VA Official Grilled on Community Care Quality Data by Sen. Duckworth

Lack of Community Care Quality Measures

• 🎯 VA official Richard Topping admitted that the VA does not currently measure quality in its community care program, making it impossible to benchmark against direct care.
• ❓ Sen. Duckworth questioned why this data on veteran experiences in community care is not collected, to which Topping responded that the program doesn't manage data at the provider level.
• 💡 Topping clarified that while patient experience surveys exist for direct care, the community care program lacks specific quality measures or requirements.

NextGen Program and Future Quality Data

• 🚀 The upcoming NextGen program aims to use industry-standard measures to track and report on the quality of care veterans receive from community providers.
• 📊 This will allow for data-driven benchmarking against the quality of care veterans receive within the VA's direct care system.
• 🧩 Topping stated that the VA is working on building program management capabilities for community care, including cost accounting and quality oversight.

Direct Care Investments and Modernization

• 💰 The administration has invested $800 million in direct care and plans to invest $5 billion in fiscal year 2026 for deferred maintenance of VA facilities.
• 📈 Community care spending has nearly doubled from $32 billion in 2018 to $62 billion in 2023.
• ⚠️ Sen. Duckworth expressed concern that the contract oversight workforce has not doubled in the same period, raising worries about oversight of lucrative community care contracts.

Contract Oversight and Staffing

• 🔍 Topping committed to building a program management office for community care to ensure accountability for quality and cost.
• ⏳ Awards for new community care contracts are expected in January 2027, with a one-year implementation period.
• ❓ The exact staffing levels for the office of integrated general networks and its contracts management department were unknown to Topping, but he committed to providing the information and staffing the necessary roles.