Emergency spending authorized for VA program, but is it enough? – Hometown Focus

WASHINGTON, D.C. The day before the U.S. would lose two more American lives during combat operations in Iraq, President Donald Trump signed an emergency spending bill, the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act, that authorizes more than $2 billion for the Veterans Choice Program. At present, almost one-third of VA appointments are referred to the private sector, up from fewer than 20 % in 2014. The VAs annual budget of about $180 billion will provide $2.1 billion in funding for veterans health care in the community at government expense.

While the new law will draw attention largely because of the urgency in which it replenished the VAs healthcare budget a budget that has been depleting faster than expected since 2014 the new law also addresses other critical priorities aimed to improve the VA:

A bilateral exchange program for employeesin VA and the private sector to cross-trainproviders in both health care domains The development of training and annualperformance standards for employees andpreparing them for future leadership roleswithin the Department The establishment of promotion tracksdesigned to retain employees with specialexpertise Provisions to attract transitioning servicemembers and recently graduated collegestudents into employment opportunities withthe VA Training on recruitment and retention bestpractices for human resources professionals

These and several other initiatives will be funded for six months through offsets such as reduced pensions for some Medicaid-eligible veterans and the collection of fees for housing loans. The law also provides an additional $1.8 billion for core VA health programs, which includes leases for 28 new VA medical facilities.

Critics of the Veterans Choice Program, which had included this author in the past, insist that expanding care in the community is merely a slow walk to privatization. Others argue that offsetting the cost of expanded community care by reducing other veterans benefits is unconscionable and will lead the VA to a slippery slope where even more benefits will be cut. But these arguments ignore the more immediate problem created by understaffing in VA and the accountability vacuum, particularly among VAs senior middle management tiers, that has eclipsed all the great work VA has been doing.

Critics also disregard VA Secretary David Shulkins focus on investing in foundational services that are part of VAs national commitment to provide: spinal cord injury treatment and rehabilitation, blinded rehabilitation, inpatient mental health, prosthetics, and care coordination, some of which will be funded through budget apportionments at each facility at the direction of the Secretary.

As those debates continue, however, the bigger problem is what will happen when the Administration and Congress can no longer move the goal posts where funding VA health care is concerned. The six-month funding plan that was underwritten by the new law bought Congress more time to debate broader issues over VA funding and its future. But bad news doesnt improve with age, and the challenges may actually worsen if an incremental approach to investing in veterans healthcare doesnt pay off soon.

On a positive note, at least in my view, the status quo is dying a slow but certain death in VA. The newly signed law could be what keeps VA from dying with it. While it will do nothing for the two brave souls our country lost in Iraq on Sunday, it will give the health and wellness of the nine million veterans enrolled in the VA health care system a fighting chance.

Sherman Gillums, Jr., is the executive director of Paralyzed Veterans of America.

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Emergency spending authorized for VA program, but is it enough? - Hometown Focus