Policy adopted this week at the 2015 AMA Annual Meeting is aimed at increasing access to care for the nation’s veterans.
New policies include:
- Continue advocating for improved veterans’ health care legislation to ensure timely access to care
- Monitoring implementation of and changes to the Veterans Choice Program’s “choice card,” which allows veterans to seek care outside of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
- Calling for a study of the VA health care system to address access to care issues
- Advocating for the VA to pay private physicians Medicare rates and hire additional physicians
At the 2014 AMA Interim Meeting in November, VA Secretary Robert McDonald asked for help with improving access to care for veterans. At the same meeting, physicians voted to create directories of private practice doctors who would see veterans.
Physicians can participate in the VA’s Veterans Choice Program, which enables the VA enter into provider agreements with non-VA physicians to deliver care to veterans who are either unable to receive timely care, defined as wait times of more than 30 days, or who live too far from a VA facility, defined as more than 40 miles.
The program is the result of the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014, a law the AMA helped shape, which offers funding and other tools to better serve veterans in the short term as the demand for VA care greatly outpaces the number of clinicians.
Learn more about the program and get additional resources at the AMA’s Web page on veterans' health.
