Following recent adoption of the veterans’ health care reform law, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is reaching out to physicians in private practice to make sure veterans have access to timely medical care.
The Veterans’ Access to Care Through Choice, Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014, signed into law earlier this month, authorizes the VA to enter into provider agreements with physicians in private practice so they can deliver care during the next two years to veterans who live too far from a VA facility or who cannot access care in one of those facilities in a timely manner.
The legislation is intended to address the access-to-care crisis that has left thousands of veterans unable to receive care when they need it, a chief concern of policy adopted by the AMA House of Delegates in June.
VA officials have said they will need input from the physician community to meet the 90-day implementation deadline issued by Congress, and they are looking to medical associations to help ensure the law is carried out in a way that ensures the access to care veterans need.
The department is developing maps to identify gaps in access to VA facilities, and officials have said they would like to work with the AMA and state medical societies that have developed registries of physicians willing to see veterans in their practices. Registries have been created so far in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Nebraska (which has county-level registries), New York, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
If your state isn't included in this list, encourage your state medical association to develop a registry of physicians who are interested in treating veterans in their private practices.
Key to ensuring adequate numbers of physicians are able to fill the current need will be developing a streamlined and simple process for individual physicians to enter into provider agreements to care for veterans, the AMA told VA officials in a meeting last week.
In addition, part of the new law is authorization and funding for 1,500 new residency slots for veterans’ care. The VA will be issuing guidance on how this new graduate medical education funding will be implemented in the coming months.
