Skip to main content

VA Health Care: Additional Steps Could Help Improve Community Care Budget Estimates

GAO-20-669 Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020.
Jump To:

Fast Facts

Most veterans seeking Department of Veterans Affairs medical services use its 170 medical centers or over 1,000 outpatient facilities. Veterans may also use community care—services from non-VA providers—in some cases, such as when they face long waits or drive times to VA facilities. Congress expanded access to community care beginning in June 2019.

The VA estimates community care will cost $21.3 billion in FY 2022—a 45% increase from FY 2018—in part because of the recent expansion.

We found ways the VA could improve its actuarial modeling and make its budget estimates more reliable. We recommended it make these improvements.

Resources Needed by the Department of Veterans Affairs for Community Care, FY 2018-2022

Bar graph showing the actual costs of the VA Community Care program in 2018 and 2019 vs. its estimated costs for 2020-2022, including costs for the expanded program.

Skip to Highlights

Highlights

What GAO Found

To help ensure veterans' access to timely health care services, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) purchases care from non-VA providers, known as community care. VA estimates that by fiscal year 2022, its obligations for veterans' community care will total $21.3 billion, an increase of $6.6 billion (45 percent) from fiscal year 2018. This estimated increase reflects implementation of the VA MISSION Act of 2018, which, among other things, expanded veterans' access to community care starting in June 2019.

VA Actual and Estimated Community Care Obligations, Fiscal Years 2018 through 2022

VA Actual and Estimated Community Care Obligations, Fiscal Years 2018 through 2022

aTotals may not sum due to rounding.

Each year, VA develops an estimate of the budgetary resources needed to provide VA health care services, including community care, by following established processes. However, when providing data to its consultant responsible for the actuarial modeling, VA does not communicate all relevant information on the quality of its community care utilization and cost data, including any limitations affecting these data. VA officials responsible for providing the data told GAO that they rely on the offices that compile and validate the data for use throughout the department, without collecting information on the data quality from those offices. Such information could improve the actuarial modeling. In addition, VA does not fully assess and communicate to stakeholders the degree of uncertainty inherent in actuarial projections for community care that directly inform the community care budget estimates. VA officials told GAO that stakeholders have an awareness that actual community care experience may differ from projections. By fully assessing and communicating the degree of overall uncertainty associated with its projections, however, VA stakeholders would have more comprehensive information for responding to uncertainty affecting model projections when making decisions regarding VA's community care budget estimates.

Why GAO Did This Study

In fiscal year 2019, VA obligations for veterans' community care accounted for over 17 percent of all obligations for VA health care. In implementing the VA MISSION Act of 2018, VA continues to focus on community care as a way to improve veterans' access to health care. When informing Congress of the resources needed for community care, VA must ensure its budget estimates, which are based mostly on actuarial projections, are reliable. The process to develop these estimates is inherently complex, as it requires making assumptions based on imperfect information.

GAO was asked to review VA's efforts to develop projections for community care. This report (1) describes VA's actual community care obligations for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 and estimated obligations for fiscal years 2020 through 2022 and (2) examines VA's processes related to its use of actuarial modeling for developing budget estimates for community care, among other objectives. GAO reviewed VA data and documents used to develop estimates for the budget requests for fiscal years 2020 through 2022, the most recent years for which data and documents were available. GAO also interviewed officials from VA and its actuarial consultant responsible for developing estimates.

Recommendations

GAO recommends that VA (1) communicate information on data quality to its actuarial consultant and (2) assess and communicate overall uncertainty associated with actuarial projections to stakeholders. VA concurred with GAO's recommendations.

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Veterans Affairs The Under Secretary for Health should establish steps for communicating to VA's actuarial consultant information on data quality, including any limitations, used in the actuarial modeling that informs VA's community care budget estimates. (Recommendation 1)
Open
VA agreed with our recommendation. In February 2021, VA officials stated that VA established a workgroup that will select a system to use for capturing the data used in the actuarial modeling that informs VA's community care budget estimates. When system development is complete, VA subject matter experts will populate known data quality, integrity, limitations, and caveats. The central location for capture of these community care data will serve as a point of reference for VA's actuarial consultant and for all stakeholders served by the data. In addition, according to VA's Congressional Budget Justification for Fiscal Year 2023, released in March 2022, reports describing specific analyses or projection scenarios used in VA's actuarial modeling will include a discussion of key areas of uncertainty in the projections, including uncertainty about historical data quality and applicability.
Department of Veterans Affairs The Under Secretary for Health should establish further steps for assessing and communicating to stakeholders the degree of overall uncertainty associated with actuarial projections for community care that inform the community care budget estimates. (Recommendation 2)
Closed – Implemented
VA agreed with our recommendation. According to VA documentation, VHA's Office of Enrollment and Forecasting developed a risk communication to stakeholders regarding the degree of overall uncertainty associated with the actuarial projections used to support the President's Budget, including the community care budget estimates. VHA's Office of Enrollment and Forecasting provided the VHA Office of Finance with pandemic modeling documentation, a major driver of the fiscal year 2022 President's Budget request, that explicitly documents the various sources of uncertainty and provides range of associated costs. VA incorporated this risk assessment into its Congressional Budget Justification for fiscal years 2022 and 2023.

Full Report

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Access to health careBudget estimatesBudget justificationBudget obligationsBudget requestsBudgetsHealth careHealth care servicesMedical facilitiesPresident's budgetVeteransVeterans affairsVeterans health care