Appointment Wait Times for Specialty Care in Veterans Health Administration Facilities vs Community Medical Centers

Kevin N Griffith,Steven D Pizer,Nambi J Ndugga

doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.14313

Kevin N Griffith, Steven D Pizer + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.14313

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Abstract

This cross-sectional study compares appointment wait times at Veterans Health Administration facilities and those at community medical centers accessed via the Veterans Choice Program.

Highlights

In 2014, the US Congress authorized the Veterans Choice Program (VCP), which allowed veterans to access care in the community if they lived more than 40 miles from the closest Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical facility, could not schedule an appointment within 30 days or by the date clinically necessary, or experienced other specific hardships.1,2 Since the VCP’s rollout in the fall of 2014, approximately 2 million veterans have used the program.3 In this study, our objectives were to determine whether VHA wait times declined after VCP implementation, compare appointment wait times for specialty care in VHA vs community medical centers, and identify the proportions of community care wait times that were attributable to VHA administrative processes
The study sample consisted of 3 135 530 veterans, with mean (SD) age 62.0 (13.4) years; 2 873 521 (91.6%) were men
Mean wait times for VHA appointments declined during this period (Figure), but the declines began before VCP implementation

Summary

Introduction

In 2014, the US Congress authorized the Veterans Choice Program (VCP), which allowed veterans to access care in the community if they lived more than 40 miles from the closest Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical facility, could not schedule an appointment within 30 days or by the date clinically necessary (whichever was sooner), or experienced other specific hardships.. Since the VCP’s rollout in the fall of 2014, approximately 2 million veterans have used the program.. Our objectives were to determine whether VHA wait times declined after VCP implementation, compare appointment wait times for specialty care in VHA vs community medical centers, and identify the proportions of community care wait times that were attributable to VHA administrative processes

Objectives

Methods

Results