Secretary Collins’ First Big Test: Fixing the VA Community Care Network Scandal
Background: A Quiet Problem
As the new administration begins its work, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) faces a major test — and it’s about more than just fixing programs. It’s about keeping promises.
Over the past few years, a serious problem grew inside the VA Community Care Network (CCN), which lets veterans get medical care from private doctors when needed. During the Biden administration, veterans were approved for private care, and TriWest Health Alliance, a contractor, paid the doctors.
But after approving the care, VA changed its mind. It said some of the treatments were “experimental” and told the doctors they had to give the money back — even though VA had approved everything at the start.
This betrayal hurt both the veterans and the doctors who cared for them.
“After 25 years as a podiatrist, nothing has meant more to me than helping our veterans–men and women who’ve sacrificed everything-finally find relief from chronic pain. To be abruptly forced to stop treating them, not because the care failed, but because of red tape and broken promises, has been devastating.”
— Dr. Peter Bregman
Red tape. Broken promises. A chilling effect on access to private sector healthcare.
Don’t America’s veterans deserve better?
What Went Wrong
For a long time, some veterans’ groups and union stakeholders warned that private care might weaken VA. Many leaders in the Biden administration agreed with them and tried to limit community care instead of growing it.
Even though veterans had died during the 2014 wait-time scandal — showing that veterans needed better access to care — the Biden-era VA pulled back. Instead of working with private doctors, it made their lives harder.
In February 2025, Iraq War veteran and policy expert Christopher Neiweem told Secretary Collins about the problem. He described how veterans were approved for disc injection treatments. After the care was given and paid for, TriWest and the VA went after the doctors, demanding the money back.
Even worse, the lawyers who were supposed to handle the disputes allegedly dropped out of the cases, passing them to “outside lawyers,” making it even harder to get clear answers. This made it look like VA was trying to dodge responsibility.
“The VA reimbursed me for over a year for regenerative treatments that brought real relief to veterans–only to later claim the procedures were ‘experimental’ and claw back payments without justification. This hurt veterans, and it obviously hurt my practice.”
— Dr. Peter Bregman
The message was clear: doctors who treat veterans can’t trust VA to keep its word.
RELATED: Universities Are Key To National Security Initiatives [Neiweem, Military Times]
Long Pattern of Resistance: VA Leaders vs. Choice
The current crisis in programs like the Community Care Network is not new.
For years, many VA leaders — both political appointees and senior career officials — have resisted efforts to expand veterans’ access to private healthcare, even when Congress and the American people clearly supported it.
This pattern of resistance was highlighted years ago by Christopher Neiweem during a segment on Fox & Friends with Pete Hegseth, himself a veteran and now the Secretary of Defense.
In the interview, Neiweem warned that strong leadership would be critical to properly implementing the VA MISSION Act and the expansion of the Caregiver Program — both landmark reforms passed under President Trump to give veterans more freedom to seek private care when VA could not meet their needs.
Neiweem explained that despite the law’s passage, success depended on strong leadership — without it, even good programs like the MISSION Act could fail.
“We’ve got to get a strong leader in there to oversee this or it’s going to probably fail,” Neiweem said during the segment.
Hegseth agreed, stating:
“Absolutely, if the bureaucracy is left to its own devices, it can squash good programs and elevate bad ones. And with choice being at the center of what [President Trump] wants, you need a leader to drive that.”
Sadly, their warnings proved true.
Since the law’s passage, it has become clear that weak leadership in the Biden administration allowed VA officials to undermine both community care through the MISSION Act and the Caregiver Program.
Bureaucratic resistance supporting the interests of federal union members took priority over veterans’ needs, weakening key reforms and setting the stage for new failures — including the current Community Care Network scandal, where approved private care is now being clawed back from doctors who served veterans in good faith.
This video, filmed years ago, shows how the failure to appoint strong leaders can doom even the best-intentioned reforms — and why fixing leadership must be a top priority today.
These failures were not accidents. They were the direct result of weak leadership—and now Secretary Collins must decide how to finally break the pattern.
Watch Neiweem With Now DOD Secretary Pete Hegseth:
Why It Matters
This situation raises big questions:
- Why did VA approve treatments it later rejected?
- Why are doctors being punished for following VA’s own rules?
- What will be done to make sure this doesn’t happen again?
