VA Referrals to Private Providers Up by 25%
Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald on Wednesday said VA is drastically increasing the number of veterans it refers to private doctors, with hundreds of thousands of referrals already made in the past two months. At a national convention of American Veterans, McDonald discussed the wait time issue and noted that VA has made more than 838,000 referrals to private providers in the last two months -- a 25% increase, or about 166,000 additional referrals, from the same period last year.
- "VA Private Referrals On Rise" (AP/Politico, 8/13).