A funding shift was approved at the last minute to avoid VA hospital shutdowns next month and September. The funds were actually already allocated to the VA through the Choice Card program, but fewer veterans used that program resulting in a mismatch of funds.
First of all, should it have been this hard to switch the funding? And second, is there a better way to do this?
http://www.navytimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2015/07/30/congress-oks-funding-shift--keep-va-hospitals-open/30888187/
First of all, should it have been this hard to switch the funding? And second, is there a better way to do this?
http://www.navytimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2015/07/30/congress-oks-funding-shift--keep-va-hospitals-open/30888187/
Posted >1 y ago
This is a duplicate discussion. Click below to see more on this topic.
Veterans Affairs Department officials will get the budget help they need to avoid facility shutdowns in August after the Senate approved a last-minute deal Thursday.
The move comes a day after House lawmakers overwhelmingly backed the plan and about a week after VA Secretary Bob McDonald appeared on Capitol Hill to warn Congress that health care for tens of thousands of veterans could be disrupted without a budget fix.
The measure allows the VA to use about $3.3 billion in funds assigned solely to the new Choice Card program to cover other account shortfalls, a move that lawmakers have resisted over the last year.
But McDonald said use of the Choice Card program has grown slowly while outside care programs have increased dramatically, leading to the budget problems.
The measure includes language to consolidate all outside care efforts into a single “Veterans Choice Program,” to provide less bureaucracy and better funding flexibility. VA officials must submit plans to do that by November.
It also requires biweekly reports to Congress on how the transferred money is being spent, in response to lawmakers’ concerns they were caught unaware of the department’s mounting financial problems.
“We’re in this situation, quite frankly, because of gross ineptitude in planning that can only be characterized as malpractice in management,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, in the moments before the vote. “Congress cannot be expected to continue to bail out VA because of mismanagement.”
Department officials said they didn’t know the extent of the shortfall until the start of the summer, but have warned for the last year that inflexible budget accounts could create such fiscal woes.
But critics have accused the VA of covering up the budget problems until the last minute in order to raid the Choice Card program, authorized by Congress last summer in an effort to force the VA to give veterans wider options in their health care offerings.
Lawmakers set aside $10 billion for the temporary program, and have repeatedly resisted efforts to draw on that money for other purposes. But McDonald said other established outside care programs have proven to be a quicker outlet for getting veterans into doctors' offices, and freeing up the money better responds to the population’s needs.
The VA funding transfer was included as part of the three-month highway bill extension rushed through Congress in the final days of the summer session.
It also includes language expanding the Choice Card program to allow more veterans facing lengthy wait times for VA care to seek private-sector help, including exemptions for veterans who live within 40 miles of a VA clinic to go outside if that facility doesn’t offer the specialized services they need.
The bill also includes the so-called “Hire More Heroes” Act, billed by Republicans as both a boost to veterans employment and a chance to roll back part of the president's controversial health care law.
The measure would allow businesses to hire veterans without having them count as full-time employees under the Affordable Care Act, provided they already have health insurance through the VA or the Defense Department.
Congressional Democrats and the White House have publicly complained about the motivation behind the law but also offered limited objections, calling it a reasonable update to health insurance rules.
President Obama is expected to sign the measure into law in the next few days.
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2015/07/30/congress-oks-funding-shift--keep-va-hospitals-open/30888187/
The move comes a day after House lawmakers overwhelmingly backed the plan and about a week after VA Secretary Bob McDonald appeared on Capitol Hill to warn Congress that health care for tens of thousands of veterans could be disrupted without a budget fix.
The measure allows the VA to use about $3.3 billion in funds assigned solely to the new Choice Card program to cover other account shortfalls, a move that lawmakers have resisted over the last year.
But McDonald said use of the Choice Card program has grown slowly while outside care programs have increased dramatically, leading to the budget problems.
The measure includes language to consolidate all outside care efforts into a single “Veterans Choice Program,” to provide less bureaucracy and better funding flexibility. VA officials must submit plans to do that by November.
It also requires biweekly reports to Congress on how the transferred money is being spent, in response to lawmakers’ concerns they were caught unaware of the department’s mounting financial problems.
“We’re in this situation, quite frankly, because of gross ineptitude in planning that can only be characterized as malpractice in management,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, in the moments before the vote. “Congress cannot be expected to continue to bail out VA because of mismanagement.”
Department officials said they didn’t know the extent of the shortfall until the start of the summer, but have warned for the last year that inflexible budget accounts could create such fiscal woes.
But critics have accused the VA of covering up the budget problems until the last minute in order to raid the Choice Card program, authorized by Congress last summer in an effort to force the VA to give veterans wider options in their health care offerings.
