The Veterans Affairs MISSION Act goes into effect today.

The new law replaces the Veteran’s Choice Act establishes the Veteran’s Community Care Program.  The goal of the new act is to make it easier for veterans to receive care.

The new act changes the criteria to make it easier for a veteran to seek care from a community provider.  A veteran can receive outside care if they meet any of the following criteria:

1. A Veteran needs a service not available at any VA medical facility.
2. A Veteran lives in a U.S. state or territory without a full-service VA medical facility. Specifically, this would apply to Veterans living in Alaska, Hawaii, New Hampshire and the U.S. territories of Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
3. A Veteran qualifies under the “grandfather” provision related to distance eligibility under the Veterans Choice Program.
4. VA cannot furnish care within certain designated access standards. The specific access standards are described below:

• Drive time to a specific VA medical facility

• Thirty-minute average drive time for primary care, mental health and noninstitutional extended care services.
• Sixty-minute average drive time for specialty care.

Note: Drive times are calculated using geomapping software.

• Appointment wait time at a specific VA medical facility

• Twenty days from the date of request for primary care, mental health care and noninstitutional extended care services, unless the Veteran agrees to a later date in consultation with his or her VA health care provider.
• Twenty-eight days for specialty care from the date of request, unless the Veteran agrees to a later date in consultation with his or her VA health care provider.

1. The Veteran and the referring clinician agree it is in the best medical interest of the Veteran to receive community care based on defined factors.
2. VA has determined that a VA medical service line is not providing care in a manner that complies with VA’s standards for quality based on specific conditions.

Veterans will also have access to urgent care facilities in their communities and “telemedicine” programs.

The Act has also created programs to help fill the shortage of available medical professionals be the creation of the new Veterans Healing Veterans Medical Access and Scholarship Program, the Health Professions Scholarship Program, and the Specialty Education Loan Repayment Program.  9 medical schools are now required to select two highest ranking veteran applicants for their program.

The participating schools are Texas A&M College of Medicine, the University of South Carolina College of Medicine, the Booneshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University, the Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University, the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University, Howard University School of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Drew University of Medicine and Science, and Morehouse School of Medicine.

The program will pay for tuition, books, equipment, fees, two away rotations at a VA facility during the senior year, and a monthly stipend.  In exchange, after graduation, the veteran must commit to for years as a clinical provider at a VA facility.

Officials at the Robert J. Dole Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in Wichita say the overall goal of implementing the new law is to get more veterans to chose the VA for their medical care rather than through a private insurance program like an employer sponsored health insurance plan.