Herseth Sandlin: VA Must Step Up To Meet Health Care Needs Of Women Veterans

Letter

Today, Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin led the full membership of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee in sending a bipartisan letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki urging the VA to meet the challenge of providing improved health care services for women veterans.

"Soon, women veterans will constitute one of every seven veterans enrolled in the VA's health care system, and it is important that the VA take steps now to improve their services and facilities," Rep. Herseth Sandlin said. "VA must step up to meet this challenge and make significant changes in the short term that begin to better address women veterans' needs in the long term."

The letter to Secretary Shinseki, which requests a briefing on this issue, refers to a pair of recent reports about VA health care services and facilities for women. The first report was titled Report of the Under Secretary for Health Workgroup: Provision of Primary Care to Women Veteran, and was undertaken and published by the VA in November 2008. The second report, Preliminary Findings on VA's Provision of Health Care Services to Women Veterans was issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in July of 2009. Taken together, the reports serve as important guides for the VA as it evaluates the steps it needs to take to improve women's health care.

"The reports identify key areas for improvement such as the coordinated delivery of comprehensive primary care, improved training of VA medical personnel and the need to update the physical layout of some facilities in order to improve privacy," Rep. Herseth Sandlin said. "Furthermore, the GAO report identified confusion among some VA officials regarding the implementation of the directives from the internal report. I look forward to hearing from the VA about how they intend to ensure all of the important directives from these reports are satisfied."

On June 24, the full U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed the Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act, H.R. 1211, a bill introduced by Rep. Herseth Sandlin. The bill works to expand and improve health care services for women veterans. It provides care for the newborn children of eligible veterans, and authorizes a child care pilot program. In addition, the bill works to enhance the VA's sexual trauma and Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD) programs for women by requiring the Secretary of the VA to ensure that all mental health professionals have been properly and consistently trained to help women veterans.

The full text of the letter to Secretary Shinseki is below.

Dear Secretary 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 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).

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.

Source