Armed Forces News

The Veterans Choice Program, which was established to help veterans get medical care they need quicker, has been streamlined. The Department of Veterans Affairs has relaxed eligibility requirements, so that veterans can more easily visit civilian treatment facilities in their community when VA centers cannot schedule timely appointments. Under the new requirements, veterans can use Veterans Choice when:

* Facilities cannot see them within 30 days of receiving a physician’s referral.
* Veterans live more than 40 miles from the nearest VA facility with a full-time primary care physician.
* A veteran would have to rely upon air, boat or ferry transport to take him or her to the nearest VA facility.
* A veteran is faced with an excessive or unusual burden in traveling to a VA facility.
* A veteran lives in Alaska, Hawaii, parts of New Hampshire, and the U.S. territories excluding Puerto Rico, none of which have a full-service VA medical facility.