VA to Rely More on Private Health Care Sector

HARLINGEN - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will rely more on private doctors and hospitals across the country to get veterans the health care they need, officials said.

The secretary of the VA announced the new strategy over the Memorial Day weekend. The agency will expand capacity at veterans' hospitals and rely more on the private sector. The model called non-VA care, though, has not always worked in the Rio Grande Valley.

"The idea for non-VA care is simple. Veterans go to a private doctor, the doctor bills the VA (and) the VA pays the bill," VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System Spokesman Hugo Martinez said.

The non-VA care model is how the agency provides health care to veterans in the Valley since there is no veterans' hospital.

A CHANNEL 5 NEWS investigation exposed problems with non-VA care at the VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System in Harlingen. A former employee said doctors' bills were not paid and veterans' appeals were ignored.

"They were put in the bottom of two filing cabinets ... and they sat there for years," the whistleblower said.

Martinez said those problems occurred because the VA system in the Valley was understaffed. He said they've since hired more workers to handle the workload.

They still owe nearly $900,000 to private doctors and hospitals. They are still answering appeals from 2011.

"Unfortunately, we're not a perfect system. I don't think that anybody is," Martinez said.

Martinez claims the efficiency of non-VA care is improving. Lawmakers now are pushing to use the Valley's model all over the country.

"I support the idea of a public-private partnership, but we have to be able to pay the private doctors and hospitals," U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) said.

Cuellar said he is sharing the Valley's non-VA care struggles with his fellow lawmakers. Cuellar said he is pushing to write new legislation that would make the VA pay private doctors and hospitals in a timely manner.