enough things to deal with at the moment than trying to wade through more gibberish from some gubbmint make-work functionary.
I wonder if Phildo has received his card yet?
The VA measuring 40 miles as the crow flies is understandable – take the Veteran’s residence, draw a circle with a 40 mile radius around it, then look for VA centers within that circle. Measuring according to driving distance would probably require resources they don’t have. Granted, we now have Google Earth. That said, measuring each and every last Veteran’s distance from the VA center to their home based on available driving routes would probably be very time-consuming. There’s also the issue of those maps being unreliable at times.
I guess that’s what happens when you live in Podunk, Nebrahoma – I don’t mean to knock small-town life, but that life does mean going without the convenience of the big city. As much as I’d like to see VA centers more convenient to small-town Veterans, that just isn’t always economically viable. Hence, the Choice program.
There are all kinds of web sites that measure driving distance. If the government can take a service member’s word that they’ll “bear true faith and allegiance” to the Constitution and defend it against all enemies, seems they could take his or her word on how far they live from a VA med center/hospital. They could even print out the info they get from a site like distancefromto.net
I live 2 miles from a VA Hospital. Received 2 identical cards for services. Waste of tax dollars sending either card. My local Drs outside the VA do a much better job providing care. All my Cardiac operations have been done outside the VA at my expense. I am entitled to use the services of the VA, but do not choose to do so for everything.. So I always get my appointments on time and fast.
Even the damn VA does not know how to use the Choice Card.
Word. Yea, just call them and ask about it. Gives clueless a whole new meaning.
Which is why I’d be concerned to use it! What if the va decides not to back it? I’d be stuck with the bill. I’m lucky there’s a clinic close by, although as far as I can tell they get special points for not doing procedures.
Haven’t gotten mine yet. But I live about 10 miles from an outpatient and only about 40 from a full blown VAMC so doubtful I would need it here.
Some of you might remember my prediction when they came out with the new Choice Card legislation. I stated to anyone that would listen, that the VA is NOT going to give up patients to the outside and will make it next to impossible to use the new card, then will tell Congress nobody is using it. Well, here it is, exactly like I said. I have an Outpatient Clinic here in Beaufort but they only deal with general medicine and psychiatry. Most everything I need is at the VA Med Center Charleston. Ortho, eyes, dental, skin, etc. are not available here. It is 75 miles to the VA Hospital by car. I don’t have an airplane, nor am I a crow, but if I walk across water and marsh, it’s less then 40. So, my card is as worthless as the paper it’s printed on and I predicted this when the rules first came out. Thank you VA for nothing. Luckily I kept my Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield. With Medicare I’ll be 100% covered and will probably never use the VA again except to get my meds. I am 170% Service Connected, total and permanent, and shouldn’t have to pay for insurance, but there it is.
Well said… I held on to tri-care when I was medically retired from service. Using the VAs own funky math I’m about 150 percent… Lol. What ever that means. My journey with VA Medical has been a trip so I finally gave up and use them for my meds. And the head doctor the rest goes through tri-care. And the cards went through the paper shredder
I got mine about a month ago and I live 10 miles from the VA.
If you take the cost to maintain all the VA hospitals, out patient clinics and review boards then compare it to the cost of treating veterans, it would seem that doing away with all VA hospitals and out patient clinics would be the best choice. Let the veteran go anywhere to get care.
When a “gate keeper” at a VA out patient clinic makes $90 K a year for 3 days work and only makes appointments, it’s time to end the whole thing. The only reasons anyone works for the VA are job security, over paid and no oversight.
Old FA Sgt…Roger That! “The only reasons anyone works for the VA are job security, over paid and no oversight.” Problem I see with tossing the whole VA program is they will not offer the VA Choice universally and move everyone to private care. Even using the billions upon billions from a former VA system that could be put towards it. Instead they would throw everyone onto ObamaNonCare and call it good. Then the story would read, “See, even veterans use and endorse Obamacare”.
At that time, it would be time to break out Ol’ Betsy. What would any vet have to lose at that point? All gonna die under ObozoNonCare anyway. Might as well have a funeral cortege on your way to hell.
B Woodman…Roger That Big Time!!!
I hate those signs posted all over the VAMC that say:
“For YOUR safety (?), no firearms, knives, or weapons allowed.”
