During the State of the Union address, President Joe Biden shined a light, as he has many times in the past, on the effects of toxic exposure, declaring that he would continue to make it a priority of his administration.
Is VA Doing Enough for Veteran Survivors Seeking Deserved Benefits?
Part of VA’s mission is to care for the widows and orphans of servicemembers and veterans, but some legislators have expressed concern that survivors are getting short shrift, especially when the veteran dies long after their initial service rather than in combat.
VA, House Committee Consider Future of Vet Center Autonomy
As VA looks at the future of its Vet Center program and whether it is meeting current demand, one of its tasks is to find the balance between keeping Vet Centers’ historic autonomy and making sure the department is providing up-to-date care, especially for veterans who are high-risk for suicide and other mental health issues.
Why Do Cataract, TKA Surgeries Often Cost More at VA vs. Outside Care?
New study raises questions about which veterans requiring cataract and total knee replacement surgeries received community care, as opposed to the cases kept within the VA system.
Congressional Leadership Asks VA to Rethink Supply Chain System Plans
Bipartisan congressional leadership is asking that the VA halt its plans to adopt the Defense Logistics Agency’s (DLA’s) supply chain management system.
McDonough Denies That Veterans Are Improperly Refused Community Care
Media reports that veterans were being denied community care for financial reasons once again raised questions about how the Mission Act is being administered.
VA Secretary Warns of Hard Conversations Ahead on Agency Resources
VA Secretary Denis McDonough vowed to legislators that the agency will use the lessons it learned during COVID-19 to make the agency stronger going forward.
VA Officials Face Hostile Legislators Complaining of Agency’s ‘Broken Culture’
VA has been criticized as suffering from a “broken culture” where employees do not feel comfortable coming forward about safety concerns, resulting in problems going unresolved and tragedies that could have been prevented.
Committee Hearing: DoD/VA Transition Program for Women Not Enough
In recent years, both VA and DoD have worked to create transition services designed specifically for women servicemembers with the goal of providing information about VA care and closing the gap between when a servicemember is discharged and when they enroll for VA healthcare and benefits.
Senator Continues Push to Create More Joint DoD/VA Healthcare Facilities
The James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in Chicago is the only joint DoD/VA healthcare facility in operation—a partnership between VA and the Navy. With a gentle push from Congress, that might change in the not-too-distant future.
LA VAMC Researcher Works to Create Racial, Ethnic, Gender Equity in Healthcare
When Donna Washington, MD, MPH, moved to Los Angeles for a health services fellowship at UCLA following her residency, she imagined that she would end up working in a county or public health system.
House VA Committee Investigates Recruitment of Veterans by Extremist Groups
What role, if any, does VA have in preventing the recruitment of veterans into organizations that promote violence against the United States and its citizens? A trio of hearings hosted by the House Veterans Affairs Committee explored the question.
VA Seeks More Contractors to Support Expanding Telehealth Programs
As VA faces a post-pandemic landscape that includes an increased reliance on telehealth, it is looking to put its money where its healthcare needs are.
LGBTQ Legislation Seeks to Make VA More Inclusive, Welcoming
While there has been considerable focus by VA in recent weeks on reaching out to LGBTQ veterans, especially those discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell restrictions, some legislators and veterans advocates are seeking to broaden the conversation around equity and inclusion.
LGBTQ Veterans Ousted By ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Eligible for VA Benefits
VA Secretary Denis McDonough sent guidance to Veterans’ Benefit Administration adjudicators restating that veterans who were given other than honorable discharges under the military’s former Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy are eligible for the full range of VA benefits.
Veteran Was Missing for Almost a Month Before Decomposed Body Found
On June 12, 2020, a badly decomposed body was found in the emergency exit stairwell of the Bedford Veterans Quarters (BVQ), a privately operated, independent living facility on the campuses of VA’s Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital.
How Mandatory HCP Vaccines Affect Infections
The VA led the way among federal agencies in requiring front-line health workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. It later expanded the requirement to most VHA employees, volunteers and contractors who work in those facilities or come in contact with veteran patients and healthcare workers as part of their duties.
VA Will Use Rescue Funds to Digitize Records Used for Veteran Claims
The VA will use millions of dollars from its American Rescue Plan grants to expand the scope of the digitization of federal records. One key goal is to reduce a backlog of record requests created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aging Baby Boomers Will Require VA to Double Long-Term Care Spending
As the baby boomer generation begins to reach the age where they will require regular, long-term care, VA will be required to shift a huge portion of its resources to care for them.
Legislator: VA Is Using ‘Opaque Slush Fund’ to Fund IT Costs
The VA’s plans to use money left over from another fund to increase its information technology budget has raised concerns among some members of Congress.
VA Opposes Senate Bill Requiring It to Research Cannabis Use
A bill that would require the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to run clinical trials on the potential benefits of cannabis for the treatment of military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain was again rejected by the VA, even though the legislation—S.1467 VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act of 2021—is supported by a plethora of veterans groups.
Pain Cream Sellers Sentenced for Bilking TRICARE Out of Mega-Millions
Prosecution continues for defendants charged in a number of nearly-identical schemes to defraud TRICARE and other insurers out of hundreds of millions of dollars by exploiting a former loophole in the billing process for compound drugs.
VA Takes Lead in Requiring COVID-19 Vaccine for Front-line Healthcare Workers
When the VA, the largest healthcare system in the U.S., mandated COVID-19 vaccines for front-line healthcare workers in late July, it moved to the forefront of a building trend to require COVID-19 vaccines for some employees. It also established the department as the first federal agency to take the step.
Veteran Homelessness Likely to Increase With End of Eviction Moratorium
While the last decade has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of veterans who are homeless on any given night, that trend has stalled in the last two years with numbers, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, starting to move upward again.
VA Recharges Efforts to Tackle In-House Equity, Inclusion, Diversity Issues
VA needs to do more to ensure workforce equity, inclusion and diversity, especially in its senior leadership roles, according to legislators and employee advocates.
Infrastructure Costs to Modernize VA Could Cost Billions Extra
VA might have underestimated the physical infrastructure costs related to its electronic health record modernization effort by billions according to a VA Inspector General report analyzing the project costs.
Legislators Question VA’s Significantly Increased Budget Request
In its FY 2022 budget proposal, VA is asking Congress to provide the department with a 10% increase over 2021 funding levels.
VA Begins Process to Offer Gender Confirming Surgery to Transgender Veterans
With VA’s announcement that it will begin initiating the process to offer gender confirmation surgery to transgender veterans.
Infrastructure Lack Increases Health Risks of Native Americans
The COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately affected Native Americans, has revealed a critical need for investments in those communities, according to trial advocates and the Indian Health Service (IHS).
House VA Committee Engages in Partisan Squabbling Over Funding
In its first meeting of the 117th Congress, the House VA Committee advanced a proposal that would allocate $17 billion for VA as part of President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
