WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and a group of senators also on the committee called on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Bob McDonald to meet in-person to discuss the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 (VACAA) and make certain it is implemented and upheld the way it was intended and in the best interest of veterans. This includes offering non-VA care to veterans who are unable to receive healthcare services from a VA medical facility within 40 miles of where a veteran resides.

 “We understood that it is your desire to carry out VACAA as it was intended and in the best interest of the veteran,” the senators wrote to Sec. McDonald. “Regrettably, the VA’s interpretation of the 40-mile eligibility criteria is inconsistent with your message and guidance.  Due to numerous discussions on this issue, the VA has agreed to a review utilizing existing authorities to identify the types of non-VA healthcare services that may be offered to a veteran when the same services are not available at a VA facility within 40 miles.  We are concerned that this narrow review will fail to guard against subjective determinations by bureaucrats of which medical services warrant an exception to the 40-mile rule and which do not.”

On Sept. 9, 2014, during a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Hearing, Sen. Moran asked VA Sec. McDonald to clarify how the VA was going to handle care for rural veterans. Sen. Moran received a commitment from Sec. McDonald that the VA will make certain veterans receive the care they need through VACAA and will not experience the burden of travel to access that care, particularly if a VA facility within 40 miles of where a veteran resides does not offer the care and treatment the veteran is seeking. Click here to view the exchange.