Clark County's Veterans Service Officer Explains the MISSION Act
Wednesday, July 10th, 2019 -- 11:43 AM
-The MISSION Act, recently passed by Congress, is providing some new opportunities for care for our veterans.I spoke with Aaron Greisen, the Veterans Service Officer for Clark County, and he began our interview by explaining the resources available for county veterans.
“Here in Clark County, we have the clinic up in Owen, which is a primary care provider and provides basic needs for veterans regarding any aches or pains they may have. Any sort of requirements that go above and beyond those needs, they may be authorized to go to, historically, Tomah or Madison or Milwaukee. Somewhere that does certain things like surgeries or MRI or other things they can’t do in the Owen Clinic.”
He then explained the MISSION Act in better detail.
“So, the VA MISSION Act started in October of last year and signed into law and implemented on June 6th of this year. And what that does is it opens up more doors for veterans to get care outside of the community or private care. The two biggest impacts that it will have for Clark County veterans are that it streamline and approves community care so they won’t have to travel as far for specialty needs and it also, which in my opinion is the biggest benefit for Clark County veterans, is that will establish a new urgent care benefit.”
The MISSION Act is actually an acronym.
“So, the MISSION Act acronym stands for Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks. So, the VA itself is very good at certain things. VA health coverage pertaining to veterans like hearing loss, a lot of veterans experience hearing loss. Also, with amputees with their prosthetic limbs, which are, unfortunately, are experienced a lot more in veteran healthcare than civilian healthcare. So, there are certain things that the VA is very good at, but they only have so many locations and this is just opening doors to allow veterans to go do places that are local for them.”
Aaron wanted to clarify that this act will not be privatizing care for veterans.
“So, the VA’s official statement is that they’re not privatizing the VA. However, the MISSION Act does incorporate much more private based care into the veteran’s health care needs. In fact, some of our veterans, when they apply for VA health coverage in Clark County, they go for that first VA appointment at Marshfield Clinic. So, they may never even step foot in a VA clinic or hospital up until a year or two years when a requirement may tell them to do so.”
There are many different aspects to the MISSION Act.
“Any type of surgery or cancer related things, the VA will pre-authorize the veterans to go to somebody that specializes in that, like knee surgeries or hip replacements. They're going to send them to a specialist. We’ve had veterans from Clark County oftentimes go to Marshfield Clinic or maybe a private hospital in Wausua or Eau Claire that specializes in the care that they need. We’ve also had veterans that go from private entities to Madison, or somewhere. They try to set them up with whoever specializes in whatever they require and that’s where they’ll go.”
“Other things that veterans ask questions about it is dental care. Eligibility still doesn’t change. The MISSION Act does not change the eligibility for veterans. If you’re eligible for VA health coverage prior to the MISSION Act, you will be eligible after the MISSION Act and vise-versa. If your income limit is too high where you were not previously eligible for VA health coverage, the same would apply. Unfortunately, you will not be eligible because of the MISSION Act. The eligibility doesn’t change.”
“Dental services requirement is also the same. For a veteran who requires dental needs, there’s two circumstances where the VA will provide dental care for a veteran. And that’s if they are 100% service connected for VA disability compensation or if they have a service connection that relates to the teeth or mouth. So, the VA looks at it as if the military caused the problem, then they are entitled to fix it. That’s a rare case. We don’t have many veterans in Clark County that are service connected for their teeth or mouth, but we do have a number of veterans who are 100% service connected, so their dental care would be eligible through this. Otherwise, the VA does not provide dental care.”
Aaron went into more detail regarding urgent care with the MISSION Act.
“I think this will be the biggest benefit for veterans in our area. I’ve been in my position for 4 years and the biggest concern or problem that veterans experience is if they’re having chest pains, they don’t know what to do. If they’re experiencing an emergency, they don’t know what to do. Often times, they will call down to Tomah and Tomah will direct them to the proper facility if they feel like their life is in danger. However, that does not mean that the VA will cover the cost of the ambulance ride or the procedure needed. With urgent care, I think this will open doors, because if a veteran is feeling ill or they have a concern, they will know they can go to a certain clinic and see a doctor and ask questions and it falls under their health coverage for the VA. Previously that wasn’t an option. And this, I think, should provide some relief for veterans in case they have chest pains, or they’re sick. They no longer have to drive all the way to Tomah or call 911 to take them or a family member to drive them to an urgent care location. That sets them up for success way better than it did previously.”
“One concern that we have is that all though this was implemented on June 6th, they still haven’t identified all of the urgent care locations for our area. Before I came in for this interview, I went to the VA website that has urgent care locator and you can search by clinic or you can search by zip code. So far, at this point, the closest urgent care facilities to us are both Marshfield Clinic entities, but they are located in Lake Hallie and Chippewa Falls. So, if you’re in the northwestern part of Clark County, that’s not a bad situation. You can feel safe understanding that you can go to the urgent care clinic at the Marshfield Clinic in Chippewa Falls.”
“Again, I think it’s best for veterans to maintain that conversation with their primary care provider. It’s important to have that conversation with your doctor just to varify that you’re eligible to go to these locations.”
He also discussed payments and prescriptions.
“Copayments vary depending on the veterans priority group, what they’re being seen for if that condition is connected to their service, etc. But copayments for urgent care are different from other VA medical copayments. They depend on the number of times you visit an urgent care provided in a calendar year. I believe the cost is $15 per visit at this time for urgent care, up to so many visits and then there’s an increase. Again, that’s a question for the primary care, but there will be copayments for urgent care and you’re entitled to a certain number per year before the cost would increase.”
“The other piece with urgent care is if you have a situation where you’re sick and you require an ‘emergency prescription’ per se. The VA will pay for or fill prescriptions for urgent care, so you can feel comfortable if you need it immediately. And they can give you a 14 day prescription and then you can submit that bill to the VA to be filled. At that time, the VA feels with 14 days, that gives the veteran enough time to contact the VA and then order any follow up prescription that you need from the VA. But it does kinda fill a gap that was previously there.”
You can learn more about the MISSION Act by contacting the Veterans Service Office.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.