Eighty-two
percent of veterans expressed high patient satisfaction with the agency's
healthcare offerings, citing improve care access.
By Sara Heath
October 14,
2019 - Patient satisfaction and care access are on the rise at the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), an agency previously under fire for its
shortcomings in patient care, according to a new survey from the Veterans of Foreign
Wars (VFW).
After years of
industry and government scrutiny, the VA has heard some positive feedback from
the veterans who utilize its healthcare services. A patient satisfaction survey
related to VA care quality, community care access, and the VA MISSION Act
showed that the agency might be on the right track to improving veteran healthcare.
“The VFW survey
highlights the great work that we are seeing at VA across the nation,” VA
Secretary Robert Wilkie said in a statement. “The 2019 Our Care survey
results highlight VA’s continued commitment to improving Veteran care and how
Veterans access the benefits they have earned, including improvements to
facility availability, the streamlining of community care programs under
MISSION Act and overall technological modernization.”
The VA has seen years
of industry scrutiny following the infamous wait list scandal in 2014. Since
then, the agency has worked to revamp its offerings by expanding veteran access
to care through the Veterans Choice Program and more recently the VA MISSION
Act, as well as by improving its health technology offerings.
But those efforts
have been fraught, with government watch dog agencies reporting hiccups with VA
improvement projects. Separate news reports have shed the VA in a negative
light as limited mental healthcare access and
poor facility conditions have left a poor taste in some veterans’ mouths.
But those issues may
be working themselves out, as 82 percent of veterans report being at least
somewhat satisfied with the healthcare they have received through the agency,
the VFW report showed.
Seventy-four percent
of the 6,900 respondents said they have seen improvements in their preferred VA
facilities within the past year, a ten-percentage point boost since last year’s
observations. Ninety-one percent of veterans said they would recommend
receiving healthcare through the VA, save for one outlier state. In Alabama,
only 74 percent of veterans recommended VA healthcare.
Nationally, however,
the number of veterans expressing dissatisfaction with their healthcare is
relatively low. Only 7 percent of veterans said they were not satisfied with
their VA healthcare and only 11 percent said they were neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied. Fewer than one in ten veterans would not recommend VA healthcare.
There is still room
for growth, the survey authors acknowledged. After all, nearly one-quarter of
respondents said they did not see improvements at their VA facilities or that
their facilities needed to make some improvements.
These findings come
as the VA continues to recover from the wait list scandal at an Arizona
facility back in 2014. Reports showed that VA facility leaders instructed
workers to falsify wait lists to give the appearance that veterans were
receiving appointments within the 30-day threshold spelled out by the agency.
The crisis culminated in then-VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s resignation.
But those issues may
be turning around, as 84 percent of veteran respondents report that they have
received their care in a timely manner. Fifty-four percent of respondents said
they received an appointment within 14 days for most of their healthcare needs
and 80 percent said they obtained an appointment within the 30-day timeframe
outlined by the VA.
Of the 20 percent who
waited longer than 30 days for an appointment, 11 percent waited between 31 and
60 days, 5 percent waited between 61 and 90 days, and 4 percent waited longer
than 90 days to schedule an appointment.
Improved patient
access to care is near certainly the result of new executive leadership at the
VA, the VFW authors noted, as well as perhaps the result of expanded community
care options. Nearly 2,800 veterans responding to the satisfaction survey were
offered access to community care options and 55 percent said they utilized
community care.
The community care
options allow veterans to access healthcare from civilian providers when that
treatment is otherwise unattainable through the VA. Veterans facing
extraordinary travel distances, long wait times, or treatments not covered by
the VA may receive a referral to community care to be coordinated by the VA.
This care option was
further expanded through the VA MISSION Act, rolled out earlier this
year.
Prior to the MISSION
Act, 45 percent of veteran respondents said they’d accessed community care, and
more than half said they were at least satisfied with their care.
Veterans also managed
to receive community healthcare in a timely manner, according to the survey.
Sixty percent of veterans using community care received an appointment within
14 days, while 84 percent received an appointment within 30 days.
While care access
through community healthcare options has been high, the VFW did find that billing complications abound.
Twenty-one percent of veterans receiving community care got a bill from both
the community provider and the VA. Thirty-eight percent of veterans said the VA
did not pay the medical bill. In fact, one in ten respondents said VA could
improve its community care billing strategies.
Fourteen percent said
the referral and follow-up process for community care access needs changes,
while 11 percent wanted better communications with their community care
providers. Eighteen percent of respondents said they would like access to more
community care providers.
Data was more limited
for veterans accessing community care options after the MISSION Act went into effect on June 6, 2019.
Forty-five percent of respondents said they opted for community care over VA
care after that point, with some saying there were referral and follow-up
problems.
One-quarter of
veterans accessing the expanded community care offerings experienced wait time
issues.
Nonetheless, these
findings represent a significant step forward for the VA, which has been under
the microscope of lawmakers and healthcare and veterans advocates for years.
These improvements underscore a need for continued work, the VFW authors said.
Specifically, the VFW authors urged veterans to outline their specific benefit
needs to the VA.
“The innovations to
VA care over the past year may have expanded non-VA care delivery options, but
veterans have responded by only enrolling in VA for more care – with many
choosing to receive that care through VA,” the report authors concluded. “Now
more than ever, it is clear to the VFW that the binary choice of VA care or
privatized care remains a false choice, as VA must continue to have the ability
to deliver direct care and contract for community care options guaranteed by
VA.”
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