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In early February, the following letter was sent by VVA
and five other VSOs to Deputy Secretary Gordon Mansfield.
Dear Secretary Mansfield,
The undersigned veterans service
organizations appreciate the opportunity to provide comments
on the revised solicitation for Project HERO.
We had been
advised that the revised RFP, issued on January 12, 2007,
would have a more limited scope, with its primary objective
to reduce overall VA contract care costs while improving
service to veterans eligible for, and now receiving, VA contract
health care services. Our immediate concern with this solicitation
was contract language that would have permitted a 500 percent
increase in dollars expended for contract care in FY’05
for each of the specialty care items listed in the solicitation
that would be subject to award.
After hearing our concerns,
your staff advised us on February 2, 2007, that this maximum
limitation will be reduced, not to exceed 150 percent of
FY’06 contract expenditures
for medical and surgical costs, and 200 percent for all other
specialties and services. While we appreciate this reduction
in scope, and certainly the professionalism and courtesies
of your staff in attempting to assuage our concerns, we remain
concerned that this pilot project may result in an overall
increase in contract care costs and further erode the already
limited resources available to provide clinical care within
the VA.
Also, we are concerned that the Appropriations Committees’ original
direction to the VA, to recognize and be sensitive to the
importance of academic affiliations, may not have fully been
reflected in the development of the solicitation. The appropriators
recognize those affiliations are precious assets. Their loss
would be a serious blow to the quality of care available
to veterans.
We are proud of the accomplishments of the Department
of Veterans Affairs in health care and do not want what has
become a model for the nation to deteriorate by expansion
of contracted care dollars into a market that reduces VA
control over the quality of care provided. We remain skeptical
that your department can accomplish through contract relationships
in the future what it directly controls today. We fear, too,
that costs of implementing this contract will exceed benefits
to veterans served by the VA.
We will continue to monitor
the development of this pilot program and look forward to
continued involvement in this process. We have been advised
that it is the intent to reduce the overall contract care
costs and ensure a high level of quality; we look forward
to the establishment of a monitoring program to ensure this
goal.
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