The problems run wider than these. But these are where we start.
Scrap
the cap
The $5,000 annual cap on allied health services for veterans, introduced in the May federal budget, must be scrapped. Allied health, physiotherapy, psychology, occupational therapy and rehabilitation, is not a discretionary benefit for veterans with serious injuries. It is the infrastructure that supports their recovery and their lives. For veterans managing the effects of traumatic brain injury, chronic pain or severe post-traumatic stress, a $5,000 annual ceiling is not a budget efficiency. It is a treatment ceiling.
What we are asking
Scrap or significantly raise the allied health cap to ensure veterans can access the treatment they need, when they need it.
End the
low-balling
The Government must restore veterans' right to choose their own accredited assessment provider rather than being funnelled through MLCOA, which holds a sole-provider contract with the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Veterans are entitled to care from the practitioners who know them. A sole-provider assessment model, where a single government contractor conducts Independent Medical Examinations, denies them that.
What we are asking
Allow veterans to use doctors they trust without slowing or stopping their claims, or otherwise forcing them to use the government's preferred provider.
Fix
the system
The Government must launch an independent inquiry into DVA claims processing times and ensure internal processing times for manual billing audits are met. Veterans and their families are waiting months, often years, for claims decisions, while clinicians can be left unpaid for weeks or months for care they have already delivered. When providers are pushed onto slow manual claims processes, clinics are forced to reduce veteran services, stop accepting DVA patients or close altogether. Veterans should not lose trusted clinicians and continuity of care because the system cannot process or pay claims properly.
What we are asking
An independent inquiry with a mandate to set transparent, binding performance standards and hold the Department to account.
