FOR RELEASE:  June 7, 2002

EVANS CALLS FOR HALT TO PREMATURE AND FLAWED PLAN TO RESTRUCTURE VETERANS HEALTH CARE SYSTEM 

FULL VA DISCLOSURE OF CURRENT PATIENT WAITING TIMES, ENROLLMENT DENIALS AND HEALTH CARE SERVICE REDUCTIONS NEEDED FIRST 

Washington, DC -- Reacting to a recent announcement by the Department of Veterans Affairs that it will begin phase two of the CARES planning process, Congressman Lane Evans, senior Democratic Member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, has called on the Department of Veterans Affairs to immediately halt CARES II.  Evans called CARES II “premature and basically flawed.”  CARES is a VA acronym for Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services. 

Evans said if CARES II is to provide effective planning for meeting future medical care needs, VA must first have full and accurate information on inadequacies in VA delivery of health care that exist today and are being encountered by tens of thousands of veterans now across the system.  “In response to repeated requests, VA officials and representatives have repeatedly reported they are unable to provide me accurate information on the state of VA health care today.  When VA is either unwilling or unable to provide Congress accurate data on its ability to provide timely, quality medical care to veterans today, it’s ludicrous for VA to believe it’s ready to undertake a process that could lead to closing facilities and curtailing or eliminating medical services at facilities selected to remain open.”

Evans said the basic veterans medical care information he has repeatedly requested and VA has consistently failed to provide includes: 

·        The number of veterans waiting for the opportunity to enroll in VA health care at each VA facility;

·        The amount of time veterans are forced to wait to be able to enroll in VA health care at each facility;

·        The number of enrolled veterans at each facility who are forced to wait for their initial VA health care appointment; and,  

·        The amount of time enrolled veterans are forced to wait for their initial VA health care appointment at each facility VA. 

“If VA has this information, it has denied it to me,” Evans said.  “If VA doesn’t have this information, it’s simply folly to begin a process that intends to close facilities and reduce or eliminate health care services at facilities which remain open.” 

Evans said he agrees efficiencies in VA medical care are possible, even commendable--but the approach being used today by VA to achieve “efficiencies” is not in the best interest of veterans.  Evans explained that because the Administration failed to request adequate funding, VA medical care is seriously underfunded this year.  This underfunding  has forced VA to reduce veterans medical care spending by nearly $400 million with “efficiencies” that reduce veterans access to care and the care available to veterans.  Administration officials should remind themselves every day that VA is about serving veterans, “meeting the needs of those who have borne the battle and their widows and children.”

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