WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins, Angus King, and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) have sent a letter to Robert McDonald, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, urging him to provide support for the crucial Access Received Closer to Home (ARCH) program for veterans who live in rural communities. 
 
      In the letter, the senators stated, “ARCH provides medical care for veterans living in rural areas or for those who are burdened with long wait times for services….According to congressionally mandated reports to the House and Senate Committees on Veterans Affairs, more than 90 percent of veterans participating in ARCH are overwhelmingly satisfied with their access to care and the medical services they receive from the participating community providers.”

ARCH ensures that participating veterans, who often have a difficult time accessing care through the regular VA health care system, can receive care closer to where they live.  One of the five locations for the pilot program is in Caribou, Maine, which has a long-standing partnership with Cary Medical Center.

Without this partnership, veterans in northern Maine would have to travel approximately 600 miles round trip to access care at the Togus VA Hospital in Augusta, ME.  This can be especially daunting during Maine’s long, snowy winter months, as Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) member Peter Miesburger recently attested.  Peter Miesburgur was able to use the Arch Program for emergency surgery for a broken hip. Had the ARCH program not been in place, he would have had to endure a 500-mile roundtrip ambulance ride to Togus. The ride would have taken more than eight hours, over bumpy, winter roads, while he was in extreme pain. Often veterans and their families are forced to stay overnight and miss work as a result of the distance they are forced to travel to receive care. In addition to eliminating long and difficult travel, ARCH has also been extraordinarily successful in reducing wait times for veterans and providing access to care in veterans’ own communities. 

Senators Collins recently spoke from the Senate Floor urging her colleagues to support the FY 2016 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, a bipartisan bill that would fund critical programs supporting our nation’s service members and veterans, including the ARCH program.  Specifically, the bill contains $270 million in funding for ARCH.  In May of this year, with Senator Collins’ support, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed this legislation with a strong, bipartisan vote of 21 to 9.  The legislation is awaiting final passage in the Senate.
 
Senator King and Senator Collins have written several letters to officials at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as to Congressional leadership, requesting continued support for the ARCH program. In 2014, Senator Collins and Senator King supported legislation that implemented significant reforms at the VA and created the Choice Program, a pilot initiative based in part on the success of ARCH.
 
The text of the letter is included below:

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October 23, 2015
 
The Honorable Robert A. McDonald
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20420

Dear Secretary McDonald:

We understand the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is developing a proposal to consolidate all non-VA community care programs consistent with the VA Budget and Choice Improvement Act of 2015.  This legislation mandates that VA develop a plan that incorporates the strengths of non-VA provider programs, and to the greatest extent possible utilize infrastructure and networks of existing non-VA provider programs.  We believe, if implemented according to what is in the best interests of veterans, and if the plan adequately capitalizes on the demonstrated success of the Access Received Closer to Home (ARCH) program, this consolidation could be a positive step forward in VA’s delivery of quality and timely health care.

ARCH provides medical care for veterans living in rural areas or for those who are burdened with long wait times for services.  Since 2011, it has successfully operated in five locations - Caribou, Maine; Farmville, Virginia; Pratt, Kansas; Flagstaff, Arizona; and Billings and Anaconda, Montana.  According to Congressionally mandated reports to the House and Senate Committees on Veterans Affairs, more than 90 percent of veterans participating in ARCH are overwhelmingly satisfied with their access to care and the medical services they receive from the participating community providers. 
 

Following passage of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 which extended the ARCH program, we have routinely sought updates regarding the future of ARCH and potential options for expansion across the country.  Regrettably, we remain without a clear picture of the future of this beneficial program.  Prior to the release of the VA’s consolidation plan and report due to Congress by November 1, 2015, we are once again seeking your views and position on the sustainment of the ARCH program.

Since the Choice Program was established, it has been plagued by numerous troubling implementation problems, some of which remain unresolved.  Considering the resounding success of the ARCH program and high rate of satisfaction with the care the veterans receive, we believe that VA’s plan should closely model the ARCH experience.  The established network and system of providers created by ARCH serve as an invaluable guide to best leverage the capacity of existing non-VA community care providers to serve veterans in geographically isolated areas.  We urge you to maintain this provider network as the consolidation of non-VA community care moves forward to avoid lapses in care and to further our shared goal of improving the Veterans Choice Program.  If we are not persuaded that the VA’s consolidation plan sufficiently incorporates the sustainment of the ARCH program, we will seek the prompt passage of legislation that would permanently authorize the program. 

Veterans deserve a VA worthy of their service and sacrifice.  We must make certain that the Veterans Choice Program focuses on what is in the best interests of veterans and incorporates the successes of ARCH.  We look forward to your response regarding the future of ARCH, and we are committed to working with you to ensure continuity of care throughout the transition of a consolidated Veterans Choice Program.

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