Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
VA May Shutter Some Hospitals To Close Budget Gap
The Department of Veterans Affairs may have to shut down some hospitals next month if Congress does not address a $2.5 billion shortfall for the current budget year, VA officials warned Monday. (Daly, 7/13)
More than 238,000 of the 847,000 veterans in the pending backlog for health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs have already died, according to an internal VA document provided to The Huffington Post. Scott Davis, a program specialist at the VA's Health Eligibility Center in Atlanta and a past whistleblower on the VA's failings, provided HuffPost with an April 2015 report titled "Analysis of Death Services," which reviews the accuracy of the VA's veteran death records. The report was conducted by staffers in the VA Health Eligibility Center and the VA Office of Analytics. (Grim and Bendery, 7/13)
And in Missouri -
More than 38,000 veterans who live in Missouri are women, and that number continues to grow rapidly. That means changes are in store for the Veterans Health Administration, a network of hospitals and clinics that provide care to active duty service members and discharged veterans. Serving more women means expanding the VA鈥檚 capacity to offer gynecological exams, services surrounding childbirth, and counseling related to military sexual trauma. (Bouscaren, 7/13)
