Thanks for your comment/questions/information,
As for the portion I posted above, I have personal experience with this Program. It is referred to as Community Care by the VA. This is a good "safety net" for Vets, but it DOES NOT always expedite their health care. It cerates more "red tape" because there are additional steps that must be taken by the VA and the Community Provider for it to be approved. My example is: My Primary Care wanted me to have a Lung Scan to see if I may have lung cancer in one stage or another. The Ok City VA can not do the type of Scan required, so they referred me to Community Care who contacted a Hospital in SE OkC who does. Long story short.... VA contacts Them, They agree/disagree to do the Scan, VA contacts me to say that the Community Hospital agrees to do the Scan. They will contact me to set Appointment date. 3 weeks go by. I call VA Community Care, they tell me to call the Hospital directly. I call the Hospital directly. They say that I am not in their System. They have no record of me or agreeing to my Scan. I call VA, they say they do not understand why not, but will 'REFAX" all the info to the Hospital to get things going, Two weeks go by. I call the Hospital, and they say that they need additional information from the VA because the Scan my PC wants is NOT "treatment related" and they only do treatment related scans for the VA. I notify the VA.
To date, as best I can tell neither of them came to an agreement.

During all of this, however, my PC Doctor made a personal decision to return to his home, and resigned from the VA. When I became aware of this, I called the Private Hospital and had a conversation with them, the gist being I did not see the need to continue trying to get the scan, and they and I agreed to put it on hold.
Because something is "New and Improved" doesn't always mean it actually is....