Community Care is the program, authorized under the VA MISSION Act and codified at 38 U.S.C. 1703, that allows eligible veterans to receive care from a non-VA provider when VA cannot meet certain access standards, such as an excessive wait time or drive time, or when VA does not offer the needed specialty in-house. If a VA provider or scheduler recommended you for Community Care because the in-house wait was too long, that referral generally needs to be authorized before you receive treatment; care obtained without prior authorization can result in billing problems since VA may not reimburse retroactively except in narrow emergency-care situations.
Common issues veterans report include: authorization delays or the referral expiring before the appointment happens; the community provider needing a new referral for additional visits, imaging, or follow-up care that wasn't included in the original authorization; medical records and documentation not making it back into your VA electronic file, which can create gaps if that information is later needed for a disability claim; difficulty finding an in-network Community Care Network (CCN) provider who is accepting new VA patients; and confusion over copays, which generally mirror what you would owe for the same care at a VA facility depending on your priority group and the nature of the visit.
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 →Because the community provider is not a VA employee, they are not required to submit records to VA automatically in every case, so it is worth confirming with the VA facility's Community Care office how records will be transmitted and following up if you don't see them appear in your VA chart. If you are pursuing a disability claim, having complete records from the community specialist, including diagnosis, treatment notes, and any opinion tying the condition to service, is critical, since VA rating decisions rely heavily on medical evidence regardless of who provided the treatment.
Issues with billing are also common; occasionally a community provider will bill the veteran directly instead of VA, and this should be disputed through the facility's Community Care or billing office rather than paid out of pocket, since properly authorized care should be billed to VA.
Experiences vary significantly depending on the VA facility, the region's provider network, and the specialty involved, so what one veteran encounters may not match another's. The concrete next step is to contact your VA facility's Community Care coordinator directly to confirm your referral's authorization number, its expiration date, and exactly what services it covers before your appointment.
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