HUH?
So, what happens when a bad guy or a psycho shows up?
Who’s going to stop him?
Here’s my counter-argument.
I’ve had numerous surgeries and outpatient treatments. I have had nothing but top-flight medical care while at the VA. The problems, in fact EVERY problem I have ever had with the VA has been with the bureaucracy, the administrative part, and NOT with the actual doctors, nurses, technicians and volunteers.
What helped me most was that when I was recovering, I was sharing a room with other veterans. No matter when or where we served, what branch or our paygrade, we all shared a common bond of service. We all had that common bond of experiences, too. That let us share stories, jokes, and help each other through pain, sorrow and difficulties at all levels.
When I’ve been in a civilian hospital, I was rooming with strangers. I don’t ever want to have to do that again. It made my stays long and frustrating, and to be candid, lonely.
I have never felt alone in a VA hospital.
I don’t have a problem with utilizing some outside services, like say eye clinics, or pharmacies, etc. But overall, I’d much rather be in the VA hospital system than in a civilian one.
I realize that other’s mileage may vary, but that’s how I see things, based upon my own experiences.
I also received my card and letter sometime in Jan.
I am lucky in that I live very close to a large VAMC, use it for some things, but also have private BC/BS insurance through my employer.
I’ve kept this card and letter on the table right next to the comp here, not quite sure what to do with them. Seems like I’m pretty safe just to chuck it all away. I’m sure there were good intentions here, after the various VA scandals last year.
Personally, I have few complaints about the VA, at least the one I use. They’re not perfect, but pretty good. At least up til now, and for the issues I’ve had.
Just like any and all Big Gubbment Bureaucracies. Overfund with imaginary funds. Then when it’s underused, transfer those leftover overfunds to somewhere / someone else’s pockets.
Imagine the torches and pitchforks if a real (non Gubbment) company attempted to do that.
What? You mean? Really? Nebber mind. . ..
Mine is still sitting on my desk. Haven’t called the number, see no reason to do so as I live 15 minutes from a VAMC with an ambulatory clinic.
I only go there for flu shots, anyway, so it’s a moot point for me.
So, how’s that Shinseki resignation going?
Like I’ve said a gazillion times, one man does not make a bloated, corrupt bureaucracy like the VA.
If you look on a map, Vernal, Utah is located where Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado meet.
I drive around a hundred and seventy (170) miles one way to get to the Salt Lake City VAMC.
As a Service Connected (i.e., back, skin, ear, knee, Agent Orange) veteran, if I’m going there for a scheduled appointment, then the VAMC provides overnight lodging downtown in the Ramada Inn, provides meals in the VAMC mess hall, and pays me a hundred and twenty-one dollars ($121.00) for gas mileage.
If I drive to the Salt Lake City VAMC without having a scheduled appointment, I get nothing.
Since I only very recently relocated here, and my personal affairs and effects remain still unsettled, I’ve had to wait three (03) months on the VAMC backlog to clear before they can assign my Primary Care Provider, which will happen at the end of next month.
It’s rather certain that the VAMC will assign a local physician here in Vernal, Utah to provide my medical care.
That’s how they did it when I lived in Saint Anthony, Idaho, (i.e., near Yellowstone and the Tetons, where Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho meet) and that was a good many years ago.
In the meantime, I’ve been able to get prescriptions from the Salt Lake City VAMC by going to the Emergency Room, and on those occasions, they’ve been real helpful and courteous.
The VAMC has already referred me to a local Physical Therapy clinic, so I don’t have to drive to and from Salt Lake City.
When I first came to Vernal, Utah, I was in such agony that, in desperation, physically unable to drive to Salt Lake City, I went to the Emergency Room at the Ashley Valley Regional Medical Center here in Vernal, Utah.
Fortunately, my Medicare took care of most of the expense.
JRM: you might want to consider trying the VA Clinic in Roosevelt (W 200 North, Roosevelt, UT) in the interim. Don’t know if they’ll see you or not – but Roosevelt’s roughly 30 mi from Vernal. That’s a helluva lot closer to where you are than SLC.
@ HONDO:
The VA Clinic in Roosevelt can’t (or won’t) do anything for me until the VAMC in Salt Lake gets everything set up and working for me, which won’t be for another month, at least.
