After weeks of disagreement and heated debate, House and Senate lawmakers have made a deal regarding how to help fix the Department of Veterans Affairs' health care system, which has been mired by scandals, long wait times, and whistleblower retaliation for months, according to The Associated Press.
Details of the plan
The agreement – said to include tens of billions of dollars of funding and resources to lease new clinics and hire more medical professionals – will help veterans seek care at VA facilities and at outside agencies to reduce wait times under a strict time schedule. Recently, Sloan Gibson, the acting Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, requested $17.6 billion over the next three years to finance new locations, hire 10,000 more clinicians and upgrade some of the organization's technology. However, lawmakers have not specified the details surrounding the agreement yet. Instead, officials will be holding a press conference to release the full details about funding, hiring goals and other health care information.
Committee chairmen come together
The plan was agreed upon by legislative leaders Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Jeff Miller. The House and Senate approved VA health care bills in mid-June and expected a final bill by July 4, but slow-moving negotiations pushed that deadline back, according to The Associated Press. After talks broke down into verbal clashes, Sanders – the chair of the Senate Veterans committee – and Miller – chairman of the House panel – managed to come together during weekend telephone discussions. Now just days before Congress begins a month-long recess, a plan has been formulated for lawmakers to vote on and approve. After details are released, the plan must go to a conference committee of lawmakers for approval and then to the full House and Senate before reaching President Barack Obama's desk for a signature.
Solving current problems
The Associated Press reported that a recent audit of the VA showed that 10 percent of veterans seeking care at VA hospitals are still waiting 30 days or more for an appointment. Additionally, 46,000 veterans have waited over three months for appointments. At the same time, 7,000 veterans have not received appointments over the decade in which they requested them. Those struggles are due to shortages of doctors, improper timeline goals, and manipulation of patient wait-time data that protected managers' payment bonuses, according to The New York Times.
More than providing funding and leeway for hiring medical staff the plan is said to, "make VA more accountable and to help the department recruit more doctors, nurses and other health care professionals," Miller and Sanders said, as quoted by The Associated Press.