Community care under the Mission Act (38 U.S.C. § 1703) is not a one-time approval that lasts indefinitely. Eligibility for community care is determined episode by episode, and VA facilities are required to re-evaluate whether a veteran still meets one of the access standards each time a new authorization is needed. Those standards include things like average drive time to a VA facility, average wait time for an appointment, and whether the VA can furnish the care within its own published access standards. If your local VA mental health clinic can now offer an appointment within the required timeframe, or has added in-house capacity, VA can determine that you no longer qualify for a community care referral even if you previously received one. This is a legitimate part of how the Mission Act was designed to work, not a special mental-health-specific crackdown, though many veterans and providers have reported that VA facilities have become more aggressive about pulling patients back into VA care as staffing and telehealth options expand.
If your community care referral was not renewed, you have several options. First, ask your VA mental health provider or the community care coordinator at your VA medical center exactly why the referral was denied and which access standard VA says you now meet. Second, if you believe VA is wrong about wait times or drive times, you can request a re-evaluation and provide documentation, such as appointment availability at your local VA, to support your case. Third, you can file a clinical appeal or grievance through the VA facility's Patient Advocate office if you believe the denial is inconsistent with the Mission Act standards or is causing a gap in care. This is a clinical/administrative access issue, separate from a disability rating claim, so it is not resolved through the standard appeals lakes like a Notice of Disagreement or Board appeal; it is handled through the medical facility's community care and patient advocacy channels.
Official 2026 VA monthly compensation, including the 2.8% COLA increase.
Dependent add-ons start at a 30% rating. Child-only and dependent-parent rates: see the full 2026 pay chart.
| Rating | Monthly (2026, incl. 2.8% COLA) |
|---|---|
| 10% | $180.42 |
| 20% | $356.66 |
| 30% | $552.47 |
| 40% | $795.84 |
| 50% | $1,132.90 |
| 60% | $1,435.02 |
| 70% | $1,808.45 |
| 80% | $2,102.15 |
| 90% | $2,362.30 |
| 100% | $3,938.58 |
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Analyze my claim free →Processing times for both VA and community mental health appointments vary significantly by region and are not something that can be reliably predicted; if you are experiencing an urgent gap in care, say so explicitly to your provider or the Veterans Crisis Line, since urgent mental health needs can sometimes be expedited outside the normal referral queue.
The concrete next step is to contact your VA facility's Community Care office or Patient Advocate directly, ask for the specific access-standard basis for the denial in writing, and request either an expedited re-referral or a bridge appointment while the issue is being resolved.
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