Va Choice Cards

[Berta]

About the Program

Many Veterans will now have the option to receive non-VA health care rather than waiting for a VA appointment or traveling to a VA facility.

Beginning November 5, 2014, the new Choice Program will begin to cover non-VA care for eligible Veterans enrolled in VA healthcare. Veterans are eligible if any of these situations apply to you:

You have been told by your local VA medical facility that you will need to wait more than 30 days from your preferred date or the date medically determined by your physician

Your current residence is more than 40 miles from the closest VA health care facility

You need to travel by plane or boat to the VA medical facility closest to your home

You face a geographic challenge, such as extensive distances around water or other geologic formations, such as mountains, which presents a significant travel hardship

More info at:

http://www.va.gov/opa/choiceact/

[ArNG11]

I spoke to the patient advocate and several representatives from the Choice program and I keep getting different answers but no one can lead me to a direct response. The primary care doc is supposed to initiate the request. But if your PCP is not very, oh lets say cooperative, then how are you supposed to get seen. I've mentioned the fee basis and choice program and they seem to change the rules and responses according to their needs. I'm under exactly 12.6 miles from the VAMC, however, that is not the only way to qualify. If you have to wait more than 30 days to see a provider then that is supposed to qualify you. So if this is law and a new program we as Veterans qualify for then why the heck does no one on the VA side know the correct answers. Hell even the patient advocate gave me wrong information. I still feel this is a publicity ploy to take the heat of the VA's shortcomings on care, promptness of care, and so on.

[Notorious Kelly]

VA Choice is asking union workers to send vets to non-union providers, which takes work away from the union.

People may not want to acknowledge that this is a union issue but, if you have dealt with the ugly side of unions, you know it is absolutely relevant and should be addressed at a national level.

Here is the union bragging that veterans really don't WANT VA Choice:

"It’s official: Since its November debut, only a handful of veterans have opted to seek care from private-sector providers under the controversial Choice Card privatization program. In fact, it has been used by just 3% of veterans who are eligible, or 27,000 veterans out of 700,000. The number is even smaller when compared with the 9 million veterans who currently use VA health care." https://www.afge.org/index.cfm?ContentID=5414

when the truth is, they are the ones who control VA Choice and prevent vets from using it

Why won't our leaders acknowledge The Elephant In The Room?

[Chuck75]

I spoke to the patient advocate and several representatives from the Choice program and I keep getting different answers but no one can lead me to a direct response. The primary care doc is supposed to initiate the request. But if your PCP is not very, oh lets say cooperative, then how are you supposed to get seen. I've mentioned the fee basis and choice program and they seem to change the rules and responses according to their needs. I'm under exactly 12.6 miles from the VAMC, however, that is not the only way to qualify. If you have to wait more than 30 days to see a provider then that is supposed to qualify you. So if this is law and a new program we as Veterans qualify for then why the heck does no one on the VA side know the correct answers. Hell even the patient advocate gave me wrong information. I still feel this is a publicity ploy to take the heat of the VA's shortcomings on care, promptness of care, and so on.

As far as I can tell, my area's VAMC position is that the Choice program might take enough veterans away that it could impact budget and staffing. Besides that, it has the capability of allowing direct comparisons between the in VA services vs outside services. I had a "Choice trained" VA employee tell me that it would be difficult to get approval, even when an appointment is more than 30 days away. Further, the samo samo old tactics seem to be in use concerning appointment scheduling.

I.E Veteran calls for an appointment, and asks for an appointment within 2 weeks. The last day of that period is entered, not the date the appointment request is made. Then, an appointment might be made within or even just without the 30 day period from the requested date, not the date the appointment was asked for. This fits well with the VA's past behavior, in that it has provided "routine' medical appointments for such things as prescription renewal, and often little else in terms of treatment for emerging conditions. I firmly believe that the VA should be used for treating conditions that are uncommon in the community, and common conditions are better and more promptly treated outside the VA. This has been true in fact, since I've been alive, and covers three generations of my families veterans, from WWI(my Grandfather), WWII(my Father) to Vietnam(myself). By bitter experience, I might add.