As if on cue, a report issued Monday was critical of a veterans health-care program that is being replaced by one that President Trump will sign into law Wednesday. The current, defective program will stay in place for another year while the new one is readied.
That one-year transition to the operation under the new VA Mission Act is a good thing, because the hurried ramp-up to the disparaged Veterans Choice Program contributed to its downfall.
Monday’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) report hit the Choice Program on multiple fronts. Choice allows Department of Veterans Affairs health-care patients to receive services from private providers in certain circumstances. The program, created in 2014, was a response to the scandalous coverup of long wait times for service at VA health-care facilities.
But Choice was plagued with long waits, too.
While the Choice Program required that its veterans receive health care within 30 days, the GAO found that patients could wait 70 days for care, more than twice as long as mandated.
