VA Health Care: Additional Steps Could Help Improve Community Care Budget Estimates
Abstract
In fiscal year 2019, VA obligations for veterans' community care accounted for over 17 percent of all obligations for VA health care. In implementing the VA MISSION Act of 2018, VA continues to focus on community care as a way to improve veterans' access to health care. When informing Congress of the resources needed for community care, VA must ensure its budget estimates, which are based mostly on actuarial projections, are reliable. The process to develop these estimates is inherently complex, as it requires making assumptions based on imperfect information. GAO was asked to review VA's efforts to develop projections for community care. This report (1) describes VA's actual community care obligations for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 and estimated obligations for fiscal years 2020 through 2022 and (2) examines VA's processes related to its use of actuarial modeling for developing budget estimates for community care, among other objectives. GAO reviewed VA data and documents used to develop estimates for the budget requests for fiscal years 2020 through 2022, the most recent years for which data and documents were available. GAO also interviewed officials from VA and its actuarial consultant responsible for developing estimates.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1175336
Entities
People
- Frank Todisco
- Sharon M. Silas
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office