VA Takes 87 Days to Deliver a Prosthetic Leg vs. 29 Days at DOD Facilities

The Department of Veterans Affairs takes an average of 87 days to deliver a new or replacement prosthetic limb to a veteran amputee, compared to 28.8 days at Department of Defense facilities. For prosthetic repairs, VA averages 66.4 days vs. DOD's 29.8 days. This 3x disparity means that a veteran who loses or breaks a prosthetic leg can spend nearly three months in a wheelchair waiting for a replacement -- unable to work, exercise, drive, or live independently. Post-9/11 veterans are younger and more physically active than previous generations of amputees. They wear through prosthetics faster, need more frequent repairs and replacements, and require advanced prosthetic technology (microprocessor knees, running blades, waterproof components). The VA system was designed around an older, less active amputee population and has not adapted. One veteran, Matt Brown, a U.S. Army veteran who lost his left leg to bone cancer, spent 7 months in a wheelchair after surgery waiting for his initial prosthetic, then another two years waiting for a properly fitted device. Congressional hearings in 2024 specifically addressed the VA being 'accused of not keeping up with a more active amputee patient population.' The structural root cause is a procurement and authorization bottleneck within VA Prosthetics and Sensory Aids Service. Every prosthetic requires clinical evaluation, device selection, vendor coordination, fitting, and adjustment -- each step involving different VA departments with separate scheduling queues. There is no unified tracking system that follows a prosthetic order from request to delivery. Additionally, the VA's contracted prosthetist network is thin in rural areas, forcing veterans to travel long distances for fittings that could take 15 minutes but require a full day of travel.