Letter To Eric K. Shinseki, Secretary Of Veteran Affairs

Letter

U.S. Representative John Boozman, Ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee joined Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin (D-SD) in leading a letter to U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki about the shortcomings in women veterans' health care. The letter received the unanimous support of all members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

With the ongoing Global War on Terror, more and more women are returning home and relying on the VA for their health care. Within the past year, reports have indicated improvements need to be made in providing female veterans the health care they need and deserve. Both Report of the Under Secretary for Health Workgroup: Provision of Primary Care to Women Veterans (November 2008) and the recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report Preliminary Findings on VA's Provision of Health Care Services to Women Veterans GAO-09-899T (July 2009) indicated improvements need to be made.

Veterans Affairs Committee members have asked the Secretary to conduct a briefing on the implementation of the recommendations offered in these two reports. The following is a portion of the letter that was sent to Sec. Shinseki:

We write to respectfully request a briefing on the actions the Department of Veterans of Affairs (VA) is taking to fully implement the recommendations and improve the deficiencies in care for women veterans described in the As you know, the VA report was commissioned by Secretary Peake and circulated within VA beginning in November 2008. The GAO report was released on July 14, 2009, in conjunction with hearings in the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees addressing women veterans' health care issues.

The VA report recommended improvements in five main areas:
• Deliver coordinated, comprehensive primary women's health care at every VA facility.
• Ensure integration of women's mental health as part of primary care.
• Promote and incentivize innovation in care delivery by supporting local best practices.
• Cultivate and enhance capabilities of all VA staff with regard to the needs of women veterans.
• Achieve gender equity in the provision of clinical care.

The VA report's recommendations highlight areas for improvement regarding both the quality and efficiency of VA care for women. We believe the national implementation of the recommendations in the VA's own report would be an important step forward in ensuring women veterans receive coordinated, comprehensive primary care by providers trained to meet their needs; ensuring the integration of mental health care and primary care for women veterans; and achieving equity in the provision of clinical care for women veterans at VA facilities.

We believe it's important for VA to take leadership responsibility for implementing the changes recommended in the report. Notably, the GAO report found confusion among VA officials regarding the implementation strategy for the VA report, and the steps that would be required to meet its directives. VA officials reported they are unclear if changes they are making to their current care models for women meet the new comprehensive care standard. Furthermore, a deadline for implementation of these directives was not provided in the VA report.

In addition, the GAO report brought up several issues that are outside the scope of the internal VA report. The GAO report found the VA should improve inpatient mental health facilities for women veterans, should enhance efforts to hire medical personnel who are experienced in women-specific health needs and procedures, and should address deficiencies in the physical layout of certain facilities to ensure adequate levels of privacy for women veterans who seek care at VA facilities. In the VA briefing we are requesting, we would appreciate details regarding VA's plan to correct the areas singled out for improvement in the GAO report.

As you know, women are a growing population within the ranks of the active, reserve and Guard forces of our Armed Services, and women veterans are an increasingly larger proportion of patients cared for by the VA. Soon, women veterans will constitute one of every seven veterans enrolled in the VA's health care system. Expectations in Congress for the VA to step up to meet this challenge are high, and these two reports show the need for the VA to make significant changes in the short term to begin better addressing women veterans' needs in the long term.

The House of Representative has recently demonstrated its support for improving the provision of health care for women veterans through the unanimous bipartisan vote in support of H.R. 1211, the Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act. We strongly support that measure and believe we can do even more to make sure our women veterans receive the care they have earned.

Accordingly, we respectfully request the VA brief us on its plans to ensure the expeditious implementation of improvements to the VA's health care delivery system for women veterans in response to the challenges and solutions outlined in both reports. We appreciate your consideration of our views on this pressing and important matter.

Boozman intends on continuing his bipartisan work to ensure that the VA health care system is prepared to serve all members of our Armed Forces when they return home, including women.

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