Veterans' Experiences With Outpatient Care: Comparing The Veterans Affairs System With Community-Based Care

Timely access to outpatient care was a primary driver behind the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA's) increased purchase of community-based care under the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014, known as the Choice Act. To compare veterans' experiences in VA-deliver...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health affairs (Millwood, Va.) Va.), 2020-08, Vol.39 (8), p.1368-19
Main Authors: Vanneman, Megan E, Wagner, Todd H, Shwartz, Michael, Meterko, Mark, Francis, Joseph, Greenstone, Clinton L, Rosen, Amy K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access
Accountability
Communication
Community
Community health care
Coordination
Government agencies
Health care
Health care access
Health care policy
Health facilities
Medical decision making
Mental health
Mental health care
Mental health services
Outpatient treatment
Patients
Primary care
Quality
Ratings & rankings
Trends
Veterans
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Timely access to outpatient care was a primary driver behind the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA's) increased purchase of community-based care under the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014, known as the Choice Act. To compare veterans' experiences in VA-delivered and community-based outpatient care after implementation of the act, we assessed veterans' scores on four dimensions of experience-access, communication, coordination, and provider rating-for outpatient specialty, primary, and mental health care received during 2016-17. Patient experiences were better for VA than for community care in all respects except access. For specialty care, access scores were better in the community; for primary and mental health care, access scores were similar in the two settings. Although all specialty care scores and the primary care coordination score improved over time, the gaps between settings did not shrink. As purchased care further expands under the VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks Act of 2018, which replaced the Choice Act in 2019, monitoring of meaningful differences between settings should continue, with the results used to inform both VA purchasing decisions and patients' care choices.
ISSN:0278-2715
1544-5208
DOI:10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01375