Menu Search Account

LegiStorm

Get LegiStorm App Visit Product Demo Website
» Get LegiStorm App
» Get LegiStorm Pro Free Demo

VA Health Care: Variabilities in Outpatient Care Eligibility and Rationing Decisions

  Premium   Download PDF Now (60 pages)
Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date July 16, 1993
Report No. HRD-93-106
Subject
Summary:

Veterans' access to outpatient care at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers varies widely. The reasons are twofold: first, medical centers throughout the country interpret VA outpatient eligibility criteria differently; and second, medical centers' rationing decisions vary, including whether to ration and what rationing method to use. This means that veterans with similar medical conditions or income status may receive outpatient care at some medical centers but not at others. As a result, veterans are often confused or frustrated when turned away by VA centers without receiving needed medical care. GAO recommends that VA develop alternative eligibility criteria that produce more predictable eligibility decisions or provide better guidance to centers so that doctors make more consistent eligibility determinations. In addition, Congress may want to direct VA to modify its system for allocating resources to medical centers so that veterans with similar medical or economic status have more consistent access to outpatient care. GAO summarized this report, along with GAO/HRD-93-123, in testimony before Congress; see: Veterans Affairs: Accessibility of Outpatient Care at VA Medical Centers, by David P. Baine, Director of Federal Health Care Delivery Issues, before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. GAO/T-HRD-93-29, July 21, 1993 (11 pages).

« Return to search Government Accountability Office reports