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VA Sec. Wilkie’s first report to Congress
The implementation of the VA Mission Act has begun. In his first official report to Congress, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie discussed progress at the agency. From Military Times:
But developing the rule — a process expected to take months — will require carefully balancing issues of health care flexibility with concerns over privatizing much of the VA’s core mission.
“Wilkie on several occasions, including Wednesday, has said he is opposed to privatizing the department. Democrats in both chambers have said they fear the new standards, if written too broadly, could do just that.”
More from the hearing: Stars and Stripes: VA Secretary Denies Connection to Mar-a-Lago crowd
Mission Act rules to outsource veterans care in development:
Veterans Service Organizations and Dan Caldwell from the Koch group Concerned Veterans for America weigh in on the Mission Act’s implementation in Stars and Stripes:
The [VA Mission Act] gives the VA secretary broad authority to create rules for when veterans can go into the private sector. In early October, the VA is supposed to report to Congress about its progress creating those rules.
“It’s going to be very revealing,” Caldwell said. “I anticipate a really intense bureaucratic battle between that October deadline and June 2019, the deadline to roll out the actual program.”
Leaders with the VFW and American Legion said they would provide their input to Wilkie about the new program.
“Secretary Wilkie has let us know that he will be asking for our input throughout this while process,” Nuntavong said. “I truly believe he’s going to uphold those promises.”
VHPI has submitted its recommendations to assess community provider health care quality standards on Regulations.gov. Read our report here.
Editorial: Cost is not a sufficient reason for denying benefits to Blue Water Vietnam veterans
“It was an argument used in 2002 to take benefits away from these Blue Water Vietnam veterans, and it’s been deployed again to stop an effort to restore those benefits. In June, the U.S. House approved legislation, 382-0, to restore Agent Orange benefits and medical care to offshore veterans. But it has since stalled in the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.”
“The concern is cost. There are about 90,000 offshore veterans lacking access to these benefits. Providing them would cost the VA $6.7 billion over 10 years, but House legislation offered an offset: increased fees on VA home loans. The VA has said this is unfair to the overall veteran population, but denying meaningful health benefits to deserving veterans seems far more unfair.” Read the full editorial at MySanAntonio.com.
VA releases report on veteran suicide data from 2005-2016
From the VA’s News Release on the report:
- Overall, the fact remains that on average about 20 current or former service members die each day, six have been in VA health care and 14 were not.
- Rates of suicide were highest among younger Veterans (ages 18-34) and lowest among older Veterans (ages 55 and older). However, because the older Veteran population is the largest, this group accounted for 58.1 percent of Veteran suicide deaths in 2016.
- The rate of suicide among 18-34-year-old Veterans continues to increase.
- The use of firearms as a method of suicide remains high. The percentage of suicide deaths that involved firearms was 67.0 percent in 2015 and 69.4 percent in 2016.
Response to the report:
“This problem is not just a VA problem. It’s a problem for our entire country with very real and serious implications for the future of our military,” said Joe Chenelly, AMVETS National Executive Director in a breakdown of the report in Newsweek.
Burn Pits bill becomes law
via a press release from Rep. Elizabeth Esty’s office:
Esty’s bill also called for additional funding for the [Airborne Hazards Center of Excellence (AHCE)] to develop a concentration in burn pit study and research. The minibus will provide an additional $5 million specifically for burn pits research, in addition to what was already allocated to the AHCE. With the additional monies, the AHCE will prioritize understanding the post deployment health for veterans exposed to airborne hazards and open bum pits.
The VA will also be directed to provide an assessment of the process for informing veterans through VA and community care providers about the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry and their eligibility for registering.
Cerner Project for IT Health records continues
From HealthcareITNews:
[VA Secretary Robert] Wilkie stressed that the VA’s Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization and DoD will be “joined at the hip” throughout the project and supported VA OEHRM Director John Windom’s leadership as point-person between the VA and DoD.
“Engaging front-line staff and clinicians is a fundamental aspect in ensuring we meet the program’s goals, and we have begun work with the leadership teams in place in the Pacific Northwest,” Wilkie said.
“OEHRM has established clinical councils from the field that will develop national workflows and serve as change agents at the local level,” he continued. “The work at the IOC sites will help VA identify efficiencies to optimize the schedule, hone governance, refine configurations and standardize processes for future locations.”
Veterans-only wing opens in Texas county jail
From KWTX.com:
Military vets make up about eight percent of prison and jail populations In the U.S., according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Armstrong says they plan to combat those numbers by reducing recidivism in their veteran inmate population.
"The ‘end-game’ here is to help the veterans with being a better person, and hopefully they don't come back to jail,” said Armstrong.
The idea came to Armstrong during a jail conference three or four years ago when a friend of his at the Montgomery County Jail told him about a program they had to help veterans.
"There's services out there that are available for the veterans and tying them into those services and getting them back into the community, it just sounded wonderful,” he said.
VA expands program that places overdose drug next to defibrillators
From NPR:
Pam Bellino, patient safety manager for the Boston VA, read that incident report back in December 2015 with alarm. "That was the tipping point for us to say, 'We need to get this naloxone immediately available, without locking it up,' " she says.
The easiest way to do it quickly, Bellino reasoned, would be to add the drug to automated external defibrillator cabinets already in place. Those metal boxes on the walls of VA cafeterias, gyms, warehouses, clinic waiting rooms and some rehab housing were installed to hold equipment for a fast response to heart attacks.
Now the Veterans Administration, building on a project started in Boston, is moving to add naloxone kits to the AED cabinets in its buildings across the country, an initiative that could become a model for other health care organizations.
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