Add your name to demand accountability and restored access to integrative care for our veterans.
We, the undersigned residents of South Dakota, write to request your immediate attention to a matter affecting veterans in our state.
In 2016, Congress passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), which directed the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand access to complementary and integrative health services — including massage therapy — as alternatives to opioid medications. In 2025, Congress passed the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act, which prohibits VA administrators from overriding a VA physician's referral for community care.
These laws exist because integrative medicine works. The VA's own Whole Health program data shows veterans receiving complementary care experience significant reductions in opioid use, improved functioning, and better quality of life.
Despite these laws, veterans in Sioux Falls and across South Dakota are being systematically denied access to massage therapy their VA physicians prescribed. Referrals that were approved for years are now being terminated. Veterans who reported life-changing improvements — reduced pain, restored mobility, avoided surgeries, eliminated medications — are being told their care is no longer authorized.
At Healing Touch Therapeutic Massage in Sioux Falls — a VA Community Care provider since 2018 — active VA referrals dropped from over 500 veterans to fewer than 60 after policy changes in early 2025. This single clinic has delivered over 10,000 veteran massage sessions under the CARA mandate. Now, hundreds of South Dakota veterans have lost access to care their doctors ordered and the law requires.
We respectfully ask that you:
Our veterans served this country. They deserve the care their doctors prescribe and the law guarantees. We ask you to ensure they receive it.
Respectfully,
65 South Dakotans and supporters
Stand with South Dakota veterans. Your signature matters.