Panel weighs closing all VA health care — vets' groups raise conflict of interest [View all]

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http://www.militarytimes.com/story/veterans/2016/04/01/panel-weighs-closing-all-va-health-care-vets-groups-raise-conflict-interest/82522000/

Panel weighs closing all VA health care — vets' groups raise conflict of interest

Patricia Kime, Military Times 4:38 p.m. EDT April 1, 2016

A blue-ribbon panel created to evaluate the Veterans Affairs health system is weighing a radical proposal to eliminate all VA medical centers and outpatient facilities in the next 20 years and transition 9 million veterans to the private sector for health care.

A 34-page “strawman document" floated last week by seven of 15 members of the VA Commission on Care calls for giving all veterans immediate access to private health services and closing VA health facilities gradually, starting with those that are obsolete or underutilized in a process similar to a base realignment and closure. VA eventually would become “primarily a payer,” much like Medicare, under the proposal.
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Commissioner David Blom, president and CEO of the OhioHealth system, is credited as author of the report, with input from the six other members. Blom wrote that the health care needs of veterans are not being met under the current system and that the goal is to "meet the needs of every veteran." “The commission finds the current VA health care system is seriously broken, and because of the breadth and depth of the shortfalls, there is no efficient path to repair it,” Blom and other commission members wrote in the report, created as part of an overall effort to explore VA health reform options.

Under the proposal, veterans would be able to receive care at any provider that accepts VA payments or Medicare. Doctors would be reimbursed at rates 5 percent to 10 percent higher than Medicare rates to encourage them to participate.

The proposal, introduced at the commission’s March meeting, earned immediate condemnation from some veterans organizations as well as VA officials, who say the VA health system performs significantly better on outpatient measures than civilian, Medicare and Medicaid health maintenance organizations.

Eight veterans organizations — including Disabled American Veterans, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vietnam Veterans of America and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America — sent a letter Thursday to Commission Chairwoman Nancy Schlichting denouncing the document.
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