Comment on AO51-Proposed Rule-Ortiz, Jessica N.

I support this proposed rule. I think it is a good thing that The Department of Veterans Affairs wants to remove the regulation that states that a veteran who misses two or more medical appointments without 24 hour notice and a reasonable excuse as to why they have missed the appointments as having refused VA Medical care. What a lot of people don’t realize is that a good 80% of the VA’s patients are retired and a lot of that 80% is disabled in some way. A lot of the patients are older and could have trouble with mobility. The older they get the harder it is to make it to appointments. An emergency could happen and no one else would know to call the VA to cancel an appointment. People also have lives and things come up and sometimes calling to cancel an appointment is the last thing on someone’s mind. I don’t think forgetting to call in to cancel an appointment is a denial of services. A lot of these veterans have serious problems and really need the help.