Title
Understanding VA's Use of and Relationships With Community Care Providers Under the MISSION Act
UMMS Affiliation
Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
Publication Date
2021-06-01
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Community-Based Research | Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Health Communication | Health Services Administration | Military and Veterans Studies
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Congress has enacted 2 major pieces of legislation to improve access to care for Veterans within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). As a result, the VA has undergone a major transformation in the way that care is delivered to Veterans with an increased reliance on community-based provider networks. No studies have examined the relationship between VA and contracted community providers. This study examines VA facility directors' perspectives on their successes and challenges building relationships with community providers within the VA Community Care Network (CCN).
OBJECTIVES: To understand who VA facilities partner with for community care, highlight areas of greatest need for partnerships in various regions, and identify challenges of working with community providers in the new CCN contract.
RESEARCH DESIGN: We conducted a national survey with VA facility directors to explore needs, challenges, and expectations with the CCN.
RESULTS: The most common care referred to community providers included physical therapy, chiropractic, orthopedic, ophthalmology, and acupuncture. Open-ended responses focused on 3 topics: (1) Challenges in working with community providers, (2) Strategies to maintain strong relationships with community providers, and (3) Re-engagement with community providers who no longer provide care for Veterans.
CONCLUSIONS: VA faces challenges engaging with community providers given problems with timely reimbursement of community providers, low (Medicare) reimbursement rates, and confusing VA rules related to prior authorizations and bundled services. It will be critical to identify strategies to successfully initiate and sustain relationships with community providers.
Keywords
Veterans, community care, network adequacy, access
Rights and Permissions
Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
DOI of Published Version
10.1097/MLR.0000000000001545
Source
Mattocks KM, Kroll-Desrosiers A, Kinney R, Elwy AR, Cunningham KJ, Mengeling MA. Understanding VA's Use of and Relationships With Community Care Providers Under the MISSION Act. Med Care. 2021 Jun 1;59(Suppl 3):S252-S258. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000001545. PMID: 33976074; PMCID: PMC8132889. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Medical care
PubMed ID
33976074
Related Resources
Repository Citation
Mattocks KM, Kroll-Desrosiers A, Kinney R, Elwy AR, Cunningham KJ, Mengeling MA. (2021). Understanding VA's Use of and Relationships With Community Care Providers Under the MISSION Act. Population and Quantitative Health Sciences Publications. https://doi.org/10.1097/MLR.0000000000001545. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/qhs_pp/1445
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Community-Based Research Commons, Community Health and Preventive Medicine Commons, Health Communication Commons, Health Services Administration Commons, Military and Veterans Studies Commons