VA Health Care:
Assessment of VA's Fiscal Year 1998 Budget Proposal
T-HEHS-97-121: Published: May 1, 1997. Publicly Released: May 1, 1997.
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
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GAO discussed the President's 1998 budget request for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system.
GAO noted that: (1) while VA's budget goals may be attainable, they carry implications such as limited deficit reduction contributions and potential risks to low-income uninsured veterans; (2) achieving increased efficiency is not contingent on either increases in patients served or resources; (3) VA's ongoing efforts to restructure its health care system could yield billions of dollars in savings during the next 5 years; (4) a large part of these savings would be realized through more efficient use of it's workforce, which will allow the existing patient base to be served with fewer employees; (5) sufficient savings could be generated to afford VA an opportunity to increase patients served without new resources or increase its contribution to deficit reduction; (6) VA can significantly decrease its reliance on appropriated resources by using its existing authority to sell excess capacity to help other federal agencies meet their beneficiaries' health care needs; (7) VA's proposal to generate billions of dollars in new revenue to serve 20 percent more patients intensifies VA's direct competition with the private sector and potentially leaves low income, uninsured veterans vulnerable; (8) VA may be able to attain its revenue goals, only by attracting thousands of new users who have higher incomes or public or private insurance; (9) such new users are likely to be drawn from private providers who may see their revenue base erode as patients shift to VA care; (10) VA may spend unreimbursed resources on these veterans that could reduce the availability of resources for low-income, uninsured veterans; (11) VA faces a difficult challenge as it takes steps to implement a new resource allocation method to improve veterans' access to VA care and a decentralized management structure to improve resource utilization; (12) these initiatives promise improvements in equity and have stimulated significant changes in efficiency; and (13) however, VA's challenge will be to adequately monitor these changes to identify and correct unintended effects such as those that limit equity of access.
Feb 11, 2021
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Electronic Health Records:
VA Has Made Progress in Preparing for New System, but Subsequent Test Findings Will Need to Be AddressedGAO-21-224: Published: Feb 11, 2021. Publicly Released: Feb 11, 2021.
Feb 1, 2021
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Veterans Community Care Program:
Immediate Actions Needed to Ensure Health Providers Associated with Poor Quality Care Are ExcludedGAO-21-71: Published: Feb 1, 2021. Publicly Released: Feb 1, 2021.
Jan 14, 2021
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Prescription Drugs:
Department of Veterans Affairs Paid About Half as Much as Medicare Part D for Selected Drugs in 2017GAO-21-111: Published: Dec 15, 2020. Publicly Released: Jan 14, 2021.
Dec 10, 2020
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VA Construction:
VA Should Enhance the Lessons-Learned Process for Its Real-Property Donation Pilot ProgramGAO-21-133: Published: Dec 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 10, 2020.
Dec 9, 2020
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VA Disability Benefits:
Process for Identifying Conditions Presumed to be Service Connected and Challenges in Processing Complex Gulf War Illness ClaimsGAO-21-253T: Published: Dec 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 9, 2020.
Nov 12, 2020
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Veterans Health Care:
Agency Efforts to Provide and Study Prosthetics for Small but Growing Female Veteran PopulationGAO-21-60: Published: Nov 12, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 12, 2020.
Sep 30, 2020
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VA Health Care:
Additional Steps Could Help Improve Community Care Budget EstimatesGAO-20-669: Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020. -
Veterans Community Care Program:
Improvements Needed to Help Ensure Timely Access to CareGAO-20-721T: Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020.
Sep 28, 2020
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Veterans Community Care Program:
Improvements Needed to Help Ensure Timely Access to CareGAO-20-643: Published: Sep 28, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 28, 2020.
Sep 21, 2020
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VA Disability Benefits:
VA Should Continue to Improve Access to Quality Disability Medical Exams for Veterans Living AbroadGAO-20-620: Published: Sep 21, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 21, 2020.
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