
<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:title>Veterans health care. VA has taken steps to improve its appointment scheduling process, but additional actions are needed : testimony before the Special Committee on Aging, U.S. Senate</dc:title>
  <dc:title>VA has taken steps to improve its appointment scheduling process, but additional actions are needed : testimony before the Special Committee on Aging, U.S. Senate</dc:title>
  <dc:subject>United States. Department of Veterans Affairs</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject>Appointments and Schedules</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject>Government Regulation</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject>Legislation, Medical</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject>Veterans Health Services -- organization &amp; administration</dc:subject>
  <dc:description>Why GAO did this study. VHA operates the largest health care delivery system in the U.S., providing health care to approximately 6 million veterans in fiscal year 2022. In the last decade, Congress has taken steps to expand the ability of eligible veterans to receive care from community health care providers. GAO and others have identified challenges VHA has had in scheduling appointments both with VHA facility providers and community care providers in a timely manner. This statement focuses on (1) VHA’s timeliness standards for specialty care appointments and any gaps in those standards; and (2) VHA facilities’ performance in meeting those standards. This statement is based on GAO reports that were issued in January 2023, September 2020, and June 2018. See GAO-23-105617, GAO-20-643, and GAO-18-281. GAO’s methodologies are detailed in those reports. This statement also includes updated information on the status of the recommendations made in those reports. What GAO recommends. GAO has made six recommendations to VHA to address gaps in the timeliness standards for appointments at VHA facilities and with community care providers. VA generally agreed and has implemented two of these recommendations but has not fully implemented the remaining four as of October 2023.</dc:description>
  <dc:publisher>Washington, DC : United States Government Accountability Office, May 17, 2023</dc:publisher>
  <dc:contributor>United States. Government Accountability Office, issuing body.</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>United States. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on Aging, addressee.</dc:contributor>
  <dc:type>Technical Report</dc:type>
  <dc:format>Text</dc:format>
  <dc:format>Illustrations</dc:format>
  <dc:format>1 online resource (1 PDF file (15 pages))</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>nlm:nlmuid-9918734185906676-pdf</dc:identifier>
  <dc:identifier>9918734185906676</dc:identifier>
  <dc:identifier>http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918734185906676</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>English</dc:language>
  <dc:coverage>United States</dc:coverage>
  <dc:rights>The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0</dc:rights>
</oai_dc:dc>