WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, called on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to streamline its process for veterans to receive health care outside of the VA system.

At a committee hearing held yesterday to assess the VA’s plan to consolidate its non-VA health care programs into the Veterans Choice Program, Isakson highlighted the need for an “approach to address a number of previous shortcomings of the VA health care system to improve it for the veteran in terms of their access and the coordination of their care.”

“One of the things we want to see is easy access to the care wherever it comes from, whether it’s [the VA] or it’s a private provider,” said Isakson.

Currently, the VA has seven disjointed programs for veterans to receive care in the community. In response to the VA’s budget shortage in July, Congress passed the VA Budget and Choice Improvement Act, which required the VA to develop a plan to consolidate those non-VA care programs into one, the Veterans Choice Program.

“The intent of Choice was [that] if a veteran could not get service from a VA facility, they got to go to a Choice [provider] in their area closest to them to get the service,” said Isakson. “If we’re talking about consolidation to provide choice and make it meaningful for our veterans, that ought to be the ultimate goal.”

Originally developed in response to the wait-time scandal that erupted at the Phoenix VA Medical Center last year, the Veterans Choice Program currently allows eligible veterans to seek health care from private providers in their own communities through third-party administrators.

The VA’s new plan creates a tiered system for veterans to receive care outside the VA, forcing veterans to first seek care from one of the VA’s federal partners before choosing to use a private provider – the opposite of the original goal of the Veterans Choice Program.

“If the veteran can’t get the service from the VA, and Choice is available… they ought to be able to choose a physician that can deliver the service to them in their state,” said Isakson.

Isakson also raised concerns about the VA’s ability to develop the massive Information Technology portal needed to implement its new consolidation plan and its ability to build a network of providers.

“As someone who ran a company, I know every time you start talking about Information Technology, or you start talking about building networks, you talk about infrastructure and cost [and] you talk about raising the number of employees and managing people,” said Isakson. “You take an agency that already has 314,000 [employees], and if you grow that some more you’re probably making a big mistake.”

Earlier this year, Isakson named overseeing the successful implementation of the Veterans Choice Program as his top priority as chairman.

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The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is chaired by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., in the 114th Congress.

Isakson is a veteran himself – having served in the Georgia Air National Guard from 1966-1972 – and has been a member of the Senate VA Committee since he joined the Senate in 2005. Isakson’s home state of Georgia is home to more than a dozen military installations representing each branch of the military as well as more than 750,000 veterans.