Veteran's Medical Issues: Presidential Task Force on Veterans Health Care

email Dr. SETI ®

Veteran's Medical Issues
PRESIDENT'S TASK FORCE DELIVERS FINAL REPORT
ON VA/DOD HEALTH CARE

(Press release provided courtesy of the Presidental Task Force on Veterans Health Care)

ARLINGTON, VA, May 28, 2003 - The President's Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation's Veterans (PTF) handed President George W. Bush a final report its 15 members believe will address a challenge the federal government has faced for more than 20 years.

Building on an Interim Report submitted in July 2002, the final report identifies leadership commitment, the transition from military to veteran status, barriers to collaboration, and timely access to health care as areas the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DOD) need to address.

"We've come a long way in 18 months," said Dr. Gail R. Wilensky, PTF co-chair. "Our report provides the President, the Congress, VA, and DOD with solid recommendations on accountability, collaboration, and easing the transition from military to civilian life. We believe this report is the strongest response yet to problems the Congress first raised in 1982."

"The President asked us to examine the barriers to greater collaboration between VA and DOD," said Co-Chair John Paul Hammerschmidt, who served in Congress for 26 years, all of them on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. "Our recommendations, if implemented, will further the missions of both VA and DOD. The men and women who have served their Nation also will like what we've done. They're the reason the President created the Task Force, and the motivation for all the hard work."

"Collaboration between VA and DOD can't be an afterthought," he said. "Leadership of the two departments will need to communicate clearly what they want, when they want it, and what will happen if they don't get it. And collaboration can't be an end in itself, but a means to improving access to health care."

"The evidence told us that without addressing the mismatch between the demand for VA health care and the resources available, significant progress in collaboration and sharing between VA and DOD would be impossible," Dr. Wilensky said. "The Task Force has performed a great service in calling attention to that fact, but we are calling for much more."

"We're calling for a seamless transition from military to VA health care," she said. "Whether someone serves four years or 30 years in the military, there should not be long delays in receiving VA benefits. To make that transition seamless, VA and DOD should have electronic medical record systems that can communicate freely with each other. We're also calling for one standard separation physical exam and improved assistance to determine eligibility for disability compensation and VA health care."

PTF Members and staff conducted 19 public meetings, 24 site visits, regular briefings of top VA and DOD officials, hundreds of data requests, roundtables with veteran and military organizations, and an exhaustive review of existing literature before writing its 129-page final report. Among highlights of the PTF Final Report are recommendations that:

VA and DOD develop and deploy by fiscal year 2005 electronic medical records that are interoperable, bi-directional, and based on existing health care standards;
VA and DOD collaborate more effectively in recording, recognizing, treating and preventing illnesses resulting from exposures and hazards experienced during military service;
The Secretaries of the two agencies revise their health care organizational structures, not only to provide more effective management of the two systems individually, but to remove any barriers to greater collaboration;
Both Secretaries provide their local and regional health care managers more authority, accountability, and incentives to increase those collaborative activities that improve health care delivery and control costs;
VA and DOD develop a joint core formulary in pharmaceuticals and the clinical tools needed to give both systems access to profiles of dual VA/DOD beneficiaries;
Both agencies utilize, whenever possible, joint procurement of medical services and equipment;
Both agencies pursue every opportunity for joint ventures, including facility construction, and share the results of joint venture success stories;
Federal budget and appropriations processes be modified to ensure full funding for enrolled veterans in Priority Groups 1 through 7, based on the current comprehensive benefit and the VA's established access standards;
VA pay for care with non-VA providers whenever it cannot meet its access standards;
The President and Congress work together to resolve what the Task Force calls the "unacceptable" access status and funding for Priority Group 8 veterans; and,
An interagency leadership commission reports annually to the VA and DOD Secretaries on the status of implementing PTF recommendations.

Congressman Hammerschmidt replaced original co-chair Congressman Gerald B. Solomon, who passed away on October 26, 2001, two weeks after the first PTF hearing. Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon had already delayed the first hearing by a month.

The other 13 PTF Members are Everett Alvarez; C. Ross Anthony, Ph.D.; Terry Clark, M.D.; Mack Fleming; Susan DeWire Hosek; Robert Krasner, M.D.; S. Anthony McCann; Arthur Porter, M.D.; Susan Schwartz, DBA, RN; Robert Spanogle; Robert Wallace; Harry Walters; and Josh Weston.

Return to Veterans' Medical Issues Page
(Please note the Disclaimer there.)

TOP