Lawmakers set aside $10 billion for the temporary program, and have repeatedly resisted efforts to draw on that money for other purposes. But McDonald said other established outside care programs have proven to be a quicker outlet for getting veterans into doctors' offices, and freeing up the money better responds to the population’s needs.
The VA funding transfer was included as part of the three-month highway bill extension rushed through Congress in the final days of the summer session.
It also includes language expanding the Choice Card program to allow more veterans facing lengthy wait times for VA care to seek private-sector help, including exemptions for veterans who live within 40 miles of a VA clinic to go outside if that facility doesn’t offer the specialized services they need.
The bill also includes the so-called “Hire More Heroes” Act, billed by Republicans as both a boost to veterans employment and a chance to roll back part of the president's controversial health care law.
The measure would allow businesses to hire veterans without having them count as full-time employees under the Affordable Care Act, provided they already have health insurance through the VA or the Defense Department.
Congressional Democrats and the White House have publicly complained about the motivation behind the law but also offered limited objections, calling it a reasonable update to health insurance rules.
President Obama is expected to sign the measure into law in the next few days.
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2015/07/30/congress-oks-funding-shift--keep-va-hospitals-open/30888187/
Responses: 9
No LCDR (Join to see)
1st construction costs should be set aside for professional building design and construction companies under an impartial watchdog organization.
2nd Medical doctors, nurses, technicians need to have less bureaucratic oversight of their treatment recommendations, decisions and plans.
Biennial funding would be a start to improve funding, letting unused funds be used the following year would be another good idea. The "color of money" rules should be changed to allow funds for treatment of veterans to be moved from one of the programs to another without congressional approval but with IG oversight.
I used the Choice Card program this summer - it got off to a rough start but worked more smoothly after I assisted the doctors's office in their communications with VA Choice Program.
1st construction costs should be set aside for professional building design and construction companies under an impartial watchdog organization.
2nd Medical doctors, nurses, technicians need to have less bureaucratic oversight of their treatment recommendations, decisions and plans.
Biennial funding would be a start to improve funding, letting unused funds be used the following year would be another good idea. The "color of money" rules should be changed to allow funds for treatment of veterans to be moved from one of the programs to another without congressional approval but with IG oversight.
I used the Choice Card program this summer - it got off to a rough start but worked more smoothly after I assisted the doctors's office in their communications with VA Choice Program.
GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad
It's not a problem LCDR (Join to see) --- no worries here! I could combine this one with mine but I prefer not to take "admin" actions like that when they involve my own posts. Again, no worries. Have a good evening.
GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad
Congress OKs funding shift to keep VA hospitals open. Why was this action necessary? | RallyPoint...
Veterans Affairs Department officials will get the budget help they need to avoid facility shutdowns in August after the Senate approved a last-minute deal Thursday. The move comes a day after House lawmakers overwhelmingly backed the plan and about a week after VA Secretary Bob McDonald appeared on Capitol Hill to warn Congress that health care for tens of thousands of veterans could be disrupted without a budget fix. The measure allows the...
Suspended Profile
Thanks guys, I can tag SSG Carlos Madden to combine the threads if you want them to be...
Broken record of personal opinion follows:
It's not a funding issue. It's a capability issue. I don't believe the US Government is "capable" of Social Programs. The VA Health Care Program is a Social Program, by definition. We're asking an organization to do something that it is not able to do, and will never be able to do. Not without recreating it from the ground up.
To do that, we need go back to the "Military Medicine" model, which cannot work in a civilian environment.
It's not a funding issue. It's a capability issue. I don't believe the US Government is "capable" of Social Programs. The VA Health Care Program is a Social Program, by definition. We're asking an organization to do something that it is not able to do, and will never be able to do. Not without recreating it from the ground up.
To do that, we need go back to the "Military Medicine" model, which cannot work in a civilian environment.
Read This Next
The system is not optimal; but, since it is paperless as far as the using veteran is concerned I was puzzled by your comment on wasting paper.
From what I have seen the automated check-in system has freed up the trained VA employees to do meaningful work versus interrupting their work to help Veterans check in.
However, the HIPAA Act implementation seems to be a bureaucratic dream and the ultimate in paper-wasting process. I have signed over 30 HIPAA Act documents in the past 10 years or so - one for every procedure and surgery I had some a month apart yet all seemly identical.
What I mean by waste of paper, is that at my VAMC, the machines print out a receipt for every transaction. Completely pointless...
In addition, the terminals are not roped off, and face directly into the waiting areas for all to see... Maybe some centers do it better than others...