For years, veterans who received specialty care through the VA’s Community Care program dealt with short-term authorizations that needed to be renewed every 90 to 180 days. This created a lot of paperwork, which could delay or interrupt treatment.
Today, August 4, 2025, the Department of Veterans Affairs introduced a new policy to address this. The change allows community care authorizations to last for one full year for 30 specific types of specialty care.
The goal is to give veterans consistent access to their community providers and to ease the administrative load on patients and doctors.
“No Veteran should have their health care disrupted by red tape,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a press release. “This change means better continuity of care, which leads to better health outcomes. It also improves convenience for Veterans and cuts administrative work for VA staff and community care partners.”
The one-year authorization policy now applies to a wide range of specialties:
- Addiction Medicine Outpatient
- Addiction Psychiatry Outpatient
- Cardiology
- Dermatology
- Endocrinology
- Eye Care Examination
- Family & Couples Psychotherapy Outpatient
- Gastroenterology
- Mental Health Outpatient
- Nephrology
- Neurology
- Neurology and Otology
- Neuro-Ophthalmology
- Nutrition Intervention Services
- Oculoplastic
- Oncology and Hematology
- Optometry Routine
- Orthopedic General
- Orthopedic Hand
- Orthopedic Spine
- Otolaryngology or ENT
- Pain Management
- Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (Physiatry)
- Podiatry
- Podiatry DS
- Pulmonary
- RheumatologySleep Medicine
- Urology
- Urogynecology
The VA recommends that any veteran with questions about their specific authorization should contact their local VA Medical Center’s Community Care Office.
