Protecting Veteran Community Care Act
The Protecting Veteran Community Care Act would expand the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Community Care Program to allow more veterans to access mental health and substance-use services in the community when timely access to VA-provided residential mental health treatment is unavailable. It adds minimum quality standards for VA referrals to residential programs (licensing and accreditation requirements, with specific accreditation by Joint Commission or CARF) and requires that referrals to alternate VA mental health residential programs do not crowd out timely access unless the veteran requests it. The bill also requires stronger data reporting on community-care requests and outcomes, restricts VA rule changes to modify access standards unless Congress approves them by joint resolution, and directs VA to ensure wait-time standards for mental health care in the Community Care Program are not more restrictive than those for VA specialty care.
Key Points
- 1Expands access to the VA Community Care Program to include mental health and substance-use residential services for veterans who cannot timely access VA residential care.
- 2Requires minimum standards for residential mental health/substance-use services (licensing; accreditation by Joint Commission Behavioral Health Standards or CARF residential treatment standards; with potential waivers only if no other option is available or in the veteran’s best interest).
- 3Prohibits referrals from unduly delaying timely access, and ensures veteran control by allowing the veteran’s preference when multiple care options exist.
- 4Mandates new data metrics for community-care reviews (requests, approvals, denials, appeals, eligibility criteria, mental health-specific data, and emergency care data including transportation or hospital stays).
- 5Keeps changes to community-care access standards under VA from taking effect without a Congress-approved joint resolution.