Va Choice expansion moves one step closer to reality

The Senate will send long-awaited VA Choice reforms to the president’s desk early this week, meeting the Trump administration’s deadline of Memorial Day.

The timing is critical since funding for the current Choice program is projected to run out by the end of May or soon thereafter.

Senators are hoping for a quick turnaround vote of unanimous consent for a bill that has been hammered out over the past few months between both parties in both chambers and the White House. The House took up the bill first to speed up the process.

The so-called Mission Act folds all the community-care options for veterans into the Choice program and opens up private provider options if VA facilities don’t meet certain access standards and quality measures to stem long wait times and guarantee good care.

Lawmakers are also trying to fix reimbursement issues for the community providers who are in the Choice network.

The Trump administration pushed the reforms, which lagged after the Senate and House VA committees passed different versions. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) opposed the bill his chamber’s committee produced and drafted his own with provisions supported by the White House. The Senate, House Republicans and administration officials hammered out a deal they wanted to pass with the March spending omnibus, but House Democrats objected.

During a committee vote, Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), ranking member on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, blasted the White House for derailing certain provisions House Democrats hoped to add, including mandating yearly reviews of the VA’s decision to send vets to community providers and exempting Choice funding from sequester cuts.

While VA healthcare funding enjoys bipartisan support, analysts from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget are warning lawmakers about the cost. The Congressional Budget Office has projected the community-care program alone will cost $5 billion to $6 billion each year. The total cost of care would be $10 billion to $15 billion per year. ●