Neiweem believes Secretary Collins is the right leader to fix this. Collins knows veterans’ issues from his time working in Congress and being a veteran himself. But action is needed fast — veterans and doctors are losing trust in the system every day this problem isn’t fixed.
Doing What’s Right
Fixing veterans’ healthcare isn’t just about paperwork or budgets. It’s about keeping the promises made to people who served our country.
“The Trump administration wants to put veterans first and restore community care benefits,” Neiweem said. He believes too much attention was given to progressive programs under Biden — while the real job of providing healthcare to veterans was pushed aside.
He’s right.
A government that can’t keep its promises to veterans can’t be trusted to keep promises to anyone. If more private sector physicians are duped out of being paid, fewer will be willing to risk helping veterans receive medical services outside the agency.
“What happened to me isn’t just unfair–it’s wrong. The government pulled the rug out from under me and my veteran patients, calling effective treatments ‘experimental’ after the fact, and stealing back the money they had already paid. It’s unethical, maybe even illegal–but most of all, it hurt the very people who should be protected: our veterans.”
— Dr. Peter Bregman
Conclusion: A Chance to Lead
The VA’s treatment of private doctors was not just a mistake. It was a betrayal of trust.
Secretary Collins now has a choice: fix the system and rebuild trust, or let the problems get worse.
The future of veterans’ healthcare — and the honor of the nation — depends on what he does next.
Collins isn’t going to fix shit. It’s their job to protect and perpetuate that system at any cost. The federal courts are derelict and until people can get in there and sue, the problems will continue. This is an issue of an organization having unlimited legal resources and immunity.
Scandal after scandal, suit after suit, failure after failure, the titanium political entity grinds on. How many dead and how many victims of poor health outcomes? You know there’s no consistent dedication to socialized heathcare systems tax wise. You think that’s a dependable situation? You think those people in there having unlimited legal resources and immunity is a good idea? Think again.
Be mindful of the fact that when you go to the Veterans Healthcare Administration, that’s implied permission to perform psychological testing on you any way they want to. The specific test you might be aware of what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. That’s all fine and dandy if you’re with a trusted provider that’s looking out for your best interests. But there are people in there who aren’t…and they’re looking to transform the VA into something that functions differently. Mainly a more exclusive system.
They should only have inpatient psychiatric mental health services at this point. In other words, if you do completely insane they should have places to put people. Other than that, they should allow people to see whoever they want to in the community for counsel. Nobody should be forced to see anyone for mental health care… and they don’t employ the best in the business by a long shot. Simply put, it’s a poop fly magnet and it rewards and encourages poop fly behavior all around. Be done with it. Issue the insurance cards. It’s a failure.
The VA is a extremely terrible entity, they do not have any beneficial concern to veterans, The Veterans Administration MUST and SHOULD be dissolved, based on a veterans disability rating all veterans should be
given a identification that can be used for any and all medical care. NOTHING WILL CHANGE WITH THE VA< nor will anyone make a relative or beneficial change to the VA. DISSOLVE THE VA, READ MY LIPS!
If you get benefits for mental health and you’re doing to mental health quite often then you are a paid participant in an experiment, a guinea pig. Preserve your human dignity. Get benefits and get out. Let them play scrabble with each other instead…or do experiments with monkeys. Just look at the Vietnam veterans who are on 20 different pills and their brains are soup. They’ll not hesitate to put you in that state of being just so they can put food on the table for their kids.
True as it is, the VA will never change no matter what, the time is past that the VA and its upper management in totum MUST be removed otherwise nothing will change.
i hope this gets fixed asap!
Me too:) !!!!!!!
Improper transition of care from Visin 2 to 8, caused CKD to become stage 5 and required dialysis daily. Was told by Visin 8 caregiver team member nightly dialysis was not an activity of daily living. Canceled outside cardiologist with him having out of control BP. Just refused to extend the referral. He saw the inside Cardiologist 2x and he died.
Lack of putting the community care records into the system was a major issue. Records, labs, etc sent in real time and not copied into the system. Never waited for the records to get their via fax, they were scanned by me and immediately sent to PCP. But when he got a new PCP the records where MIA. So I hand carried 3 years into the office and handed them to the Dr.
Was in Whole health to manage my mental & physical well being, the service was just discontinued were through their was a relationship with the coach.