By Scott Huddleston
San Antonio Express-News
Web Posted : 10/02/2003 12:00 AM
Texas veterans are voicing concerns about a plan aimed at streamlining health care that would cut services in parts of the state, including Kerrville.
Vietnam veteran and Air Force retiree Placido Salazar, who believes he was seriously affected by the defoliant Agent Orange, listens to a VA panel hearing on benefits. The meeting was Wednesday at the Convention Center.
Billy Calzada/Express-News
The plan, intended to help the Department of Veterans Affairs evolve from an outdated hospital-based system to a fluid, user-friendly network focusing more on outpatient services and partnerships with the military and private sectors, already is being criticized as out of touch with the needs of veterans.
"I do not believe we were really involved inside the loop," William Morin, a national service officer with Disabled American Veterans, told a five-member panel Wednesday at the Convention Center.
The panel next will hold a hearing in Waco — where a 72-year-old hospital has been targeted for closure — that is expected to draw one of the largest crowds on a tour of about 40 cities. Friday's meeting — set for 9 a.m. at the Waco Convention Center, which seats up to 1,500 people — will include comments from registered speakers with the VA and veterans' groups.
VA officials have said the plan, called the Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services (CARES), sets forth a vision for the next 20 years. But critics say it fails to correct long-running inadequacies.
Walter Schellhase, chairman of the Hill Country Veterans Council, criticized proposals to move 25 inpatient beds from the Kerrville VA Hospital to Audie Murphy VA Hospital and to open new clinics in San Antonio. The Kerrville facility has been downsized in recent years from 300 beds to 25.
"It makes no sense whatsoever," he said.
The Kerrville facility would continue to provide outpatient services, primary care and some specialty care, as well as nursing home care for up to 154 patients.
A few veterans asked the commission to commit to restoring the Waco VA Hospital, which has about 800 employees and 250 beds, mostly for psychiatric care. The hospital provided outpatient services to about 17,000 veterans last year. If it closes, most patients would transfer to a VA facility in Temple.
CARES also proposes closing VA facilities in Marlin and Big Spring; Brecksville, Ohio; Canandaigua, N.Y.; Gulfport, Miss.; Lexington, Ky.; Livermore, Calif.; and Pittsburgh. The commission plans to forward the plan by the end of the year to VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi, who has said he hoped to forward a final plan to Congress early next year.
Even though the plan calls for expansion of health services in Corpus Christi and Harlingen, access to care is a continuing concern, since veterans in the Rio Grande Valley often must travel up to 300 miles for care.
"The Valley has been screaming for services for many years," said Carlos Martinez, the national outreach president with the American GI Forum.
The CARES Commission projects that the number of U.S. veterans eligible for benefits will drop from about 23 million to 14 million by 2020. But VA enrollment is projected to rise from 59,000 to 66,000 in South Texas. That includes a jump from 20,000 to 24,000 in the Valley, which gets about 3,000 Winter Texans each year, and visits from veterans living in Mexico.
Jim Mance, a U.S. Army veteran who was a communications specialist in Korea from 1971 to 1974, is fitted for crutches by Robert Managbanag at Audie Murphy VA Hospital. A VA panel is holding public hearings on its plans for streamlining veterans' health services.
Billy Calzada/Express-News
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, challenged the panel Wednesday to expand veterans' services in Kerrville and across South Texas, since nearly one in 10 active-duty service personnel returns to Texas to live.
"Texas, therefore, has a rapidly growing veterans population, and I believe this will require expanded veterans' medical services" across the region, she said in a letter to the panel.
Jose Coronado, director of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, said he was concerned that the plan does not account for veterans returning from Iraq. Local authorities have said Brooke Army Medical Center lately has taken in at least one veteran per day from Iraq who needed hospitalization.
Wednesday's hearing generated an audience of about 40 people, including 20 who had not preregistered to speak. Natalie Sutto, a regional VA spokeswoman, said Friday's hearing is expected to draw several hundred people because of concerns over the Waco facility.
Commission member Michael K. Wyrick, a retired Air Force major general, said the panel generally sees the plan as a beacon of hope for veterans.
"We're vets, too," he said. "We want it done right."
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