‘What Is The VA Doing To Support Financially Troubled State Veterans Homes?’: Collins Presses VA Sec

4 months ago

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) questioned VA Secretary Denis McDonough about veterans homes.

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Transcript

00:00 Madam Chair and again I thank the Vice Chair for his graciousness and allowing

00:06 me to precede him. Mr. Secretary let me start with two facts. One is that Maine

00:14 has one of the highest percentages based on population in the country of veterans.

00:22 That's something I'm very proud of. Mainers have always stepped forward to

00:28 serve. Second, Maine is the oldest state in the nation by median age. So when you

00:36 combine those two factors you can easily see why our state veterans homes are so

00:44 important. In fact both of my parents had the benefit of compassionate care at our

00:52 state's veterans homes at the end of their lives. In 2022 however, despite the

01:00 strong demand for these services, Maine considered closing two of its veterans

01:07 homes. One in Machias and one of my hometown of Caribou. Fortunately that was

01:14 averted but it would have caused tremendous hardship to veterans and their

01:20 families. And Maine is not unique in this regard. A recent report indicates that

01:26 other veterans homes across the country have notified the VA of potential

01:31 closures. 15 have reduced their bed capacity. Another four have already

01:37 closed permanently. The VA raised its per diem rates in 2023 but frankly that

01:46 increase has not kept pace with rising medical costs. And the veterans homes in

01:52 Maine, as is true across the country, are struggling financially. What is the VA

02:01 doing to support financially troubled state veterans homes and what more can

02:07 be done at the federal level to prevent closures or reductions in beds? Yeah

02:15 Senator thank you very much for the question and I couldn't agree more

02:20 strongly with you about the importance of state veterans homes. That's why we

02:24 bias in VA funding streams for bigger investments in the state-run veterans

02:31 homes than we do in the commercially run veterans homes and long-term care

02:36 facilities. Among the things that we are doing obviously is up to 65% of the cost

02:41 of the facility construction, remodeling grants, importantly nurse recruitment

02:47 grants, and I'll come back to that in a second, medical sharing arrangements with

02:51 considerable cost sharings when we can get our personnel into those facilities

02:56 to care for vets, and then continued clinical care education. Notwithstanding

03:01 that, and as you pointed out, the per diem have it has increased increased 7%

03:05 in 23 and again another 7% in 24, higher than our increases for other similarly

03:13 situated programs. Nevertheless, I agree with you that there are big challenges

03:18 out there, especially in two areas. One, and one of the reasons we're hearing

03:23 from other states, not in Maine, but from other states that they're closing, is

03:26 they don't have the staff because the veterans that they're getting are

03:31 requiring more complex care. So greater funding for staff who can provide more

03:38 complex care for those veterans is important and this is something that

03:41 we're working, we'll be more than happy to work with you in Maine on and work

03:45 with the committee on. Secondly, the cost of pharmaceuticals for those veterans

03:51 who end up in state-run veterans homes. They, by tradition, the states take on the

03:57 cost of those pharmaceutical treatment patterns. They also don't have access to

04:04 our more price competitive formularies. So we'd like to also work with you on

04:09 that to figure out how is it that we address these significant costs

04:14 associated with pharmaceutical treatments because our veterans are

04:18 living longer with more complex health care systems. So those are two areas

04:23 where we'd like to try to enhance our support to states like Maine. One, how do

04:30 we make sure that we can afford the staff that we need for the complex

04:34 care they get? Two, how can we ensure that we are not just passing on a very

04:39 unmanageable pharmaceutical treatment regimen that the states can't afford but

04:45 the veterans need? Thank you. I only have 19 seconds left but just to put on the

04:53 record, there's also a problem with transporting veterans from rural areas

04:59 to the one VA hospital that we have in the state of Maine and I hope that

05:07 that's something that we can also work together on. We count on that and we have

05:11 a legislative proposal on that. I've been studying up on this since you and I

05:15 discussed so we we have some ideas on that. Thank you. I'd like to work with you on those.

05:18 Terrip, thanks so much. Thank you, Vice Chair Collins. I recognize Senator Baldwin.

‘What Is The VA Doing To Support Financially Troubled State Veterans Homes?’: Collins Presses VA Sec

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