The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Community Care program allows eligible veterans to receive VA-funded private care when VA services are unavailable or do not meet access or quality standards. Proposed changes would expand eligibility, potentially improving access and timeliness. This report examines how such changes may affect New York veterans' access to and quality of health care.

Health Care Access and Quality for New York Veterans Provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Community Care

Volume I, Understanding the Impact of Proposed Policy Changes

Claire E. O'Hanlon, Catria Gadwah-Meaden, Ensheng Dong, Jonathan H. Cantor, Heather M. Salazar, Carrie M. Farmer

ResearchPublished Apr 29, 2026

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has approximately 9 million enrolled veterans annually, including over 300,000 in New York. While VA traditionally delivers care through its own facilities, the VA Community Care program allows eligible veterans to receive VA-funded care from private-sector providers. Proposed policy changes seek to expand eligibility for Community Care by relaxing or removing current standards related to drive time, wait time, and service availability. This report examines how such changes could affect access to and the quality of care for veterans in New York. The companion report (Volume II) provides supplementary methods and data that are helpful, but not critical, for understanding the analyses.

Overall, expanding Community Care eligibility may modestly improve geographic access but has uncertain effects on timeliness and mixed implications for care quality for veterans in New York. Further data and modeling are needed to assess the full impact of these proposed policy changes.

Key Findings

Expanding veterans' eligibility for Community Care may modestly improve geographic access to health services for New York veterans

  • VA care access in New York is limited: 47 percent of veterans live within 30 minutes of a VA facility, and 87 percent within 60 minutes. Northern, rural areas have the largest gaps.
  • Community Care Network (CCN) providers improve access, but 17.1 percent of New York veterans live more than a 30-minute drive away from both VA and CCN primary care.

The potential effects of the proposed eligibility expansion on appointment timeliness remain uncertain for New York veterans

  • Wait times at New York VA facilities are short for established patients but long for new ones — averaging 20 days for primary care and 26.4 days for mental health care. Comparable CCN data are unavailable, and the best available private-sector comparisons are mixed.

The anticipated impact on care quality is mixed for New York veterans

  • New York VA health systems generally outperform or match community health systems in outpatient and emergency care quality, although inpatient results vary by facility.

Recommendations

  • Additional data and a simulation model are needed to estimate the direction and magnitude of potential outcomes for veterans of expanding eligibility for Community Care.
  • VA should publish CCN, wait-time, and Community Care utilization and expenditure data on the VA Open Data Portal.
  • New York State should consider requiring health plans to measure and publicly report wait times to assess how expanded Community Care eligibility affects timely access.

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O'Hanlon, Claire E., Catria Gadwah-Meaden, Ensheng Dong, Jonathan H. Cantor, Heather M. Salazar, and Carrie M. Farmer, Health Care Access and Quality for New York Veterans Provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Community Care: Volume I, Understanding the Impact of Proposed Policy Changes. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2026. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4524-1.html.
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This research was funded by the New York Health Foundation (NYHealth) and conducted by the RAND Epstein Family Veterans Policy Research Institute.

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