The VA Biffs It Again

If you are a military veteran who travels to a VA hospital or clinic for care and are eligible for payment of mileage reimbursement, I'm afraid I may have bad news for you today.

Quoting from a letter, received May 11, 2011, from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, New Mexico VA Health Care Systems:

"There have been growing concerns regarding the disbursement of cash for beneficiary travel reimbursements. In an effort to address these concerns, we are endeavoring to provide a change to increase the safety, security, and reliability of these payments.

BEGINNING JUNE 1, 2011,we will no longer be disbursing cash for the payment of mileage reimbursement for travel through the Agent Cashier window. Payments for eligible veterans' visits will be disbursed by CHECK, mailed to the address of record. The average processing time for a check payment is 10 business days. Please take this new change into consideration when planning your next travel arrangement. You may also elect to use Electronic Funds Transfer, and enrollment forms are enclosed for your convenience."

SNARK ALERT! Actually, that quote is not entirely correct, because the letter we received says "we will no longer be disbursing SASH for the payment of mileage reimbursement for travel." I took the liberty of translating and correcting their letter, since we have never been given a "sash" when visiting the VA hospital. Of course, anything is possible when dealing with a ball of tangled red tape this big so I could be wrong. If that turns out to be the case, I will happily issue a retraction at a later date.

I am at a loss as to how this change could possibly make these payments safer, more secure, or more reliable. The current system seems to work well. You show up for your appointment, you submit your paperwork, sit around for a few minutes while you wait for it to be approved, pick up your cash and go. And the problem with that is ?

Clearly, this adds at least another couple of layers to the bureaucracy, in addition to the time you will have to wait (at least 10 business days) to be reimbursed for your travel expenses. Some veterans will be okay with this change. Other veterans will be devastated.

On more than one occasion, I have heard veterans at the VA hospital comment that they had barely enough money for gas to get to their appointment that day, and they would not be able to get home without the travel reimbursement cash. For low-income veterans who have to travel long distances for care, this little so-called improvement could very well mean they will not be able to access the care they need AT ALL, especially with gas prices continuing to rise. Well, I guess that's one way for the VA to cut costs.

I once asked a very nice lady at the VA "What has happened to common sense?" She replied, "It's against policy." 'Nuff said.

I checked the VA web site, but I was unable to determine if this is a new nation-wide policy or if it just applies to New Mexico. I would suggest you check with the VA health care facility you are using to determine if they have also made a policy change. Here's a link to the VA web site: http://www2.va.gov/directory/guide/division_flsh.asp?dnum=1

If you have additional information on this topic you feel should be shared with other veterans and caregivers, please leave it in the comments section. Feel free to vent, but please keep it clean. Thanks.