The Veterans Affairs Department is making good progress in hiring providers to help bring down wait times for veterans, VA Secretary Robert McDonald said Friday during a talk at the National Press Club in Washington.
In August, President Barack Obama signed a bill that provided roughly $5 billion to hire more medical personnel. McDonald did not release hiring figures.
Relying on academic medical centers has been key to his strategy, he said. He has visited 11 since taking office in July in an effort to recruit clinicians, McDonald said.
He has also authorized the first base pay raises in recent years for primary care and specialists, which in addition to aiding retention efforts, is helping the agency recruit new doctors, he said. He plans a similar action for VA nurses, he said.
National new patient primary-care wait time at VA facilities is down by 18% between June and October compared with the same period last year, he said. Current patient primary-care waiting times are down 37% when comparing the same period.
McDonald's comments followed the Nov. 4 release of a VA interim rule that provided guidelines for covered services, eligibility requirements, reimbursement rates and criteria for veterans receiving care from providers in the private sector.
Prior to the proposed rule's release, the agency already had been increasingly allowing an increasing number of veterans to get care outside the system. Between June and October, the VA authorized 1.1 million appointments with non-VA providers. That's a 47% increase from the same period last year, McDonald said.
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