Press Releases

Congressman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) today released the following statement after the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced immediate actions they will take to improve the timeliness of payments to community providers. “The folks who served and sacrificed for our freedom deserve the very best care, and the only way they are going to get the best care is to have more choice when it comes to their healthcare. However, while the Choice program was an important step toward reforming VA healthcare, many community providers refuse to affiliate with VA due to delayed payments. I’m encouraged VA is taking immediate steps to address and improve the timeliness of payments. By doing so, VA will encourage more community providers to participate in the Choice program to better serve our heroes, our veterans.” BACKGROUND VA in partnership with its third-party administrators, Health Net Federal Services and TriWest Healthcare Alliance, has initiated the following short and long-term actions to address the shortfall in community provider payments:

• Institute further transparency by publishing a list of providers awaiting payment – to be published January 8th, 2017. The list can be found here.
• Reach financial settlements with the listed providers within 90 days via rapid response teams.
• Increase the vendor claims processing rate by 300% for January 2018 and by 600% in April 2018.
• Deploy information technology improvements within the first 6 months to streamline the claims submission and payment processes.
• Simplify VA community care programs to include provisions for payment of claims through legislation introduced in Congress.

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