VA decided only about 1.2 million of nearly 2.6 million requests from community care providers for added services on time between October 2024 and January 2026, the VA inspector general found. That is 45 percent. The audit, issued Sept. 24, 2026, measured decisions against VA’s own rule of three business days, and the inspector general’s report is numbered 25-03946-211.
The requests in question are called requests for services. When a community provider decides a veteran needs more or different care than VA first approved, the provider sends a request to the VA medical center for approval. The numbers cover requests at 132 VA facilities.
For a veteran who already sees a community provider, the request might be for more therapy sessions, a follow-up test or a specialist visit. Until VA decides, the provider may hold off, and the veteran may not know whether the added care is covered. The practical question is how long a veteran should wait before asking where the request stands.
Slow approvals are one VA problem; another that veterans with wartime service and limited income ask about is VA pension. Nothing in The Veterans Benefits Action Kit speeds up a care request, but it does lay out the three VA pension levels including Aid & Attendance and how to file for free (VA Form 21P-527EZ).
Get the VA pension levels and Form 21P-527EZ steps for veterans waiting on care →
What the 45 percent means
The inspector general analyzed Consult Toolbox data from 132 VA facilities for Oct. 1, 2024, through Jan. 31, 2026, and visited four medical centers in New Mexico, Texas, South Carolina and Florida. Of almost 2.6 million requests, 1.2 million had decisions within three business days.
VA’s Community Care Field Guidebook sets the standard. It says a formal decision must be made, documented and communicated to both the veteran and the community provider within three business days of the date the facility receives the request.
The report says that nationally the average time to make a decision was about eight business days. Requests for mental health services took an average of 10 days for clinicians to decide, and neurosurgery request decisions took an average of 9 days.
Why requests sat
The inspector general points to a mix of staffing, paperwork and software. Staff sorted requests and entered data into Consult Toolbox by hand. One facility had about 1,800 requests waiting in the queue. Staff vacancies ranged from 12 to 16 percent at the sites visited.
The Computerized Patient Record System does not clearly separate requests for services from other consult activity, and it does not automatically track unresolved requests, so staff kept their own spreadsheets. Routing practices varied from facility to facility and added review steps.
The report also cites limited national oversight of the process. As of March 2026, it says, VHA lacked a functioning national performance report on requests for services.
VA’s response and earlier warnings
The inspector general made six recommendations, all of which show as open: expand automation and artificial intelligence tools, fix the system limitations that hide pending actions, update national procedures, improve the accuracy of receipt dates, make sure veterans and providers are notified accurately, and set up national reporting. The acting under secretary for health agreed with all six in August 2026 and set a target of July 2027 for completing the action plans.
The Government Accountability Office raised related concerns in March. Its report on community care and caregiver support, published March 4, 2026, found that VHA facilities lack enough staff to manage community care referrals and that a referral coordination initiative has been unevenly implemented. GAO also urged VHA to set wait time measures for community care appointments, and it says VHA has not fully implemented those recommendations.
Asking about a pending request
The free official starting point is VA’s community care page, which lists a general VA number, 1-800-698-2411, and explains how VA and community providers coordinate referrals, authorizations and medical documentation. A veteran can call the VA medical center that handles the referral, and the community provider’s office can usually say when it sent a request and to whom.
Keep a short record: the provider’s name, the service requested, the date the request went out and each date someone from VA was contacted. The inspector general found that receipt dates in the records did not always match the actual transmission date, so a veteran’s own note of when a request was sent can matter.
The inspector general’s report puts the benchmark in plain terms: a decision, documented and passed to both the veteran and the provider, within three business days of receipt.
Veterans who are also weighing VA pension can use The Veterans Benefits Action Kit, which pairs the three VA pension levels including Aid & Attendance with a claim tracker.
Open the claim tracker and pension levels in The Veterans Benefits Action Kit →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the VA Office of Inspector General report and the other pages linked above.
