The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to be revamped and transformed, and veterans should have private healthcare options, according to a new report put together by the independent commission investigating the troubled agency.
The Washington Free Beacon obtained a copy of the commission's final report, which recommends the VA make some changes moving forward.
The Commission on Care listed 18 suggestions to fix the VA's problems, which made headlines starting in 2014 around the wait list scandal. Dozens of veterans were said to have
died while waiting to see a doctor because of long wait times.
"We believe these recommendations are essential to ensure that our nation's veterans receive the health care they need and deserve, both now and in the future," the
report reads.
"This evidence shows that although care delivered by VA is in many ways comparable or better in clinical quality to that generally available in the private sector, it is inconsistent from facility to facility, and can be substantially compromised by problems with access, service, and poorly functioning operational systems and processes."
The report adds the America's veterans should have a "better organized, high-performing health care system."
Problems with access to care was "the most public and glaring deficiency."
"The Commission also finds that the long-term viability of VHA care is threatened by problems with staffing, facilities, capital needs, information systems, health care disparities and procurement," the report reads.
"Fixing these problems requires deliberate, concurrent, and sequential actions. It also requires fundamental changes in governance and leadership of VHA to guide the organization during the next two decades through the rapid changes coming in demographics, technology, and in the structure of the overall U.S. health care system."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.