Commission Defends Integrating VA and Outside Docs

Commission on Care leaders defended their tough diagnosis and 18-point treatment plan for what ails the VA healthcare system, including their controversial push to let veterans begin to choose their own primary care doctors from new, integrated networks of VA and private-sector physicians. Answering critics who say they went too far or not far enough in proposing to transform the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) over the next 20 years, Commission Chair Nancy Schlichting, chief executive officer of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, and vice chair Dr. Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, CEO of worldwide Cleveland Clinic hospitals, warned the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday that VHA is rife with weaknesses. For more details, see this Military Advantage blog post.