Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
As I do every Memorial Day, I highlight some recent news about the health care system serving our veterans, Veterans Affairs (VA). First off, VA is starting to use social determinants of health, and health-related social needs when conducting hospital discharge planning. VA deputy assistant IG Julie Kroviak: “…there’s a citation in the report where…
As I do every year, I take today to highlight some health care news related to the military and our veterans. VA disability claims backlog grows. “The Department of Veterans Affairs anticipates that its claims backlog, defined as those older than 125 days, will grow ‘potentially up to 400,000’ in the next year, largely the…
That is what Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said about his plan to expand urgent mental health care to thousands of veterans. Specifically, the Shulkin plan would include mental health services for service members with less-than-honorable discharges. As reported in Modern Healthcare, Shulkin testified to Congress that of the 20 veterans who take their lives each day, about 14…
The VA has been at the forefront of innovation in integrated care delivery. ViSTA is the VA’s award winning IT system. The VA has been aggresive in making sure veterans use generic drugs when these are available. Even if the VA provides high quality care, veterans are having increasing problems accessing this care. The issue…
Just before Memorial Day, a Maryland congressman recently proposed shrinking the scope of services the VA provides to veterans. How would he do this? He proposes a model: …where the VA is not the place of general health care for the veterans, but the place of highly-specialized care where skilled professionals are particularly well-equipped to…
This weekend is Memorial Day Weekend. It is a time to celebrate the service of current and former members of the military. Although military veterans garner a lot of attention around Memorial Day, some veterans are not having their needs met the rest of the year. A recent study, for instance, finds that many veterans…