On August 4th, 2025, the Veterans Administration announced a policy change that wasn’t new. It’s how they used to do business (at least for a little while).
WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs today announced it will improve Veterans’ access to health care by extending the length of new VA community care authorizations to one year for 30 standardized types of care.
The change means Veterans referred by VA to community care for eligible standardized types of care will receive 12 full months of uninterrupted treatment at VA expense before having to obtain a VA reauthorization.
Veterans will benefit from uninterrupted access to essential specialty services, allowing them to focus more on their health and less on navigating administrative requirements. Community providers will be empowered to manage care with fewer administrative barriers and greater flexibility.
Prior to the change announced today, some VA community care specialty referrals were reevaluated every 90 to 180 days, increasing the likelihood of interrupted or delayed care.
I’ve got three problems with this, or maybe they are questions.
First, this used to be how the VA managed many of these authorizations. If you needed a specific covered therapy (a community care authorization) to deal with chronic pain (for example), you could request it, and once approved, it was good for twelve months. This gave you time to request reauthorization if needed before it expired, and care could continue without interruption. Why did they change it?
Second, veterans I’ve spoken with have told me they were required to reapply through the Manchester VA as often as every four weeks. That’s 30 to 60 days (not 90-180 as noted in the VA piece). Why are they receiving a different story and standard of care compared to what the national VA is reporting?
Given the lag time for the bureaucracy to push the paper around, you could probably apply after receiving your first approval and have the next one still in limbo when your care coverage expires.
Third, when will this new return to the twelve-month policy take effect? Word has reached me that three weeks after the announcement, Manchester VA vets are still expected to reapply on the short cycle, not the new (old) 12-month approval.
And how then do we stomach this report from WMUR back in May?
Veterans said that in the past decade, the Manchester VA Medical Center has improved.
“We hear from other places throughout the country that VA services are particularly bad in places. We don’t hear that so much here in New Hampshire, even though it’s not a full-service hospital,” said one veteran.
Community care clinics have been developed across rural parts of the state to help provide more accessible care.
Trump is looking to upgrade/update the facility, and we’ll see what happens, but I’d love to know who they spoke to. None of the vets I’ve known in recent years looked forward to any interaction with the Manchester VA Hospital..
Not Better, Worse?
We ran a series of reports from a VA whistleblower back in the early part of 2024. They reported problems with VA managers and improper care, and then there’s this gem regarding that whistleblower’s effort to engage members of Congress on the problems at the Manchester VA. Feel free to contrast the quotes from Hassan and Pappas in the WMUR piece linked above. Lots of words that lead to dead ends, no one tries to get past.
One of the whistleblower’s pieces dug into the systemic failures by management, and retaliation against whistleblowers (who are constantly told by management they have a duty to speak up when they see problems or issues),
Since the publication of my articles on this website, I’ve been contacted by other whistleblowers and continue to speak with employees at the Manchester VA. The stories are disturbing and not surprising at the same time. There is one common theme in each story; each time a front-line employee “speaks up” and brings a concern to management, management fails.
Have things improved since early 2024? Not by much, according to my sources, if at all, but implementing the old new rule allowing 12-month authorizations would probably address a lot of physical as well as mental stress. Vets could receive the care they need without the added stress of fighting with the bureaucracy every few weeks to avoid interruptions in care.
Read those pieces, and they ask, How bad was it ten years ago that this is better (per the WMUR story).
We’d like to hear from veterans using the Manchester VA, as well as whistleblowers with valuable insights, whether positive or negative. I’m also eager to know when the 12-month authorization policy goes back into effect, from someone who has had an authorization approved. I’d ask the VA, but they’d probably give me a run-around similar to the Vets they’re supposed to serve.
And yes, DOGE is apparently inside the VA, and I know Trump’s team is aware of some issues, but they need to slay a monster to get the problems so they can try to fix them, and Vets deserve better now.
