Lawmakers introduce legislation to expand veterans’ access to non-VA providers

Lawmakers Introduce Legislation to Expand Veterans’ Access to Non-VA Medical Providers

Are you a veteran struggling to access timely, high-quality healthcare? Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) have introduced legislation to expand veterans’ access to non-VA medical providers. The bills would effectively codify existing guidelines for when veterans can see non-VA doctors, ensuring that veterans have the freedom to choose when, where, and how to use the healthcare benefits they earned through their service and sacrifice.

What You Need to Know

• Veterans are currently permitted to seek non-VA doctors if they face long wait times or VA locations too far away.
• The Mission Act of 2018 overhauled the VA’s private-sector healthcare for veterans, determining eligibility for community care.
• Moran and Sinema’s bill would put those standards into law and would bar the VA from factoring in telehealth appointment availability when deciding whether a veteran would be allowed to seek a non-VA provider.
• Their bill would also change a rule regarding how that wait time is factored, mandating the date they originally requested the appointment be used for this calculation.

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“The VA has continued to ignore the intent of Congress by undermining the Veterans Community Care Program since its creation in 2019,” Russ Duerstine, Concerned Veterans of America’s executive director, told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “By manipulating wait times, dissuading veterans from using their benefits outside the VA, and overruling doctors’ recommendations, VA administrators have looked out for their bureaucratic interests at the expense of millions of veterans’ wellbeing.”

Don’t let the VA bureaucracy stand in the way of your healthcare. Contact your representatives and urge them to support Moran and Sinema’s legislation to expand veterans’ access to non-VA medical providers.

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