Midwest Republicans Call for Accountability from VA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following an Inspector General's report that almost 1000 veterans in Missouri, Illinois and Kansas were denied care through the Veterans Choice program due to wait times being incorrectly reported, Congressman Sam Graves (MO-06) led a letter calling on the VA Heartland Network - the Veterans Integrated Service Network responsible for veterans health care services in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois - to take corrective action to properly report wait times. The Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 allows veterans waiting over 30 days for VA care or traveling more than 40 miles to a VA facility to seek non-VA care.

"Our veterans have served our country selflessly and the least we can do is provide them the healthcare we have promised them. We put the Veterans Choice program in place so our veterans could get care as soon as they needed it. To find out that they still aren't receiving timely care because the VA isn't properly reporting their wait times is unacceptable. This is why we created the program in the first place," Graves said.

The letter, signed by 8 Congressional Representatives from Missouri, Kansas and Illinois, calls on the VA Heartland Network to provide a progress report within 180 days on steps taken to address the audit's findings.

The VA Inspector General's audit found that 18 percent of the appointments for new patients had wait times longer than 30 days and that the average wait time for this 18 percent was 53 days. The report estimated that staff incorrectly recorded clinically indicated dates for about 5,300 of approximately 13,900 new patient appointments (38 percent) they scheduled, understating veterans' wait times by about 15 days. These missteps were estimated to have caused the denial of care through the Choice Program to 970 veterans throughout Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois.

The Veterans Choice program was implemented in 2014 after it was discovered several veterans had died as a result of lengthy wait times at the Phoenix VA facility.

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