Congress adopted the “Veteran’s Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014”  last week with the goal of providing access to care in the private sector for veteran’s who are not able to secure an appointment at a VA facility within a prescribed amount of time or who live more than 40 miles from a VA facility. The legislation also would provide for the hiring of additional physicians, and other practitioners, and acquisition of additional facilities; and to improve administrative functions throughout the system.

The specifics of how the Secretary will negotiate agreements with private providers will need to be worked out by the VA in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) like our counterparts in Texas and New York has been gathering the names and contact information for doctors who are willing to see veterans outside of the VA system. We would like to thank those 100+ doctors from throughout North Carolina who have agreed to add their name to our registry. It’s not too late to add your name. You may sign up to give our veterans an additional option for care by completing the brief questionnaire below.

Soon we will be circulating this list to the VA medical centers throughout the state as well as to agencies that interact with veterans regularly.

For those who may be called upon to provide care, we offer these important links to information on how a Veteran can obtain care outside of the VA and how a non-VA provider may be listed as a community provider for veterans.

A Veteran must obtain authorization to get care from a non-VA provider

The non-VA provider must be listed as a non-VA community provider

Again, thank you to all those who have agreed to help those who have so bravely defended our country.