{"id":69796,"date":"2016-04-11T20:58:10","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T20:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2016\/04\/11\/va-health-panel-on-closure-report-nothing-was-done-in-secret\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:15:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:15:53","slug":"va-health-panel-on-closure-report-nothing-was-done-in-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/veterans\/2016\/04\/11\/va-health-panel-on-closure-report-nothing-was-done-in-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"VA health panel on closure report: \u2018Nothing was done in secret\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Members of a blue-ribbon panel studying VA health care defended the group&#8217;s work last week, deflecting charges they want to shutter all Veterans Affairs medical facilities in favor of government-paid private care for veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commission on Care member\u00a0Darin Selnick\u00a0and chairwoman\u00a0Nancy Schlicting\u00a0said last week that a &#8220;strawman&#8221; paper drafted by seven commissioners &#8220;was created to jot down initial ideas&#8221; and did not represent a final report from the congressionally<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">&#8211;<\/span> mandated group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The scenario presented <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">in <\/span>is one of several that\u00a0have been proposed. As the term strawman implies, the\u00a0document was created by a subset of commissioners to describe their personal ideas &#8230;\u00a0it represents options on a range of\u00a0possibilities\u00a0the commissioners are evaluating,&#8221; Schlichting wrote in a statement on the <a href=\"https:\/\/commissiononcare.sites.usa.gov\/\">commission&#8217;s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We are going to continue to take input, continue to shape [our views] &#8230;\u00a0No one is going to fully understand our position until we understand our position, and that&#8217;s not going to happen until we create the final report. And that comes out in June,&#8221; Selnick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 34-page document\u00a0proposes\u00a0giving all veterans access to private health services and closing VA health facilities gradually over 20 years, starting with those that are obsolete or underutilized\u00a0in a process similar to a base realignment and closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report also calls for VA to become &#8220;primarily a payer,&#8221; much like Medicare, to provide health care for veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Veterans organizations, including Disabled American Veterans, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vietnam Veterans of America and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, immediately took issue with the paper&#8217;s content and its development,\u00a0which they say\u00a0was drafted &#8220;outside the open commission process\u00a0\u2026 without the input or even knowledge of the other commissioners,&#8221; according to a letter\u00a0sent to Schlichting on March 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During an interview April 8,\u00a0Selnick, an Air Force veteran and\u00a0former VA employee who serves as\u00a0senior adviser to Concerned Veterans for America,\u00a0said the charges of\u00a0secrecy simply aren&#8217;t true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This [paper] was created at\u00a0Nancy&#8217;s direction because a lot of us have ideas. None of the [commission&#8217;s] working groups know what the others are doing until they present, which is what we did. Nothing was done in secret. This is a normal process,&#8221; Selnick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Commission on Care was created by the 2014 Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act\u00a0to make recommendations on reorganizing the Veterans Health Administration and delivering health care to veterans in the next two decades. Members\u00a0were appointed by President Obama or a bipartisan group of congressional members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Veterans service organizations expressed concerns about the professional\u00a0background of many commissioners\u00a0\u2014 at least six come from nonprofit private health care organizations \u2014 or, in the case of Selnick, played a role in drafting a report released last year by CVA, &#8220;Fixing Veterans Health Care.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That report\u00a0called\u00a0for consolidating VA medical facilities under a government-chartered nonprofit organization that\u00a0specializes in service-related health conditions like amputations, traumatic brain injury and combat-related physical and mental injuries,\u00a0and providing the rest of health care for veterans through a government-subsidized health care program similar to the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Disabled American Veterans executive director Garry Augustine said the strawman is similar to the content of the CVA assessment and that\u00a0veterans services organizations sense that\u00a0the commissioners who drafted the strawman are pushing to implement it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;There was a lot of discussion leading up to this document that makes us believe the people who put this together are very serious about pushing this agenda,&#8221; Augustine said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Selnick said &#8220;no one on the commission represents the agencies they work for&#8221; and noted that 11 of 15 commissioners are veterans, and six of the seven commissioners who drafted the strawman are former service members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This media-veterans organization-VA-whoever-else-is\u00a0continuing to talk about the strawman, which is not going to be, in any way shape or form, the final document,\u00a0is doing a disservice to the commission and\u00a0to the veterans,&#8221; Selnick said. &#8220;Please come to our meetings and hear what&#8217;s going on and let us do our job.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The commission has held eight meetings in Washington<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">, D.C.,<\/span> and one in Dallas. It has another scheduled for April 18-19 in Washington<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">, D.C<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Schlichting said interested parties, including veterans, families, veterans service organizations, VA employees, elected officials and taxpayers <a href=\"http:\/\/commissiononcare.sites.usa.gov\/contact-us-2\/\">are\u00a0encouraged to provide input, either in person or through the commission&#8217;s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The Commission is committed to a vision of transforming veterans&#8217; health care to enhance access, choice,\u00a0quality, and well-being,&#8221; Schlichting said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Patricia Kime covers military health care and medicine for Military Times. She can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:pkime@militarytimes.com\">pkime@militarytimes.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Members of a blue-ribbon panel studying VA health care defended the group\u2019s work last week, deflecting charges they want to shutter all Veterans Affairs medical facilities in favor of government-paid private care for 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