Is the VA problem really a "simple fix" away?

2015-07-29T09:04:05-04:00

The House Republican Conference chairwoman has what she sees as a simple fix to improve veterans medical care.

She also worries that nothing seems easy when it comes to reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"We need to be welcoming new solutions, and not just protecting an outdated model or having the only solution be more money," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said. "We've already put a lot of money into VA … and clearly there's not the results."

McMorris Rodgers is offering new legislation this week which would create a pilot program at six VA health sites allowing patients to schedule appointments online, in an effort to give veterans more control over their medical care.

The bill is the latest in a flurry of VA reform legislation in recent weeks, all popping up about a year after legislation was created to dramatically overhaul the department's health care delivery and internal accountability.

Results from those moves so far have been mixed, with a slow and controversial rollout of a new Choice Card program to give veterans easier access to private-sector physicians and limited use of new rules governing the firing of poorly performing VA executives.

So lawmakers are back at fixes for VA again.

Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., this week introduced a bill to create a "rapid response team" of VA managers to identify and improve failing department offices. Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., wants to expand and make permanent the Choice Card program. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., has a measure to force better outreach efforts between the department and veterans.

Earlier this month, both the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs committees advanced the new VA Accountability Act, which eases the process for firing any department employees and creates new protections for whistleblowers.

This week, House Republican leaders (including McMorris Rodgers) will push that measure to a full chamber vote, billing it as the next step in making the department more responsive to veterans.

"Unfortunately, I don't believe (VA) is better than a year ago," McMorris Rodgers said. "We need the Accountability Cct. We need the secretary to take action against poorly performing employees."

And she said the department needs to start moving beyond seeing itself as the center of all solutions for veterans' needs. She said her pilot program and the Choice Card efforts are just the start of broader efforts to move beyond "overly bureaucratic" solutions that have already stalled.

To VA officials and some outside critics, those proposals point toward privatization of department responsibilities, an idea that veterans advocates have fought against passionately in the past.

But McMorris Rodgers insists the idea is to put veterans at the center of the care programs, a mantra often repeated by VA Secretary Bob McDonald since he took over that job last August.

She said rural veterans in her district still struggle to access VA hospitals or private health care options, and "feel like they are a burden" whenever they petition the department for help. "The veterans are getting lost within the very agency that's supposed to be helping them."

McMorris Rodgers said she approached department officials with the idea of the online scheduling pilot months ago, but saw the idea dismissed as too difficult to execute. She's hoping now her congressional colleagues will see things differently, and force the VA to try something new.

The legislation will head to the House Veterans' Affairs Committee for review in the coming months. Meanwhile, the House is expected to vote on the new accountability measures before the end of the week.

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/benefits/veterans/2015/07/28/mcmorris-rodgers-va-pilot/30782101/

Response by SCPO David Lockwood made Jul 29 at 2015 9:05 AM

2015-07-29T09:05:43-04:00

Unfortunately it is not a simple fix. Many layers must be fixed. The fix has to happen from all layers!

Response by CPL Bennett Tanton made Jul 29 at 2015 9:13 AM

2015-07-29T09:13:08-04:00

I agree with David! The one thing I want veterans to realize is that the majority of the people that work for the VA are sympathetic and understand veterans complaints, especially veterans that work for the VA. There is a conserted effort within the VA lead mainly by veteran employees to change the system from within. It will take awhile because there is an engrained culture that needs to shift but it is shifting! Proposals like this though will help speed things along.

Response by CW3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 29 at 2015 9:48 AM

2015-07-29T09:48:16-04:00

If there was an easy fix, it would not still be a problem.

Response by MSG Brad Sand made Jul 29 at 2015 10:07 AM

2015-07-29T10:07:09-04:00

Actually there are simple fixes BUT they are also painful. They somehow want to try to fix this problem with media attention and a bit more money...that never helps but without firing people who do not perform, cutting red tape or even changing the culture of failure. "Oh, they have always been broke...let's give them some more money." Wrong answer. Start the culling, the longer they wait the more painful it will be when they finally to start making the easy fixes.

Response by LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow made Jul 29 at 2015 1:04 PM

2015-07-29T13:04:17-04:00

In a way - YES. All it takes is for Congress and the White House to get their heads out of where the sun doesn't shine (the sand, I mean....) and fund the VA properly, taking into account projected needs for the future, given the greying of America and the myriads of new vets seeking care thanks to the years of war...

In reality, it really will come down to the "death panels" that the GOP created as Bogey Men. By that, I mean that as long as the GOP refuses to pay for anything, the VA will have to learn to work with ever dwindling resources, at the same time as demand is ever increasing. This will result in rationing, extreme wait lists, elimination of elective procedures, etc...

It will also result in tightening disability claim approvals, meaning vets won't get the disability benefits they have earned. In addition, many will face mandatory re-evaluation of their disability awards, with the goal of reducing them...

So, save your pennies while you can, folks...

#NoIncumbentsIn2016

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Jul 29 at 2015 3:18 PM

2015-07-29T15:18:43-04:00

This is purely my opinion, based on how I "perceive" the government.

The government is good at doing a great many things. It is. Any time that it can treat "everything" and "everyone" the same, like cogs in a machine, it excels. Because the government is a Machine. Machines operate well when there are "limited variables."

However, "Social Programs" are about People, and People are about "infinite variables." Every single one of us is different, and therefor each time one of us is introduced into the Machine, we bog it down. Bureaucracy is like "filters" to reduce or slow the speed at which sludge (People) can get into the system. To slow it to a manageable level.

The more I look at the issue around Social Medicine, using the Department of Veterans Affairs (Health Care) as the "test case," the more I believe that the US Government is neither efficient enough nor trustworthy enough to handle this undertaking. "We" (the People, and the Veterans) are setting them up for Failure.

Scale this down as Leaders, and ask what kind of environment we are promoting when we do that? When you consistently ask your troops to do something they are just not capable of doing? They lack resources, whether it be funding, facilities, manpower, administration, or even support from higher other than the empty promise of "we'll give you whatever you need" (which has never materialized).

So to answer the original question, is this a simple fix? No. We are trying to get blood from a rock. We are demanding something from not only an organization that cannot provide it, from a Nation that does not know how to do it. We can't treat the symptom, until we actually address the root cause.

It does us no good to put a cast on a broken leg, before we set it, let alone get the heart started first.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Jul 29 at 2015 5:40 PM

2015-07-29T17:40:30-04:00

The culture needs to be fixed, but nobody knows how to.