EARLIER APPOINTMENTS FOR SOME VA PATIENTS

S.D. agency says focus on 90-day scheduling for visits to specialists

By Jeanette Steele5:09 A.M.MAY 28, 2014

As the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs scrambles to react to allegations of veterans dying while awaiting care, San Diego VA medical officials on Tuesday said they will offer earlier appointments to the fewer than 200 patients who currently need to wait more than 90 days to see a specialist.

Nationally, the VA last week announced an initiative called Accelerating Access to Care. It includes the possibility of extending clinic hours, paying overtime to VA health providers and offering more medical appointments outside the VA system.

In San Diego, more than 99 percent of existing patients are
seen within 14 days of their request for a primary-care appointment, and 98 percent get specialist care within that time frame, according to data supplied by the VA.

Local veterans waiting more than 90 days for a specialist will be offered an appointment with a non-VA provider if an earlier visit isn’t available within the VA network, Jeff Gering, director of the VA medical system here, said in an email to U-T San Diego.

Last year, the San Diego VA spent more than $35 million of its $622 million budget on non-VA care. It expects to exceed $35 million in non-VA care expenditures this year, Gering said.

The non-VA referrals last year were mostly for inpatient care at hospitals in San Diego and Imperial counties, along with various outpatient specialty services, a VA official said. They also included nursing home services, obstetrics and in-home nursing services.

To a lesser extent, the $35 million was used for ancillary testing, dental care and disability exams, a VA spokesman said.

Nationally, the VA spends 9 percent to 10 percent of its budget on non-VA medical care, according to figures released Tuesday.
These out-of-system referrals grew 72 percent in the past five years.

From 2008 to 2013, non-VA visits grew from 8.9 million to 15.3 million, which pushed up expenditures from $4.5 billion in 2012 to $4.8 billion last year.

In fiscal 2014, the VA has spent $3.3 billion on out-of-system referrals for just over 900,000 veterans.

The VA has been rocked by a scandal that started when a Phoenix whistleblower said VA officials there put patients on a secret wait list so that wait times for doctors appointments would appear to meet the 14-day standard.

As many as 40 veterans may have died while awaiting care from that center. However, VA officials have said that those deaths may have happened regardless.

Since then, whistleblowers from other VA medical centers have made similar allegations. The VA inspector general has said 26 VA facilities are under investigation. San Diego has not been implicated.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/...e-va-patients/