Earlier this week, the head of the nation’s Veterans Administration, Secretary David Shulkin gave a press conference at the White House on the status of the nation’s largest healthcare provider.
“What you’re gonna hear today is really a candid assessment of where our problems are in VA,” Shulkin said.
What followed was a detailed outline of major problems that the VA is still facing, even after hasty reforms were enacted through sweeping legislation by Congress following a scandal over wait-times in 2014.
The VA in Alaska isn’t immune from those issues. But at a press conference Friday in Anchorage, Dr. Timothy Ballard, the VA’s healthcare wing director, gave an update on where they’ve made progress and what work is left to do.
“We have a lot of issues about care coordination, we have questions about how our internal operations work in customer service, and we have a lot of questions about benefits,” Ballard said.
Ballard took his position eleven months ago. He highlighted where the state’s VA system has regained ground in connecting veterans with primary and mental health care since the implementation of the Choice Act threw the in-state system into disarray.
That includes reducing wait times for appointments to well below the national average, improving partnerships with private providers and military services, as well as working to improve staff morale.
But echoing the tone set by Secretary Shulkin, Ballard was forthright about major problems that remain for Alaska’s VA — many of them tied to actions and appropriations from Congress. And he cast doubt on whether the federal framework under the Choice Act can work at all within Alaska’s unique healthcare system.
“Because we are different in regards to healthcare availability, location and the like, when you’re trying to nationalize a program for Choice, we end up on the outside looking in,” Ballard said. “And so hopefully we can make an impact on that. So that’s something I’ve been pushing at our townhalls across the state, with overwhelmingly positive response. Providers, veterans, our staff would all like to go back to the old way.”
Ballard said that while his feedback has been well-received, there’s not yet any proposal for exempting Alaska’s VA care from the federal system.
State-wide, the VA is still about 200 positions below what the system needs to function optimally. The organization also continues to suffer from delayed reimbursements for travel and healthcare services, as well as ongoing confusion over billing and the referrals process.
Zachariah Hughes reports on city & state politics, arts & culture, drugs, and military affairs in Anchorage and South Central Alaska.
@ZachHughesAK About Zachariah
