fromthepresident VA Reform A

The nation has an opportunity to enhance the delivery of health care to veterans — and MOAA is part of the process, making recommendations and off ering solutions.

As we prepare to celebrate Veterans Day Nov. 11, I’m reminded of Sen. Johnny Isakson’s remark at MOAA’s September Warrior-Family Symposium (see page 56): “When it comes to veteran health care, there are no excuses.” After problems with access to VA health

care in Phoenix made the news last year, I wrote President Barack Obama as well as congressional leaders urging action to ad- dress red tape and ineffi ciencies thwarting veterans’ access to the care they’ve earned and to establish a high-level commission to map the future of VA care. Now, with the passage of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014, Congress has established the VA Commission on Care recommended by MOAA. MOAA called for an “independent, bi- partisan commission … of leading public and private experts on health care delivery to examine if the VA needs to change its business model.” MOAA has long urged a broader consideration of how the VA and private partners might “collaborate more extensively to ensure world-class access and service delivery for our nation’s veter- ans and their family members.” The Veterans Health Administration

(VHA) operates one of the largest and most complex health systems in the U.S., with 1,600 care sites and about 300,000 employ- ees caring for nearly 6 million veterans. Its challenges include a unique and chang- ing patient population, congressionally mandated funding, variations in scope and

scale of operations, and service delivery, governance, and oversight. The Choice Act directed an independent assessment to pro- vide a better understanding of the VHA and its place within the larger VA system. The assessment*, led by Mitre Corp.,

identifi ed four systemic fi ndings aff ecting the VHA’s mission execution: 1) a discon- nect in the alignment of demand, resources, and authorities; 2) uneven bureaucratic operations and processes; 3) nonintegrated variations in clinical and business data and tools; and 4) leaders who are not fully empowered due to a lack of clear authority, priorities, and goals. I feel confi dent Congress, the Commis- sion on Care, and the VA can work together and with groups like MOAA to forge a roadmap to preserve the core of the VA’s direct-service-delivery expertise while capitalizing on increased collaboration with community providers. I believe both the Mitre report and the Commission on Care’s own fi ndings can improve effi ciencies at the VA dramatically, if leaders seize the momentum and propel it forward. There should be no excuses when it comes to health care for those “who shall have borne the battle,” to quote President Abraham Lincoln. MOAA approaches each day as Veterans Day, and we never stop serving.

— Vice Adm. Norbert R. Ryan Jr., USN (Ret)

*online: Read the Mitre Corp.’s assessment at http://1.usa.gov/1KkV2Vf. 12 MILITARY OFFICER NOVEMBER 2015

PHOTO: SEAN SHANAHAN