Do the VA`s problems offer opportunities?

A consistent point made during our interviews of experts in treating veterans mentions many veterans’ reluctance to pursue health services through Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) channels. It will be interesting to see whether that situation improves or worsens in light of numerous recent reports of a lack of proper controls at VA facilities, in many cases involving behavioral health services.

The Associated Press this past weekend wrote of problems uncovered in reports about management practices at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, where in one case a patient with a substance abuse history died from a drug overdose after being left alone in a waiting room and obtaining drugs from a visitor to the facility.  The article quoted U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican who is sponsoring broad VA reform legislation, saying, “There are some that say the VA has just gotten too big and it is unmanageable at any level.”

Information included in the official reports about the Atlanta facility, where the interim director recently was replaced, made the case for the VA establishing a national policy governing urine drug testing. One report stated that Atlanta facility staff had not been properly informed of routine policies that ensure the accuracy and reliability of urine tests. The VA has stated that it intends to issue such a policy by later this year.

And it appears the situation has been no less precarious when the VA farms out behavioral healthcare services to providers in local communities. An April report found that the Atlanta VA Medical Center had essentially no follow-up information on the more than 4,000 patients it had referred for outside mental health services since 2010.

As an addiction treatment provider, do you see opportunities in your community for serving veterans, especially given some of the management issues the VA is facing? What have been your experiences in reaching out to or working with the VA?