The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to offer $1 trillion in contracts over 10 years to fund more community care for veterans, an initiative intended to give veterans more choice in their health care. 

U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank and staff who work for the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill. discussed the new funding for health care and other veteran concerns, such as long wait times for those in a mental health crisis, during a roundtable last week.

Crank said he hoped the committee staff members would learn from some of the unique models of veteran care in Colorado Springs and also see some of the needs in town.

The new federal contracts will also add new controls on VA spending based on the private sector, such as utilization management, according to statements Bost made during a January hearing. Prior authorizations are an example of utilization management and require your doctor or health care provider to get permission to provide a service. 

“Without it, payers would have no way of stopping unnecessary spending. But with it, some doctors have to move heaven and earth to get the right treatments for their patients,” Bost said. “Needless to say, we are interested to know how VA plans to strike the proper balance.” 

In his written testimony, Richard Topping, assistant secretary for management and chief financial officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs, said the VA would manage use of inpatient admissions, emergency department use, and high-cost drugs administered in clinical settings. 

Local advocates did not offer feedback on the new plan for health care contracts directly, although they did touch on some current issues and locally based solutions for meeting needs. 

For example, the wait times to see a mental health provider at the VA can reach two months, said Damian McCabe, director of behavioral health-military affairs for UCHealth. It’s far too long a wait, when a veteran in crisis could die in two days. But he said that community-based care can meet the mental health needs. 

Next Chapter, a program run through UCHealth and Mt. Carmel Veterans Services Center, provides a wraparound approach to help with debt, divorce, depression and other kinds of stress. It’s a program that fosters wellness rather than waiting for crisis. 

So far the program has reached more than 1,200 veterans and none have died by suicide, said Bob McLaughlin, executive director of Mt. Carmel.  Since the program was started, the number of deaths by suicide in the community has fallen. 

“It is a model for suicide prevention,” McLaughlin said. 

In addition to mental health needs, the community has a large population of aging veterans who will have particular needs around health care and social supports, McCabe said. 

“The VA is not postured to help us,” he said. 

A member of the committee staff said conversations are happening at the national level about how to balance current and future needs. 

Crank said he would like to see a 10- to 20-year plan on how to manage VA health care in the region, adding it’s possible that meeting all those needs might require leaning on some military health care facilities in town and more community care. 

As part of the visit the committee staff visited the VA Lindstrom Outpatient Clinic, so they could see how busy it is and whether it is a model that could be used in other communities, Crank said.

He said he hopes the visit could help draft future legislation to benefit veterans in town.