Vet News: VA Overhauls Funding Process for Medical Facilities

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi has announced an overhaul of the five-year-old system that determines how much federal funding the VA's regional health care networks of the receive for treating Veterans.

"Eligible Veterans should receive the same level of care, regardless of where they live or what their medical needs are," said Principi. "By improving the fairness of the process and focusing better on patients with severe disabilities, these changes will strengthen the ability of VA clinics and hospitals to meet the needs of their patients."

The VA allocates funds to its medical facilities through 21 regional networks. Allocations are based on the number of Veterans and the severity of their illnesses under a system established in 1997 called the Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation (VERA).

"The changes I have approved,” Principi said, “are sound ones taken from recommendations by the General Accounting Office and the Rand Corporation."

The refinements will allow the VA to:

* more accurately tie VA funding for networks to the complexity of care received by patients, with per-patient funds ranging from about $263 to
more than $60,000;

* provide more funding to networks for the most severely ill patients;

* eliminate the need for special mid-year funding supplements for networks by addressing the issues that previously led to such requests; and

* contain and manage workload growth.

The VA's funding system continually undergoes refinements and evaluations to address issues such as patient classification and pricing structure.

VERA was part of a broader plan to transform the VA health care system from a confederation of individual medical centers and clinics focused primarily on inpatient care to a fully integrated system that expands primary and ambulatory health care.

Under the VERA system, funding for medical facilities is provided by 21 regional networks, called Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs), which administer the health care services VA provides to the nation's 25 million Veterans.

SOURCE: VA press release