are not unique to VA. He points to some improvements VA has made. “There are some pockets where we have access issues geographically or by specialty,” he said. “But we’ve been very aggressive in covering those, and the amount of patients who are not seen in a timely manner within our region is very small compared to the number of veterans we serve.” Texas VA representatives add they
have largely resolved problems with slow pay over the past few years, and now with a more centralized payment system, VA pays 95 percent of claims within 30 days. Over the years, VA also has increased the amount it can pay outside specialists, particularly in scarce specialty areas, Dr. Jones says. The other 5 percent of claims, how-
ever, “are not paid for a variety of rea- sons. Sometimes we made mistakes, and we’ve tried to correct those,” he said. At the same time, officials travel through- out Texas to hold town hall-type meet- ings with physicians and other profes- sionals on how to correctly file VA claims. As for medical records access, Dr.
Jones touted the VA’s EHR system, which helped make veterans’ records avail- able nationally among VA facilities and helped improve their care. Those records are not off limits to outside physicians, he says. At the same time, certain de- partment and federal rules bind VA, such as stringent privacy protections. “We can’t just transfer that record without the patient [consenting] to do that. And that’s for the protection of the patient, and that’s by law,” he said.
“Adapting to different systems can be frustrating at times, and I understand the frustrations providers have with our or any system. But it’s not really a VA- specific issue.”
Whether it’s the Affordable Care Act
or VA, Dr. Kundi says her paperwork and administrative load are increasing any- way. She hopes to see the bureaucracy swept away, but for now is looking past it and asks her colleagues to do the same and join TMA’s registry.
Amy Lynn Sorrel is associate editor of Texas Medicine. You can reach her by telephone at (800) 880-1300, ext. 1392, or (512) 370-1392; by fax at (512) 370-1629; or by email at
amy.sorrel@
texmed.org.
38 TEXAS MEDICINE September 2014
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