ICYMI: Senator Murray Holds Roundtable on VA Caregivers Program, Continues Fight to Improve Program – MORE HERE
ICYMI: Senator Murray to VA: Stop the Rollout of EHR in Washington State Until It’s Fixed – MORE HERE
Senator Murray to Secretary McDonough: “As you know, VA has spent the last few years reducing services in Washington state—I want to be very clear, I will not stand for this. A reduction of in-patient services is just a complete non-starter for me.”
Senator Murray to Secretary McDonough: “I do not want EHR to move an inch further in my state until all this fixed and ready to go, and it is abundantly clear from what my constituents tell me, from the IG’s reports, and from public reporting—the system is plagued with ongoing issues. So I want to work together with you and I really want a commitment that we won’t go to any other Washington state sites with this until we have these issues fixed.”
***LISTEN: SENATOR MURRAY’S FULL QUESTIONING HERE***
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, at a Senate Appropriations hearing on funding requests for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke with VA Secretary Denis McDonough on a number of her top priorities for Washington state veterans. Senator Murray drew a clear line in the sand—noting that any reduction of in-patient services at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane would be a non-starter for her, she emphasized the importance of VA taking swift and deliberate action to expand eligibility and provide clarity around the VA Caregivers program, and once again called for a halt to the rollout of the Cerner Electronic Health Record System rollout in Washington state until the program’s ongoing issues are fixed.
“Almost one in ten Washington residents is a veteran. Regardless of where they choose to live, you know I adamantly believe that the VA has an obligation to reach them with high-quality care. While the Fiscal Year 2023 budget does include a substantial increase in funding, I’m very concerned that there is a disconnect between the local, VISN [Veterans Integrated Service Network], and national levels,” began Senator Murray. “VA’s recommendations for the AIR Commission suggested turning Walla Walla VA Medical Center into a CBOC [Community-Based Outpatient Clinic] while moving services to Spokane – which would force a lot of our veterans to drive over two hours in very tough conditions.
VA has also suggested reducing services at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center,” continued Senator Murray. “Now I’m hearing reports from Spokane that the VA is considering reducing in-patient services before the AIR Commission process even is complete. As you know, VA has spent the last few years reducing services in Washington state—I want to be very clear, I will not stand for this. A reduction of in-patient services is just a complete non-starter for me. There is a reason we have a Commission in place for this. So tell me why is VA skipping steps in the process and continuing to cut services in Eastern Washington?”
McDonough indicated there is no plan to cut services at Mann-Grandstaff, stating the process established at the AIR Commission for this circumstance should be allowed to play out. Senator Murray responded that she would be paying close attention to this problem and that veterans living in Washington state should not receive fewer services.
In March of 2022, Senator Murray issued a joint statement with Eastern Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) in response to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) recommendations to the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission to modernize and realign the VA health care system.
On the VA Caregivers program, Senator Murray began with the following, “Overly-restrictive regulations that go beyond statutory authority are really contrary, as you know, to the intent of Congress when we passed this, are causing a lot of hardship for a lot of our veteran families—we have just got to get this right. We’ve talked about this often. I know you are aware of it. I have been holding roundtables in my state to hear directly from people on this. And I want to ask you today what kind of progress have you made on this?
Secretary McDonough stated the Department has paused the review of eligibility for the program, pending review of the current overly-restrictive regulations on who qualifies. In terms of progress, McDonough mentioned recent meetings with veterans service organizations from across the country to discuss veteran experiences with the program and the nature of the first regulatory screen. A decision has not yet been made as to whether a new regulation is needed or whether this can be done absent new regulation, but emphasized no one will leave the program until the review has been completed of the regulatory screen.
A longtime champion for strengthening federal investments in caring for veterans, during her time as Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Senator Murray oversaw the initial implementation of the Caregiver Support Program in 2011 and has been following its implementation closely since then. Given the popularity and success of the program, Senator Murray first introduced legislation in 2014 to expand the program to veterans of all eras, reintroducing the legislation in 2015 and 2017. She successfully included provisions from her Military and Veteran Caregiver Services Improvement Act, which Senator Murray continuously fought to pass for years, in the bipartisan VA MISSION Act to expand the program to include veterans who served before September 11, 2001. During VA’s rule-making process, she pushed back against efforts to curtail eligibility for the expansion of the VA Caregivers Program. In a recent Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing, she pushed Secretary McDonough to revise VA’s unnecessarily restrictive criteria for the Caregivers Program to ensure it aligns with Congressional intent.
On the Electronic Health Record Modernization program, Senator Murray began with the following, “On a final but important note, I want to make sure VA is keeping Washington state veterans and our VA workforce – many of whom as I said are veterans themselves – in mind as the Electronic Health Record Modernization program continues. You know that in recent years Washington state has been used as the pilot site for a number of VA programs. Many have resulted in expanded services for veterans and growth opportunities for employees dedicated to the mission of serving veterans—that’s good.”
“But the EHR rollout, however, has been very frustrating, very disruptive, and even dangerous for some patients,” continued Senator Murray. “So I am asking that you re-consider the current schedule for the rollout of the new Electronic Health Record. We need to continue to fix the issues that have been raised in Spokane and Walla Walla, and then only return to Washington state for any new deployments after demonstrating the EHR is ready and successful at different facilities.”
“This is just really important to me. I do not want EHR to move an inch further in my state until all this fixed and ready to go, and it is abundantly clear from what my constituents tell me, from the IG’s reports, and from public reporting—the system is plagued with ongoing issues. So I want to work together with you and I really want a commitment that we won’t go to any other Washington state sites with this until we have these issues fixed,” said Senator Murray in closing.
Senator Murray has been conducting oversight on the EHR rollout at Mann-Grandstaff VAMC for years, questioning then VA Secretary Wilkie about the EHR rollout in September of 2018 and writing a letter in January 2020 to VA leadership expressing her concern on reports of staffing and facility issues at Mann-Grandstaff VAMC, and how those issues could affect the EHR rollout. Following Senator Murray’s concerns, VA initially delayed rollout of the EHR program at Mann-Grandstaff until March 2020.
In July of 2021, Senator Murray pressed Secretary McDonough on patient safety in light of reports of veterans receiving incorrect medications, the need for more staff support from VA, and how VA will avoid the issues that have arisen at Mann-Grandstaff VAMC moving forward and at other VA medical centers. Senator Murray has since raised the need to resolve issues with care at Mann-Grandstaff with Secretary McDonough and other VA officials multiple times in private meetings and public hearings.
In December of 2021, Senator Murray pressed Secretary McDonough for solutions and transparency during a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing. During the hearing, Senator Murray underscored VA’s responsibility to address the problems that veterans are seeing at Mann-Grandstaff VAMC, and pressed Secretary McDonough for assurances that these issues would be resolved quickly and would not arise at other VA medical centers in Washington state, such as Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VAMC in Walla Walla. Importantly, Senator Murray pressed Secretary McDonough for concrete steps being taken to address the challenges in Spokane and secured a commitment from him that VA would share clear indicators of readiness before deploying the new EHR program at any other sites in Washington state, specifically Walla Walla.
In March of 2022, Senator Murray issued a statement demanding a pause of the Cerner Electronic Health Record system rollout in Washington state, citing patient safety risks, and demanding the concerns laid out in reports from the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) – and previous reports over the last two years – by the VA OIG be resolved first before the EHR program be deployed at any other sites in Washington state.
The long-planned restructuring of VA’s EHR system is meant to modernize VA’s current outdated record system, ease sharing of medical records between the Department of Defense and VA, as well as VA and community providers. It is projected to be completed by 2028.
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