The questions ran the gamut — travel issues, lengthy claims processes, appointments made and canceled without notice, the VA Choice Act, and getting non-VA care closer to home — as veterans from across Northwest Indiana peppered Jesse Brown VA Medical Center Director Ann Brown with questions at a public forum Wednesday at the Lake County Government Center in Crown Point.
More than three dozen veterans were present during a sometimes frank but civil discussion about veterans health care.
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Brown said the quality of VA care is second to none, but the process of accessing that care creates massive headaches for veterans across the country.
“I’ve been in the VA system for 20-plus, and the overall care is still the best in the country,” Brown said.
Lengthy patient wait times and problematic paperwork delays have plagued the VA for years. Access was supposed to improve when Congress passed the VA Choice Act in 2014, which allows veterans to access care outside the VA system if they live more than 40 miles away from a VA facility or if they’ve been on a waiting list for an appointment for at least 30 days. But veterans who live within 40 miles of Crown Point’s Adam Benjamin Jr. VA Outpatient Clinic wouldn’t qualify for a Choice Card voucher even if the specialty care they require, such as cardiology, is unavailable at Adam Benjamin.
Schererville resident Steve Lenker said traveling to Chicago is a physical trial for him as he suffers from Crohn’s disease and other ailments.
“They send a van to my house to pick me up for appointments at Jesse Brown, but they’ve broken my scooter multiple times because they haven’t put it in the van right,” said Lenker, a chaplain at Disabled American Veterans Chapter 17 in Hammond. “I have to travel up there to coordinate medications and the trip is nothing but pain.”
Though the 40-mile rule must be changed by Congress, Brown said, the VA is making exceptions for veterans who need frequent treatment, such as dialysis, chemotherapy or physical therapy.
“We don’t want people driving one hour back and forth to Chicago for dialysis treatments,” Brown said.
According to data from the VA, Jesse Brown VAMC has fewer backlogs in care for veterans compared to other areas of the country. Through the end of July, Jesse Brown patients saw a doctor within 30 days 97.8 percent of the time. Physical therapy has the highest number of consultations for local veterans using the Choice Act. At Adam Benjamin VA Outpatient Clinic, 100 percent of primary care appointments are fulfilled within 30 days, but specialty areas such as optometry, physical therapy, podiatry and audiology sometimes have longer waits, officials said.
Brown said travel rules imposed by Congress and less than stellar performance by the third-party administrator — HealthNet — has made implementation of the Choice Act bumpy.
“Bear with us as we take control of this situation. We’re working to get people enrolled in HealthNet to get in the Choice program,” Brown said. “HealthNet has not been very successful at finding us providers, so sometimes patients are sent to the wrong specialist.
“It’s not just Jesse Brown, not just Illinois, and not just Indiana. HealthNet is covering half the country.”
The VA has encouraged many veterans to engage in telemedicine appointments, secure messaging and other forms of connected health care, and Brown said 50 percent of veterans have taken advantage of the services. Valparaiso resident James Jewell said the telemedicine function works pretty well, but secure messaging on the My Healthy Vet portal could be used better.
“For my pain group, I sit in a room at Adam Benjamin with my camera and TV and I can see my doctor that way as well. It works quite well,” Jewell said. “(With secure messaging) I have tension headaches and the doctor left me a message, but I’m not going to be on a computer with a headache. Call us instead.”