VA Reform Plans Bottled Up in Congress
The unease among lawmakers surfaced during a recent hearing of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee where acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson presented the VA’s longer-term plan to improve access to care.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., for example, asked about difficulties VA has in getting medical records returned from civilian providers, and monitoring the quality of care veterans receive in the private sector.
“One of the biggest challenges we have with purchased care in the community is maintaining continuity of care for the veteran,” Gibson said. “The ability to get medical-record information back and forth is a vital part of this, (to) ensure the quality of care. I will tell you, if the floodgates open, it will present the department with challenges.”
The Congressional Budget Office dropped an anvil of hefty cost estimates on both bills, to the shock of fiscal conservative among supporters.