Web Posted : 12/22/2003 1:49 PM
A federal
commission considering a plan to remake the Veterans Affairs health care
system -- a proposal that could shut down seven hospitals but also provide
some new facilities -- will delay announcing its recommendations until next
year.
The group had originally planned to release its report Dec. 11. But Richard
Larson, executive director of the commission, said it is still reviewing the
public comments and other information it has collected over the past several
months on the plan -- and won't release its findings until sometime in the
next six weeks. He declined to set a firm deadline.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi "wants a report, and the
commission wants to make sure we give him the best possible report," Larson
said. "We had a target schedule, a target date and, golly, it's going to
take us a couple weeks longer than we had anticipated."
The plan, originally announced in August, would be the largest overhaul of
the agency's sprawling health care system since the end of World War II. It
is designed to tailor that system more closely to the nation's population of
veterans, a group that, in recent decades, has increasingly moved to the
South and West. The proposal is also intended to better reflect the health
care industry's increased emphasis on outpatient care, while cutting costs
at some aging facilities.
The seven hospitals that could be closed are in California, New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi and Texas. Any closing is always a
sensitive topic because it would likely inconvenience some veterans -- a
group with significant political clout -- and cause economic dislocations in
some communities.
The proposed plan also includes new medical centers in Orlando and Las
Vegas, as well as new facilities for the blind and for treating spinal cord
injuries. In Washington, Maryland and Virginia, the plan would expand
existing outpatient clinics and build new ones.
"This is not about saving money," Larson said. "It is about enhancing
services. It could well end up costing more money."
The commission will forward its recommendations to Principi, who will
accept, reject or, possibly, send the package back to the group for further
elaboration.
The delay is "a big deal ... in communities where people are anxiously
awaiting some resolution," said department spokesman Phil Budahn. "For us,
we had never done anything like this before. The original timeline was just
a little too optimistic."
The commission has held 38 hearings nationwide, meeting with state and local
elected officials, veterans groups, and representatives of unions and
medical facilities. It has also made 68 visits to VA facilities and
collected more than 200,000 comments from the public. Larson declined to
generalize about the reactions the panel has received.
"In each community, we hear something different," he said. "It depends on
what the proposal is in that community. And some communities were
well-organized and, basically, had a lot of public support for what the
community's position was. And other communities, it was less so. It really
varies from place to place."
John McNeill, an official in the Washington office of the Veterans of
Foreign Wars, said: "Let's wait to see what the report is. It's not
necessarily good to shoot the horse before it gets out of the starting
gate."
12/22/2003
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