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Fox News | Watchdog asks judge to end VA ‘stonewalling,’ identify officials behind health care restrictions
A watchdog group advocating on behalf of veterans on Friday asked a federal judge to force the Department of Veterans Affairs to follow a prior court order and explain its implementation of a law giving veterans the option of private sector care, including details of how senior officials may be trying to discourage veterans from using that option.
The bipartisan MISSION Act gave millions of veterans the right to access private care outside the VA system if wait times at VA are too long or when it’s in a veteran’s best interest. But veterans and lawmakers have said the Biden administration's VA has worked to limit access to this new benefit, and VA officials have said publicly they are worried about the prospect that too many veterans might prefer private care to VA care.
"Based on the initial FOIA investigation, we know that VA is not following the VA MISSION Act law and is denying veterans timely and convenient community care they want and need," said Darin Selnick, a senior adviser to Concerned Veterans for America and former top adviser to VA Secretaries David Shulkin and Robert Wilkie.
"The VA's stonewalling tactics suggest they are desperate to hide additional FOIA documents that we suspect will show which senior VA officials are responsible for denying veterans lifesaving care and why they did it," Selnick said.
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