JOURNALISM AND COMMENTARY
VA’s Private Health Plan Faces Huge Cost Overruns
By Russell Lemle and Suzanne Gordon, originally in Washington Monthly In 2014, Congress passed the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act, which set up a temporary program that outsourced veterans’ care from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to private sector providers.
Veterans Are Dying Because There’s No Regulation of Community Care
By Russell Lemle, originally in Task & Purpose Last week, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a meticulous study that showed veterans have a higher likelihood of dying if they choose care in the community rather than Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals.
New Paper Shows How VA Privatization Threatens National Security
Today, the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute (VHPI) published a new report focused on how VA privatization threatens America’s national security. The paper is written by Ryan Leone, a medical student at Columbia University who is also a U.S. Army officer and former Presidential Management Fellow at the Department of Defense’s Defense Health Agency.
Community Care Fail: Private Providers Practice Unsafe Prescription Habits
By Russell B. Lemle, PhD, VHPI Policy Director VHPI recently criticized the VA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) for providing far too little oversight of the Community Care Network (CCN), a growing cadre of private providers who now deliver a third of VA’s health care. One step in the right direction is a new OIG report regarding CCN providers who prescribe controlled substances for veterans.
In the Name of Healthcare Freedom, Millions of Veterans May Lose Theirs
By Russell Lemle and Jasper Craven in Task & Purpose The realm of veterans health care policymaking has, for a decade, been dominated by a dangerous libertarian fallacy, namely that greater personal choice and less government involvement are unequivocally advantageous. Allowing more options, lawmakers and advocates contend, benefits every veteran. It’s even framed as a patriotic “defense of freedom.” ,
How Private-Sector Care Can Harm Veterans
By: Suzanne Gordon, in The American Prospec • VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon examines the shocking case of a veteran placed into private sector pyschiatric care.
Veterans Lack Quality Information for Community Care
By: Russell Lemle, Senior Policy Analyst, in The Federal Practitioner • VHPI Policy Analyst Russell Lemle interrogates the many issues veterans face when seeking high-quality care in the private sector.
It's Clearer Than Ever VHA Must Remain the Primary Provider of Veteran Care
By: Suzanne Gordon and Russell Lemle, Senior Policy Analysts, in The Hill • VHPI Policy Analysts Suzanne Gordon and Russell Lemle push for fundamental reforms of the VA's highly flawed quality and access standards for private care.
A Retired VA Clinician Raises Concerns over VA Outsourcing
As a former VA psychiatrist who conducted a significant amount of psychotherapy in my practice, I am very concerned about the current lack of adequate standards for mental health providers participating in the department's Community Care program.
VHA Caregivers Provide Privatization Reality Check
By: Suzanne Gordon, Senior Policy Analyst, in The American Prospect • VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon examines two new distressing surveys by VA clinicians offering urgent warnings about the department's dysfunctional community care program.
Private Sector Watch: Unvaccinated Healthcare Workers
Due to deliberate misinformation, the concept of vaccine mandates has become strangely divisive in America, a country that successfully spearheaded the eradication of polio from Earth.
Private Sector Watch
A number of serious flaws plague the American healthcare system. I grew up with an insurance policy exemplifying these issues: “Don’t get sick because we can’t afford the doctor bill.