Addiction treatment for veterans in Texas: VA care, Community Care and how referrals work

If you need help now: call 911 in an emergency. Veterans Crisis Line: call 988 and press 1, text 838255, or chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net, any time. In an acute suicidal crisis, eligible veterans can get free emergency care at any VA or non-VA facility, enrolled or not.

The short version

1. Enrolled? Ask your VA primary care team or mental health clinic for substance use treatment, or contact your VA's substance use program directly.
2. Not enrolled? Apply for VA health care online or at 877-222-8387.
3. Can't get in soon enough, or the drive is too far? Ask your VA team whether you're eligible for community care, and which access standard applies.
4. Get the referral before you start at a non-VA program. Without one, VA generally won't pay for non-emergency care.
5. Withdrawal, overdose or suicidal crisis? Go to the nearest emergency room or call 911; VA must be told within 72 hours of emergency care at a non-VA facility.

Does VA cover rehab? What the VA offers for substance use

Yes. VA's substance use treatment page lists care for enrolled veterans that runs the whole range:

VA care	What it is
Medically managed detox	Care while you stop drinking or using, with medical monitoring for withdrawal
Outpatient and intensive outpatient counseling	Individual and group treatment while you live at home
Medication	Medicines for alcohol and opioid use disorder, alongside counseling
Residential rehabilitation	Living at a VA residential program; VA says its residential programs offer several evidence-based treatments for substance use, including cognitive behavioral therapy (VA residential rehabilitation)

If you also live with PTSD, depression or another mental health condition, ask for care that treats both: see dual diagnosis treatment.

VA substance use programs in Texas

VA's substance use program locator for Texas lists each VA medical center's programs and contacts. Two examples from VA's own pages:

• Houston: the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center's Substance Disorders Treatment Program is an outpatient program for drug and alcohol problems. VA Houston lists it on its mental health care page, with individual counseling, case management and group therapies.
• Central Texas: VA's mental health residential programming page describes residential rehabilitation programs at Temple and Waco that treat mental health, substance use and psychosocial problems, lasting 30 to 60 days, with women's programming at Waco.

Programs change, so call the program before you go. VA's facility locator finds the VA clinic nearest you.

How to start

• If you're enrolled, tell your primary care provider or mental health clinic that you want help with drinking or drug use, or call the substance use program at your VA medical center.
• If you're not, apply for VA health care online, by phone at 877-222-8387 (Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern), by mail or in person (VA: how to apply). VA decides your eligibility.
• Bring: a list of the medicines you take, how much and how often you drink or use, and any past withdrawal, seizures or treatment. If stopping could be dangerous, say so: heavy daily drinking can cause serious withdrawal (see alcohol detox in Texas).

When VA pays for outside rehab: Community Care eligibility

VA community care is care from a non-VA provider that VA approves and pays for. The law is 38 U.S.C. 1703, and the eligibility rule is 38 CFR 17.4010: you must meet at least one of six conditions, and VA says meeting any one may result in a referral (VA: eligibility for community care).

Condition	What it means
The service isn't available	No VA facility offers the care you need.
No full-service VA medical facility in your state	For veterans in states such as Alaska and Hawaii; it doesn't apply in Texas.
Grandfathered under the old 40-mile rule	Applies only to certain veterans who qualified under the earlier Veterans Choice Program.
VA can't meet the access standards	The drive-time and wait-time standards in the next table.
Best medical interest	You and your VA provider agree community care is in your best medical interest, considering things like distance, how often you need care and how soon VA can see you.
A VA service line not meeting quality standards	When VA has found that a specific VA medical service line falls short of its standards.

The access standards are in 38 CFR 17.4040:

Type of care	Average drive time	Appointment wait
Primary care, mental health care, non-institutional extended care	VA can't schedule you within 30 minutes of your home	or within 20 days of the date of request
Specialty care	within 60 minutes	or within 28 days

• Drive time is the average driving time from your home, which VA calculates with mapping software, not the length of one trip.
• The wait clock doesn't apply if you agree to a later date with your VA provider, so check a far-off date before you accept it.
• Which standard? VA lists substance use care with its mental health services (VA Houston does, for example), so ask about the mental health standard, and ask your VA team which one applies to the care you need. We found no change to these standards as of October 2026.

