“When Congress first considered legislation to require a comprehensive review of the Veterans Affairs Department’s health care facilities in an effort to identify those that were underutilized for closure, even the strongest proponents of the reform thought it was a pipedream…”
“Despite that skepticism, VA officials are, nearly four years later, in the midst of conducting 50 “listening sessions” with veterans across the country to ask about their future needs and identify where facilities may have become obsolete…”
“VFW’s Murray said his biggest outstanding concern is that VA will fail to ask the right questions or include the right data. If Congress looks at the product the commission produces and determines it is incomplete or incorrect, the whole undertaking ‘was just a waste of time,’ Murray said.”
“’You can’t, I believe, argue with numbers, data and facts,’ he said. ‘We want a very complete set of numbers and data.’ Murray added if decision makers ‘let the numbers do the talking,’ they will clearly illustrate the VA system needs to be preserved, and in some areas, expanded.”
“The next milestone stakeholders are monitoring is the nominations for the commission, which are due by the end of May…” Read the full article here.
Source: VA Is at a Crossroads As It Kicks Off BRAC-Style Review of Medical Facilities — By Eric Katz, March 26, 2021. Government Executive.
