Senators reach deal on VA bill
Bill would allow veterans experiencing long waits to seek care outside VA hospitals.
Lawmakers in the Senate reached a deal Thursday on the framework of a bill intended to address some of the recently uncovered issues related to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
From the Associated Press:
Senior senators reached agreement Thursday on the framework for a bipartisan bill expanding veterans’ ability to get health care outside the government’s scandal-beset Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics.
The bill would allow veterans who experience waits of 30 days or more for VA appointments or who live at least 40 miles from a VA hospital or clinic to use private doctors enrolled as providers for Medicare, military TRICARE or other government health care programs.
It would let the VA immediately fire as many as 450 senior regional executives and hospital administrators for poor performance. The bill resembles a measure passed last month by the House, but includes a 28-day appeal process omitted by the House legislation.
“Right now we have a crisis on our hands and it’s imperative that we deal with that crisis,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
The legislation is a response to a building national uproar over veterans’ health care following allegations that surfaced in April that as many as 40 veterans may have died while waiting an average 115 days for appointments at the Phoenix VA hospital or its walk-in clinics.
Since then, investigators have found long wait times and falsified records covering them up at other VA facilities nationwide.
The agreement was announced Thursday by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
Meanwhile, Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson arrived for a visit at the Phoenix VA Health Care System Thursday. He was expected to provide updates on what his office is doing to address the situation in which numerous veterans were intentionally left off of a wait list.
Gibson indicated that most of those veterans have since been contacted to schedule appointments.
From AZCentral:
Gibson on Wednesday said his agency had contacted nearly all of the veterans left off the list.
Gibson, who arrived at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix shortly after 10 a.m., plans to address the issue, and he has said the department has reached out to every veteran identified in a VA inspector-general report “to discuss individual medical needs and immediately begin scheduling appointments.”
The report, released last week, found 1,700 Arizona vets who were seeking first-time appointments with primary-care doctors were excluded from the VA’s electronic waiting list. The inquiry confirmed “inappropriate” and “convoluted” scheduling practices at the Phoenix VA and systemically across the United States. The inspector general said the inaccurate reports on patient access led to bonuses and salary increases.
The bill announced Thursday would still need to go to the full Senate for approval, which could be as early as next week, reported CNN:
It still needs to go to the floor for approval of the full Senate. That could happen as soon as next week, according to aides.
Those aides predicted it probably would be approved because lawmakers are anxious to show their constituents they are responding to the scandal.
“Given the crisis we have right now, this is an important step forward,” Sanders said when announcing the agreement on the Senate floor.
“We were able to come together I believe in a way to help to relieve this terrible tragedy that seems to have befallen our nations’ veterans,” McCain said.
The news of the proposed VA legislation comes nearly a week after the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki.
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Comments
This is ridiculous. It still traps the vets into extended waiting periods. What happens if they’re in pain? They have to suffer at least 30 days of pain before they can go to a clinic or doctor who accepts Medicare?!
Medicare, you say? These people in Congress are indeed out of touch! Doctors are increasingly not accepting Medicare because the federal government is reimbursing them at a rate fast approaching Seattle’s new minimum wage.
So what will the vets do when they can’t find a doctor taking Medicare. TRICARE? What’s the reimbursement rate for that? The other government healthcare program….
What about disconnecting the vets from anything government related? What about the VA giving them MSA’s and a comprehensive care policy that vets can go where they please and get the care they need.
An alternative is to put all vets on federal employee insurance, including retirement coverage (better than Medicare and wider acceptance) and offer full reimbursement/voucher/direct billing for co-pays and deductibles.
In any case, no solution which leave the criminals who faked the numbers and took bonuses for “improvement” employed and uncharged for fraud should be acceptable.
In Phoenix and San Diego (and likely everywhere, these two were checked), a single private cardiologist treats more patients than EIGHT on the VA staff. You can’t reform that.
Maybe we should instead provide vets with the same insurance Congress and federal employees access and move the employees and congress over to the VA system. Let’s take care of the group that has done more for this country than any politician or fed employee.
So does the Senate bill protect veterans like me who were denied VA medical care because we made too much money according to guidelines that didn’t exist when we left the service? And does the bill stick it to a certain Medicare Advantage insurance provider who is sitting on a request to authorize my back surgery while I continue to hurt? Whatever happened to “First, do no harm”?