VA Unveils Draft National
CARES Plan
August 15, 2003 - The Department of Veterans Affairs
Aug. 4 presented the draft National Capital Asset Realignment
for Enhanced Services (CARES)
Plan to the CARES Commission. Based on a 1999 General
Accounting Office report that concluded VA was spending $1
million a day on unneeded facilities, the CARES program is
intended to assess veterans' health care needs and develop
a national plan for the most "effective use of VA resources
to provide more care, to more veterans, in places where veterans
need it most."
Among the recommendations in the draft plan are plans to
close seven VA medical centers at Canandaigua, N.Y.; Pittsburgh,
Pa. (Highland Dr.); Lexington, Ky. (Leestown); Brecksville,
Ohio; Gulfport, Miss.; Livermore, Calif.; and Waco, Texas.
The report also recommends opening new hospitals in Las Vegas,
and Orlando, as well as centers for the blind in Biloxi, Miss.,
and Long Beach, Calif., and new spinal cord injury centers
in Denver; Minneapolis; Syracuse or Albany, N.Y.; and Little
Rock, Ark.
The draft plan now goes to the CARES Commission, an independent
federal advisory committee of experts in health care and in
particular the delivery of benefits and services to veterans,
to ensure that the concerns of veterans and other stakeholders
and fully addressed. The Commission will hold numerous hearings
over the next three months and present a final recommendation
to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in December.
Information:
Jonathan Fishburn, Director, Research, Education and Veterans' Legislative Affairs
AAMC Office of Governmental Relations
jfishburn@aamc.org
(202) 828-0525
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