WASHINGTON — Nine years after the 2014 wait time scandal, veteran access to timely health care is still a big challenge for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Veterans Health Administration operates the largest healthcare delivery system in the United States, providing treatment to 6.4 million patients in the fiscal year 2021.
In fiscal 2021, under the Veterans Community Care Program, the VA referred 2 million vets to the private sector for care -- in many cases specialty care like mental health, physical therapy or cardiology.
However, during the third quarter of 2022, less than 40% of VA medical facilities scheduled the majority of their specialty community care appointments for veteran patients within the department's appointment scheduling standard of seven days.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) first reported in January that the VA had relied on incomplete and old data to come up with the seven-day target.
GAO Health Care Team Director Sharon Silas said it's important to fix this problem to ensure that veterans have timely access to care.
"There's definitely some improvements that VA can make to get appointments scheduled faster with the community care providers," she said Wednesday in an interview with 13 News Now.
The GAO has made six recommendations to then VHA to address gaps in the timeliness standards for appointments at VHA facilities and with community care providers.
The VA generally agreed and has implemented two of these recommendations but has not fully implemented the remaining four recommendations.