What’s your opinion on the delay in getting our veterans seen at local VA hospitals? What, if anything, can be done?

Question

Walt McKinley · Answer

What's my opinion on the delay in getting our veterans seen at local VA hospitals and what if anything can be done? Look, I don't think this is a one-stop-shop answer at all. What I see that I liked recently is the VA doing a lot of hiring from a customer service standpoint in order to get veterans assistance outside just medical appointments. The education piece of it, the VA disability piece of it, where it used to take an inordinate amount of time to even get somebody on the phone, much less get your case seen or whatnot. What I also like that the VA has done is they allow you the opportunity, so it's 30 or 60 days if it takes that long to get an appointment, they allow you an opportunity to go get seen out in the civilian world, which typically comes a little bit faster than the VA will be able to offer. And so when you match being able to go to the VA for free or the VA paying where it's still free for you to go out into the civilian world because they just don't have the services available close or it's going to take too long to be seen at the VA, I think we're moving in the right direction and we just need to continue the good fight on ensuring that veterans get the health care that they absolutely deserve for laying their life on the line for their country.

Travis Kiser · Answer

Great question, Steve. When it comes to getting care at the VA, you do have to remember that they are a government organization. And just like in the military, there's a lot of hurry up and wait when it comes to getting what you need. I'm very happy with how the VA has transformed with the Community Care Act being passed recently. I can now see a provider outside of the VA and still get the care I need at a more convenient time and more convenient place. Like when I was in North Carolina, there wasn't a lot of options for VA clinics, so they would send me to local doctors, local dentists to get the care that I needed. It's come a long way and there's still areas for improvement, but we're getting there.

Jason Redman · Answer

What's up guys? Question is what's your opinion on the delay in veterans being seen at local VA hospitals? What if anything can be done? So guys, the VA was never designed to be utilized in the way it is. Our veteran population is enormous, millions of veterans, and it's just overwhelmed. So I personally am a big fan of giving veterans choice and that is they have the ability to go out and see civilian doctors for more minor things. The VA does some amazing things. They're really good in certain areas, specialties, and I think if a veteran needs, has those needs with one of those specialties, they should absolutely be seen by the VA. But if it's something routine, you should just go to the routine doctor. You should have the ability to do that. That's about the choice card. They haven't done that very well, but that I think they should be focusing on that to give veterans the choice if they need to. So that's my opinion. All right.

Matthew Decker · Answer

What's my opinion on the delay in getting our veterans seen at local VA hospitals? What if anything can be done? So I'm going to answer this question specifically from a mental health standpoint. I think we can all agree that the VA has had some struggles in the past. I think a lot of the other people that answered this question suggest that the VA is getting better and I would agree that they are getting better. From a mental health standpoint though, they're still running the therapist ragged. And the delay in getting veterans their mental health care is not due to not having the staff, but actually due to their staff being overworked. And therapists that are burned out have a tendency to be not particularly effective therapists and on top of that when you're using those kinds of services, the therapist has to be in a good headspace. So what if anything can be done? Okay, here is my best answer. The VA should be looking to partner with local mental health nonprofits and for-profits with identified contracts to serve identified population, obviously veterans and their family members by the way, because they have that champ VA. So that we can bridge the service gap and I say we because I'm the executive director of E5 therapy, a mental health nonprofit that partners with the VA and the local community in Northern California to deliver those services. Generally speaking, the VA pays well, but at the end of the day, I can tell you, I can see veterans cheaper than the VA can.

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"What’s your opinion on the delay in getting our veterans seen at local VA hospitals? What, if anything, can be done?"