Strengthen access to care outside VA facilities
What the document says“To strengthen Community Care, the next Administration should create new”
Community Care is the program under which the department pays for a veteran to be treated by a provider outside its own facilities. The chapter treats strengthening it as a central aim, alongside codifying the access standards that govern eligibility.
What the document actually says“To strengthen Community Care, the next Administration should create new”
Make it easier for veterans to get care outside the VA.
The VA runs its own hospitals. It can also pay for care elsewhere. The book wants more of that outside care.
Keeping Promises to Veterans and Establishing a National Center for Warrior Independence
2025-05-09 · 90 FR 20369
Executive Order 14296 of May 9, 2025 directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to report a plan to reduce wait times for Veterans Health Administration appointments and to develop a strategy to improve health care delivery that prioritizes reducing access times, including options for treating veterans at selected military treatment facilities with reimbursement. It expands where a veteran may be seen outside a VA hospital and attacks the wait times that drive eligibility. The fit breaks down because Community Care means the VA paying a provider in the community, and the order routes care to Defense Department facilities instead. It does not change Community Care eligibility, its access standards, its provider network or how it pays, and it creates none of the new arrangements the chapter asks for.
The order aims to cut how long veterans wait for care. It lets some be seen at military clinics. But the program the chapter named pays doctors in the local community. The order does not change who may use it or how it pays.