I went to that clinic once, but they couldn’t do anything at all, not even a physical examination, and definitely NO prescriptions.
It’s really just a small office, with only a few parking spaces, situated across the street from the regular hospital in Roosevelt.
I don’t think there’s even a physician there.
Years ago, when I was on a ranch in Jensen, Utah, serving my full-time mission for The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints, the Salt Lake City VAMC authorized me to be treated at that hospital in Roosevelt, as the VA Clinic didn’t exist at that time.
Once they get all the bugs worked out, I reckon it’ll eventually turn out to be a good deal.
When I lived in Saint Anthony, Idaho, and when I was on that ranch in Jensen, Utah, the Salt Lake City VAMC authorized me to be treated by local doctors, and I received EXCELLENT care.
As AW1 TIM commented above, the problem with the VA is the career bureaucrats, plus, in my opinion, the ridiculous perpetuation of compulsory imposition of the federal government’s unconstitutional “Affirmative Action” program.
Other than that, the actual medical staff is grrrrr-REAT!
Uh oh!
As I’m typing this, I just now remembered how I almost died from septicemia and an infected kidney, because of incorrect diagnosis at the Biloxi, Mississippi VAMC.
Strangely, at the same time as the FBI was investigating reported irregularities at the Biloxi, Mississippi VAMC, my assigned Primary Care Provider suddenly retired.
They were (and are?) CRITICALLY short of doctors, and had NO specialists on staff.
Even though VA doctors agreed that, in order to save my life, I needed the surgery fusing my cervical spine, and which could ONLY be done at a nearby public hospital, the VA bureaucrats refused to authorize payment for it.
Fortunately, I have Medicare, and that paid for most of it.
I know Vernal from having vacationed there as a kid and traveling there with my Scout Troop.
I was raised up to Hyrum, and went to USU before joining the Navy. I still have family in the area.
I hope things work out for you. I’ve been to the SLC VA facility many years ago. I was home visiting my family when I had some issues with my legs and had to go down there to be seen. Everything worked out fine, but it took a couple days of me staying down there to get it all worked out.
It’s a lovely area, and I may end up back in Cache Valley some day. You never know.
@ AW1 TIM:
Over the past many years, I’ve been up in your neck of the woods on several occasions, including riding on a horse drawn sleigh to feed the elk at the Hardware Ranch.
Biologically (I was adopted), I had a Great Aunt Edith who lived in Hyrum, but I never got to meet her before she passed on.
I was on my way there to meet her, when I totaled my car in a snowstorm.
Sorry to hear that. We used to feed the elk off the sleighs up there every winter, and go camping and fishing in the canyon. Many years back the family also owned a summer home up in Logan Canyon.
Best wishes to you. Perhaps we’ll get to meet up sometime. I’d like that.
@ AW1 TIM:
Me too!
Issuing all these cards looks to be a government hype job to make it look like somebody is doing something to help veterans. When most veterans have physical access to VA facilities was never the problem. Getting an appointment in a reasonable amount of time is the problem. SO making the cards available to vets more than 40 miles away looks good in the media. I’m guessing most vets live nearer than the cut off for using the cards for care. No one was ever really supposed to use the cards in a meaningful way. I think that’s why the program is slated for elimination without a lot of fanfare by vets. Except we notice when we are being hoodwinked.
This program may be helping some vets. But I will bet its a very small number overall.
I received one of those. 45 minutes to a VA hospital, 10 minutes to the local VA Clinic. Reading all of the conditions on the letter gave me a headache.
Still sitting on my desk.
Odd I got two cards while I was back east visiting family during the holidays. The amazing that here is I live about 3 and a half miles from the Big Hospital here in Tucson, Az……..
Congressman Mullin Introduces Bill to Improve VA Access
A 2014 law passed in the wake of the wait-list scandal established the Veterans Choice Program for beneficiaries nationwide to access private care if they live more than 40 miles from a VA medical facility. Veterans may also use their Choice Card if their appointment wait time is more than 30 days.
But many rural veterans are still having trouble accessing care because of how the government measures the 40-miles or due to the nearest VA facility not offering services they need.
http://mullin.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congressman-mullin-introduces-bill-to-improve-va-access