July 11, 2014
In letters to President Obama and the leadership of the House and Senate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs, MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, USN (Ret) urged Congress and the administration to create a high-level commission to set the groundwork for making necessary reforms to modernize and improve Veterans Health Administration (VHA) health care.
The commission’s focus would be to identify potential long-term structural reforms to reshape veterans’ health care delivery in the 21st century.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Rob Nabors’ June 27 VHA report echoed many of MOAA’s concerns, including:
- The VHA needs to be restructured and reformed. It currently acts with little transparency or accountability with regard to its management of the VHA medical structure. The VHA leadership structure is marked by a lack of responsiveness and an inability to effectively manage or communicate to employees or veterans.
- The Department’s failures have generated a high level of oversight. The Department must be more agile and responsive in addressing legitimate oversight inquiries.
- The VHA needs to better plan and invest now for anticipated changes in demographics of veterans. This includes geographical changes, an increased number of female beneficiaries, a surge in mental health needs, and increase in the special needs of younger veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and specific needs associated with the growing number of older veterans.
“The recent Nabors report and its findings cries out for outside thinking to help reinforce the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) leadership’s strong desire to change the culture and restructure and reform the VHA,” Ryan said.
The last major review of VA health care delivery was conducted in the mid-1990s. In the wake of the Phoenix VA hospital scandal MOAA believes an even broader study should be conducted to ensure world-class access and service delivery for our nation’s veterans and their family members.