Residential treatment: the 30-day rule

The access standards above don't set a specific standard for residential care. VA's residential treatment policy, VHA Directive 1162.02 (July 15, 2019, still cited by VA's Inspector General in 2026), does:

• Screening: a decision on a referral to a VA residential program within 7 business days.
• Priority admission within 72 hours for veterans who need it; others as soon as possible after the decision.
• The 30-day rule: when the expected wait for admission is more than 30 calendar days, VA staff must offer other options, including a referral to the community.

If you've been told the wait for a VA residential bed is more than 30 days, ask your VA team about a community residential referral.

How a community care referral works

1. Talk to your VA provider. VA checks your eligibility and enters a request for the service you need.
2. Choose a provider in VA's network, with VA staff. As of October 2026, Texas is in Region 4 of VA's Community Care Network, which a contractor runs for VA; VA is buying new community care contracts, so the details can change. Ask a program whether it's in VA's network before you pick it.
3. VA approves a referral naming that provider. Behavioral health referrals usually cover a set episode of care: which services, how many visits and between which dates.
4. Start care within the referral. Keep the referral number, the end date and the visits allowed.
5. Need more? Before the referral runs out, the community provider asks VA for more on a Request for Service, VA Form 10-10172. Ask the program to send it while there's still time left.
6. The program bills VA's network, not you, and sends your records back to your VA team.

Don't start first. A veteran can't pick a program from a directory and send VA the bill. Without an approved referral, VA generally won't pay for non-emergency community care. Be wary of any program that says it's "VA approved" but can't tell you your referral number, and of anyone offering free travel or rent to get you into a program.

Emergencies and crisis care

• Emergency care at a non-VA hospital doesn't need approval in advance. VA must be notified within 72 hours of when the care starts, by the hospital or by you or someone acting for you, at 844-724-7842. VA's page on emergency care at non-VA facilities lists the other conditions for VA to pay.
• Free emergency suicide care: in an acute suicidal crisis, eligible veterans and former service members can go to any VA or non-VA facility, whether or not they're enrolled, and VA covers the care for up to 30 days inpatient and 90 days outpatient (VA: free emergency suicide care).
• Veterans Crisis Line: call 988 and press 1, text 838255, or chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net, 24/7. You don't have to be enrolled in VA health care.

TRICARE and CHAMPVA are different

• TRICARE is the Defense Department's health program for active-duty service members, retirees and their families. It may cover inpatient and outpatient substance use treatment, including detox, residential care, PHP, IOP and medication; non-emergency inpatient care needs prior approval (TRICARE: substance use disorder treatment). Programs that list TRICARE: Texas, San Antonio, El Paso, Houston and Austin.
• CHAMPVA covers certain family members of veterans, and works differently again: there's no network or referral, and providers bill VA directly.
• Veterans with other coverage (Medicare, Medicaid or a job's plan) can use it too. See does insurance cover rehab? and rehab that takes Medicaid in Texas.

Using Cima Find Care's veterans lists

Cima Find Care lists Texas programs that say, on their SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov record, that they offer a program or group for veterans: addiction treatment for veterans in Texas, and by city in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth, El Paso, Arlington, Frisco and Lubbock.

What a listing doesn't mean: being on these lists doesn't mean a program is approved by VA, part of VA's Community Care Network, or able to bill VA for you. Cima Find Care isn't connected to VA. For VA to pay, you need a VA referral to a provider in VA's network. Ask the program, and your VA community care office.

Questions to ask a non-VA program:

• Are you in VA's Community Care Network for this level of care? Have you treated veterans on a VA referral?
• Do you take TRICARE (if you have it), and do I need a referral first?
• Do you treat PTSD and other mental health conditions along with substance use?
• Do you offer medication for alcohol or opioid use disorder?
• Is your program licensed by HHSC? You can check on HHSC's chemical dependency treatment facilities page.

For counseling alone, our guide to finding an addiction therapist in Texas explains the licenses. More guides are on our guides page.