Grassley, Daines Aim to Protect Veterans’ Health Care Options

Grassley, Daines Aim to Protect Veterans' Health Care Options

WASHINGTON - Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) are scrutinizing a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) report suggesting the agency is unethically limiting veterans' access to community care networks. In an oversight inquiry to Secretary Denis McDonough, the senators demanded to know how the VA is protecting health care options for veterans.

"Iowa veterans have told me about the hoops, hurdles and delays they face just to get the care they need. The VA ought to be doing everything it can to lift burdens for our nation's veterans - in fact, the VA is required by law to provide quality health care to eligible veterans in a timely manner. Seems to me the agency has its priorities mixed up, and my colleagues and I are working to get to the bottom of it," Grassley said of this effort.

Read Grassley and his colleagues' letter to Secretary McDonough HERE.

About the Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP):

The VCCP allows veterans to receive care in their local communities when they can't receive it at a VA facility. When veterans use community care, the VA will pay for the veteran's healthcare; if veterans have private insurance, the VA is supposed to recoup the money it spent by billing that private insurer. The VA then uses the reimbursements to support the Veterans Health Administration.

Background:

The purpose of the VA's "Red Team" Executive Roundtable Report is to examine VCCP spending, as well as strategies to improve veterans' access to providers. However, Grassley and his colleagues noted the report largely focuses on "finding creative ways to bring veterans back into the VA's direct care system." In addition to disregarding the Grassley-backed VA Mission Act, this approach threatens veterans' abilities to make their own health care decisions and further narrows options for rural residents.

This week's effort echoes concerns Grassley raised last Congress, when he requested information on the VA's progress towards implementing community care standards. At the time, Grassley posited the agency's guidance appeared to deter eligible veterans from seeking non-VA services. Last week, Grassley pressed Secretary McDonough for answers after watchdog findings exposed the VA for failing to collect over $217 million in reimbursements from private insurers as part of the VCCP.

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