Have You Pledged Your Support For The Department Of Veterans Affairs Provider Equity Act?

Every day, American men and women put their lives on the line to protect the freedoms that we hold dear. These fearless warriors volunteer for this duty with the promise that they will receive quality healthcare for the rest of their lives. The United States Veterans Health Administration is breaking that promise nearly every day.

One example of this is foot and ankle care provided by podiatric physicians and surgeons. Podiatrists provide the vast majority of all foot and ankle care in the nation. Podiatrists keep America walking.

However, the VA is denying that care to veterans because it cannot effectively recruit and retain the best qualified foot and ankle care providers. Care provided by podiatrists is currently the third most outsourced healthcare by the VA. That means that if you are a veteran and have problems with your feet, you are less likely to be able to see a VA podiatric physician or surgeon. This comes at a very high cost to the American taxpayer. Every time a patient has to go outside of the VA for care, the federal government is on the hook to pay that patient for transportation expenses and pay the outside provider for care.

Worse yet, the Veterans Affairs Choice act, which permits the VA to send patients to outside providers, establishes that patients seeking care may get referrals to an outside provider for a "diagnosis," but what happens when those patients require treatment? They have to go back to the VA to request another appointment and may subsequently be referred out again. This means another office visit, more transportation costs and delayed care for the veteran.

There is a solution to this problem. The Department of Veterans Affairs Provider Equity Act, S 2175, is a bill currently before the U.S. Senate Committee On Veterans’ Affairs. This legislation provides the VA with the tools it needs to effectively and efficiently recruit and retain the best qualified doctors of podiatric medicine to serve the veterans of the United States. The House unanimously passed this bill in February 2016 after garnering the support of all physician members of the U.S. House Committee On Veterans’ Affairs.

We need all American voters to reach out to their elected officials to request immediate passage of this legislation. Sign our petition and add your name to our growing list of supporters to urge your U.S. senators to cosponsor and vote for passage of this bill.  

The petition link is: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/350/274/877/veterans-deserve-better/ .

After you sign the petition, it is critical to make it go viral by sharing it to your Facebook and Twitter accounts so your family and friends will sign it. The goal of this petition is to obtain enough signatures to make the Senate pass S 2175. Please help our veterans, our podiatric colleagues working in the VA system and the podiatric profession. Let’s turn up the heat on the Senate.