VA Montana HCS facility in Kalispell scheduled 5,454 medical appointments in February 2021

The VA Montana Health Care System, subsidiary 436GF in Kalispell, Montana, scheduled 5,454 pending appointments during the period ending March 1, according to data collected from the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

Of the total number of appointments, 5,281 had a wait time of 30 days or less (96.8%) and 173 appointments (3.2%) were scheduled more than 30 days out.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in January 2019 reported wait times for new appointments at VA health care facilities were similar to or better than wait times at private-sector providers between 2014 and 2017.

However, the Government Accountability Office released a report in July 2019 cautinging the VA’s data-tracking system only captures part of the appointment process and fails to account for the time that it takes the VA to enroll veterans in its health benefits program.

The VA explains when veterans apply for benefits, they are assigned to one of eight priority groups, with those who need immediate care due to service-related disabilities placed in higher priority groups. Veterans who do not have service-connected disabilities and earn a higher income are placed in the lower priority groups.

Source: U.S. Veteran’s Administration