JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — There’s hope of a resolution after mental health providers across the country who serve veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Community Care Network were being asked to pay back thousands in alleged overpayments.
Like so many veterans, Jon Ackerman struggled with his mental health after serving 10 years in the Navy.
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“I had been having suicidal ideations and had a plan. I was gonna drive into a concrete pylon on the interstate up in Virginia on my way home from work, because I was working the night shift and I thought, ‘Hey, if my kids think I fell asleep on the way home from work, you know it won’t be as bad,’” Ackerman said.
Thankfully, Ackerman confessed his struggles to a friend who reached out with concerns, and he sought treatment through the VA.
“They’re really good at prescribing meds, but not good at prescribing the services you need to put the tools in your toolbox to actually cope with and deal with your issues,” Ackerman said.
After struggling to maintain consistent care and make progress towards recovery, Ackerman ended up seeking health with a private provider partnered with the VA’s Community Care Network.
Immediately, he began receiving more frequent care and making great strides in his mental health journey.
“October will be a year and I’ve made more progress in the last year than I have since 2014 to date,” Ackerman said.
But that care was put at risk earlier this year.
Action News Jax told you on Memorial Day providers in the Community Care Network began receiving letters from Optum, the third-party company tasked with processing payments between the VA and providers in the network.
Those letters informed providers they had been overpaid for services provided to veterans back in 2024.
And many were being told they owed thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.
“I’m somewhere in the area of roughly seven to eight grand right now,” Dr. Stephanie Peyton, who runs Perspectives Anew Therapy in Jacksonville, said.
Peyton has been working with the Community Care Network for the past five years.
She claimed Optum initially told providers about the overpayments in 2024, but indicated the issue would be corrected moving forward and there was nothing providers needed to do.
So, when she was told earlier this year she had a month to pay back thousands of dollars in alleged overpayments or the money would come out of future visits with veterans, she and many other providers contemplated leaving the network, or even shutting down their practices altogether.
“To be told now these thousands of dollars will be coming out of those future payments, that’s devastating. That’s devastating,” Peyton said.
Veterans like Ackerman were faced with the possibility of losing their care or having to go back to the VA for services directly.
“Everybody is kind of in a panic and struggling to figure out how they’re going to move forward,” Ackerman said.
Patients like Ackerman and clinicians like Peyton began fighting back, reaching out to Congressional representatives, Senators and the VA to try and prevent veterans from losing their care.
“You know, when I make a mistake, I have to pay for my own mistake and I don’t see why somebody else should have to pay for your mistake, Optum,” Ackerman said.
We reached out to Optum directly in mid-June, asking serval questions, including the total scope of the overpayments, how many providers are impacted nationally, and what the company was doing to prevent providers from leaving the network or closing their doors entirely.
We gave Optum until July 3 to respond.
One day before our deadline, we finally got a response from Optum.
“Optum Serve is committed to ensuring Veterans have continued access to high-quality care, and we take our responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer-funded health dollars seriously,” an Optum spokesperson told us in an emailed statement. “In an effort to alleviate the burden for providers, Optum Serve is taking steps, in coordination with VA, so providers will not be required to repay these amounts.”
Congressman Aaron Bean (R-FL 4th District), who was contacted by several clinicians and patients also issued a statement, backing Optum’s claim that a resolution had been reached and indicating he had been working behind the scenes on the issue.
“As soon as my office was made aware of this urgent situation, my dedicated team of caseworkers immediately mobilized on behalf of our veterans and the providers who serve them. We engaged directly with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Community Care Network, the Office of Integrated Veteran Care, and Optum to push for a swift and fair resolution,” Bean said in a statement. ”VA has now confirmed that Optum will not require providers or veterans to repay the overpaid funds. This outcome protects access to care and ensures that Northeast Florida veterans can continue receiving the timely, high-quality mental health services they have earned and deserve.”
We’ve heard from providers who tell us they are receiving phone calls from Optum telling them the same thing, but providers are hesitant to celebrate the news, as they’ve gotten nothing in writing.
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And they haven’t forgotten they were originally told by Optum back in 2024 not to worry about the overpayments.
“With this possibly being an ongoing problem, it’s not a sustainable practice,” Peyton said.
It’s still unclear how many total providers were impacted, but according to the Community Care Network website, Optum is responsible for administering payments from the VA for all but 14 states throughout the country.
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Optum also never detailed the full scope of the alleged overpayments.
Ackerman said he’ll keep fighting until providers get full reassurance that the problem has been resolved and won’t happen again.
“If this makes you upset, write your Senators, write your Congressmen. Even if you’re not directly impacted by it, I assure you that somebody they you know is and the more people yell about it, the more likely we are to get a permanent fix on it,” Ackerman said.
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