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Anthony Principi's Response to Larry Scott:
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Anthony Principi's Response to Larry Scott: "The VA CARES Report - Can It Work?"
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Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi directs the federal government’s second largest department, responsible for a nationwide system of health care services, benefits programs, and national cemeteries for America’s veterans and dependents. With a budget of more than $59 billion, VA employs approximately 224,000 people at hundreds of VA medical centers, clinics, benefits offices, and national cemeteries throughout the country.
Mr. Principi was nominated by President George W. Bush on December 29, 2000, and was confirmed by the Senate on January 23, 2001.
A combat-decorated Vietnam veteran, Mr. Principi is a 1967 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., and first saw active duty aboard the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy. He later commanded a River Patrol Unit in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.
Prior to his nomination as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Mr. Principi was president of QTC Medical Services, Inc. During the past decade, he was senior vice president at Lockheed Martin IMS, and a partner in the San Diego law firm of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps.
Mr. Principi earned his law degree from Seton Hall University in 1975 and was assigned to the Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps in San Diego, Calif. In 1980, he was transferred to Washington as a legislative counsel for the Department of the Navy.
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October 15, 2004
[Have an opinion about the views expressed in this commentary? Sound off here.]
In a recent commentary (The
VA CARES Report - Can It Work?, 10/8/04) Mr. Larry Scott implies
that the Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services (CARES) is
misdirected and under funded. Neither is the case.
CARES is a multibillion dollar plan to expand and modernize the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical care system. My decision on CARES will bring about the greatest transformation in the history of the VA health care system, and was not entered into lightly. We established an independent commission that conducted a complete review of the VA health care system, including holding town halls at every site, to gather stakeholder input into every decision. The actions that will result from implementation of CARES are long overdue.
VA entered the 21st century with a "legacy infrastructure," most of which was designed and built to provide medical care as it was practiced in the middle of the twentieth century or, in some cases, as it was practiced before World War I. Most of our facilities were designed and built in an era when medical care was synonymous with inpatient hospital care.
Over the past half century, American medicine has transformed itself from hospital centered to patient centered treatment. Most patients see their physicians on an outpatient basis and significant levels of treatment are provided by prescription drugs.
In addition, millions of veterans, following the population migration patterns of the nation as a whole, moved to the South, the West and the Southwest. As a result, many VA facilities are now located where veterans used to live rather than where they live now.
While the practice of VA medicine has evolved, VA's medical infrastructure has not kept up. Our facilities are out of step with changes in the practice of medicine, and the veterans we serve. VA's medical infrastructure has become old and outdated. Our facilities average age exceeds 50 years while those in the private sector average less than 10 years. It costs VA more than a million dollars each day to maintain unutilized or underutilized buildings. That simply cannot continue.
CARES also calls for new construction: two new major hospitals in Las Vegas and Orlando, specialty care units such as for spinal cord injury, and hundreds of new community based outpatient clinics. All of these are part of our plan to provide veterans with the kinds of care they need, as close to where they live as is feasible.
Operating the largest health care system in the world demands that we be as efficient and effective as possible, and the best possible stewards of the taxpayer dollars entrusted to us to carry out our mission of caring for America's veterans. We treat five million patients a year, provide more than 50 million outpatient visits and fill more than 100 million prescriptions. That's possible in large part due to the 35 percent increase in the VA health care budget under this Administration. I am confident that with the economies that will result from CARES and the continued support of this President, VA will be able to fulfill its health care mission in the 21st century.
-- Anthony J. Principi
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
(Washington, DC)
© 2004 Anthony J. Principi. All opinions expressed
in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those
of Military.com.
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