For 40 years, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General has played an essential oversight role. Ensuring veterans have access to quality health care. Its researchers have repeatedly identified deficiencies in patient care in the VA and recommended corrections. The diligence of the Office of Inspector General is one of the reasons VA’s quality of care has improved. consistently surpass of the private sector.
However, the Office of Inspector General does not scrutinize the private providers with which the VA contracts as rigorously as it does VA facilities. This gap is critical as currently private sector providers provide the service. More than a third of all health services For the nation’s 9 million registered veterans. Few other examples of public health care provision have undergone such rapid change with so little oversight.
of VA Mission Act of 2018 Established the Veterans Community Care Program to provide more private services to veterans. The Office of the Inspector General recognizes that this expansion requires enhanced evaluation; increased the number of personnel. In April 2022, we began publishing reports as part of our ‘Care in the Community’ monitoring. program. However, he completed only three private sector reports in the subsequent 12 months, compared to 73. Inspection of VA in-hospital care.
Community reviews are both small in number and narrow in scope, focusing on important but ultimately discrete topics such as the adequacy of home dialysis services and whether mammography results were promptly delivered to referring VA physicians. was focused on. In contrast, last year the Office of the Inspector General found more widespread and alarming trends among veterans, including suicide attempts, violent behavior, prostate cancer, high blood pressure, alcohol consumption, congestive heart failure, pain management, and more. We investigated Veterans Affairs operations related to the issue. health condition.
to us House and senate At a June hearing, Julie Kloviak, a senior official in the Office of Inspector General, emphasized that when it comes to care in the private sector, there is “no reasonable assurance that veterans will receive the care they need.” She added, “We don’t know what quality of care is being provided outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs…Concerns about the competency, qualifications, and experience of providers…are definitely valid.”
Further research is forthcoming, Kloviak assured, and said her office is in the “final stages of developing a periodic review of the Community of Care.” It is not specified what the scope or scale of these reviews will be.
There is ample opportunity, and indeed a great need, for the Office of Inspector General to conduct a broader review of Veterans Community Care Program services. For example, third-party administrators who manage private care programs must forward all complaints and grievances from veterans to the Veterans Administration within two days of receipt. These materials are available to the Office of the Inspector General and are ripe for inspection and distribution to advocates, members of Congress, and the general public.
In addition to privatizing many VA services, the MISSION Act would also create training standards for private health care providers who treat conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual trauma, and traumatic brain injury among veterans. Directed the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish. The VA created customized training and gave contracted clinicians discretion in whether or not to take the training. Training records for all providers are provided to the VA so that the Office of Inspector General (and the VA) can determine how many providers received that training. That way, you’ll know whether the contracted professionals are as prepared to treat veterans’ complex and unique medical conditions as VA health care providers.
The same questions apply to veterans who suffer from exposure to toxic substances. Under recent legislation, the Office of Inspector General must disclose the number of private sector providers that receive comprehensive toxic exposure training.
Similarly, VA providers are required to perform annual suicide risk screenings on veterans. We don’t know how many private health care providers, if any, adhere to the same prescriptions as the VA itself. The Office of the Inspector General should investigate.
The quality of private health care should be audited as vigorously as veterans’ facilities. If more money and staff are needed, Congress should find the money. When the House and Senate invite officials from the Office of the Inspector General to testify about veterans’ health care, they should always request answers about private health care services contracted by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans’ lives depend on it.
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