Report on VA Hospitals Delayed

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Dec21.html

Report on VA Hospitals Delayed

By Brian Faler
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, December 22, 2003; Page A23


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, the 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 J. 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 across the country, 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."