VA's Choice program running out of money ahead of schedule [View all]

[nitpicker]

http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/va-choice-program-funds-gone-early

VA's Choice program running out of money ahead of schedule

By: Leo Shane III, June 14, 2017

WASHINGTON — The Veterans Affairs Choice program, hailed by President Trump as a key lifeline to veterans, is on pace to run out of money later this summer, potentially causing major disruptions in thousands of veterans’ medical care. Congress believed they had solved this problem earlier this year, by passing an extension of the program’s rules to keep it operating until late 2018. But on Wednesday, in testimony before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, VA Secretary David Shulkin said higher than expected usage of the program will likely cause a funding shortfall before the end of the summer.
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As a result, VA officials are asking to move around money from other outside care programs to cover the Choice program, the opposite problem lawmakers anticipated when they passed the extension. Committee ranking member Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., called the news upsetting. “For this to happen this late in the game is frustrating to me,” he said.

The news came as Shulkin presented Trump’s plans for a $186.5 billion VA budget for fiscal 2018, nearly a 6 percent increase from current funding levels. The VA secretary said that includes $13.2 billion for outside care programs next year, a figure he says should be sufficient to meet department needs.
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With the money running out early, the major impetus behind the legislation now appears moot, although the measure did also include changes to how private-sector physicians receive payments from the government. But VA officials have warned that gaps in funding could disrupt veterans medical care, potentially delaying or cancelling appointments.

At the hearing, Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., seemed open to the idea of authorizing the funding transfers. Shulkin and his predecessor, former VA Secretary Bob McDonald, have both lobbied Congress for more funding flexibility, to avoid similar problems in the future.

But officials from the American Legion in a statement said they oppose "this cannibalization of services to fund the Choice Program" and instead support plans to consolidate existing care programs "into one simple, efficient, responsive, and transparent process."