GAO Releases Report on the Veterans Community Care Program

Dana Halvorson

On April 10, 2019, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on the Veterans Community Care Program. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plans to replace the Veterans Choice Program in June 2019 with the Veterans Community Care Program.  The Veterans Choice Program allowed eligible veterans to obtain health care services from providers not directly employed by VA (community providers).  According to the GAO, they testified in the report on challenges and lessons learned from the Veterans Choice Program that could help VA successfully implement its new program.  These challenges include:

• Complex referral and appointment scheduling processes
• Incomplete and unreliable data on the timeliness of veterans' access to care
• A lack of timely payments to community providers

GAO has made 12 recommendations to VA to improve its management and oversight of the Choice Program and the Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP).  VA generally agreed with all but one of GAO's recommendations.  GAO continues to believe that all of the recommendations are warranted.  As of April 2019, these recommendations have not been implemented.  The highlights of the GAO report can be found here.