in the news

Russell Lemle writes about how VA should tweak MISSION Act eligibility standards to recognize telehealth as a valid means of providing health

Russell Lemle writes about how VA must create more transparency around the efficacy of suicide prevention initiatives. 

The Hill spoke with Suzanne Gordon about the potentially devastating cuts to veterans' benefits.

How creeping privatization of health care services for military veterans is not helping patients or their caregivers.

The VA is unprepared for a flood of claims from veterans disabled by toxic exposure.

Political representatives who want to show up for veterans should do everything in their power to expand – not cut – VA’s ability to authorize working from home.

As Congress winds down, health organizations are fighting for a bill that will save and reform the alliance between VA researchers and academic medical centers.

Ignore the critics, it’s America’s Warrior Partnership, not VA, whose veteran suicide data and conclusions are faulty

Firearm leaders are changing the course of veteran suicide prevention.

Without passing the VIPER Act, the VA's crown jewel research programs could end entirely.

Republican rules are encouraging worse and more expensive care through Trump-era regulations. The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to change course. 

Rather than water down benefits to vets sickened by burn pits, D.C. leaders can secure savings by curtailing expensive and unnecessary care privatization, Gordon argues. 

VHPI Policy Analysts dig into the supposed death of the Asset and Infrastructure Review commission, and report on a percolating effort to institute similarly misguided and dangerous closures.

VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon writes a postmortem on the AIR commission, and sketches out the next steps for keeping the VA's infrastructure protected for generations to come. 

VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon plumbs VA data to understand how a proposed infrastructure plan could hobble VA care in California. 

VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon examines the shocking case of a veteran placed into private sector pyschiatric care. 

VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon unearths a series of fatal flaws inside a soon-to-meet infrastructure commission tasked with building the department's footprint for the future. 

VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon reports on drastic new recommendations to shutter VA medical centers in rural and urban areas and eliminate much inpatient care elsewhere, including needed inpatient psychiatric beds. 

VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early interrogate President Joe Biden's broken promises to veterans through the Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission. The two clearly show that the commission's work is in direct opposition to Biden's pledge to 'Build Back Better."

VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon examines the work and writing of Daniel Gade, a powerful veterans' official with a deep disdain for the veterans' safety net.

VHPI Policy Analyst Russell Lemle interrogates the many issues veterans face when seeking high-quality care in the private sector. 

VHPI Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon investigates a dysfunctional Trump-era reform that's making it impossible to hire key VA staff amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

VHPI Policy Analysts Suzanne Gordon and Russell Lemle dig into and analyze concerning new data around the proliferation of private care appointments for VA patients.

VHPI Policy Analysts Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven offer a vigorous proposal on the best move to re-invigorate the VA: nominate a permanent Undersecretary of Health

VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Russell Lemle offers a mixed analysis on the VA's firearm policy and examines the power of messages co-signed by credible partners. 

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. 

VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon reports on the mounting healthcare costs of the ongoing Forever Wars which, while rarely discussed,  will end up being the single largest expenditure in the War on Terror.

VHPI Senior Policy Analysts Russell Lemle and Suzanne Gordon report on the urgent need to pass EVEST Act, which would greatly open the door to veteran patients. 

VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon reports on the EVEST Act, which, if passed, would help veterans during their tough transition to civilian life. 

Jasper Craven wrote about the honorable work inside the third, largely overlooked wing of the Department of Veterans Affairs: The National Cemetery Administration

 Suzanne Gordon reported about the threats of the VA's impending Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission

Russell Lemle and Suzanne Gordon, two of VHPI's Senior Policy Analysts, wrote an op-ed in The Hill analyzing how President Biden's infrastructure plans could bolster the VA in key ways. 

VHPI Policy Fellow Suzanne Gordon spoke to St. Louis Public Radio about the impressive work by the Department of Veterans Affairs to coordinate care and administer vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Joan Cook, an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, wrote in the Federal Practitioner about VHPI's recent analysis of a groundbreaking study into the "VA advantage."

The Star Tribune spoke with VHPI Policy Fellow Suzanne Gordon in its report on how the VA “has emerged as a success story in the furious race to vaccinate people against the deadly [coronavirus]."

The New York Times cited VHPI Policy Analyst Russell Lemle, Ph.D., in its report on how “the gun control debate complicated an effort to encourage frank talk by health professionals about the risks posed by firearms.”

Trump’s VA Secretary insisted before Congress that hiring to fill 50,000 vacancies at the Department of Veterans Affairs shouldn’t be a priority. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

The Veterans Health Administration has a big role to play in the COVID-19 pandemic. But have repeated attempts to privatize the agency hindered its ability to respond? Read more from VHPI’s Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven at The American Prospect.

How a suicide prevention bill became another way to privatize the Department of Veterans Affairs. Read it at the American Prospect.

The VA is actively creating the Community Care Network as part of the VA MISSION Act’s implementation. But why aren’t officials sharing information with Congress? Read it at Washington Monthly.

High risks potentially await veterans as the VA MISSION Act is launched. It’s likely that high cost awaits American taxpayers, too. Read it at the American Prospect.

Gordon spoke to KFPA radio about her new book and how the VA provides the best model for national healthcare.

VA officials admitted that the VA MISSION Act would likely ‘stumble’ in its first days of implementation. One veterans’ advocate warned of the problems veterans could face from the private sector. Read it at the American Prospect.

Access standards are driving the conversation around the VA MISSION Act’s implementation — not the clinical needs of veteran patients. Read more at the American Prospect.

Former leaders of the Concerned Veterans for America seem to be using old talking points to deny privatization efforts at the VA. Read it at the American Prospect.

The MISSION Act was supposed to fix the problems with an expensive program that outsourced veterans to the private sector. But did it make those mistakes permanent? Read it at the American Prospect.

Major reports in U.S. health care publications say the private sector isn’t prepared to care for veteran patients. Why is Congress moving ahead with its plan anyway?

“A behind-the-scenes race by private companies, some offering questionable – or at least unproven – treatments for the signature injury of modern war: post-traumatic stress disorder.” Read it at Reveal News from the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Major reports in U.S. health care publications say the private sector isn’t prepared to care for veteran patients. Why is Congress moving ahead with its plan anyway?

Steven A. Cohen has hired lobbyists in D.C. while expanding his network of veteran mental health clinics. Is he ‘greasing the wheels of VHA privatization?’ Read it at The Nation.