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You are not allowed to post threads about cutting the VA budget or military until
Posted on 11/14/24 at 7:39 am
Posted on 11/14/24 at 7:39 am
You watch this podcast
It amazes me people are clutching their pearls about cutting VA spending when they know nothing about the system
It amazes me people are clutching their pearls about cutting VA spending when they know nothing about the system
4
Posted on 11/14/24 at 7:41 am to Proximo
Was a great episode
Love Dreamy Pete. We are gonna a cabinet with men who have the best head of lettuce folks
Love Dreamy Pete. We are gonna a cabinet with men who have the best head of lettuce folks
Posted on 11/14/24 at 7:47 am to SDVTiger
I worked in the VA in Nashville for several years during training. I have numerous stories of where taxpayer dollars are wasted and not going to the care of the vets.
The VA after all is just another bureaucracy full of federal employees.
There was a room where the medical files were scanned in to the medical record. There were four full time employees whose job it was to do the scanning. Only one ever worked at a time. There was one employee who literally watched westerns on YouTube while eating honey buns.
The VA after all is just another bureaucracy full of federal employees.
There was a room where the medical files were scanned in to the medical record. There were four full time employees whose job it was to do the scanning. Only one ever worked at a time. There was one employee who literally watched westerns on YouTube while eating honey buns.
This post was edited on 11/14/24 at 7:50 am
Posted on 11/14/24 at 8:23 am to Proximo
The stuff that Trump brought last time, that he's talking about with the VA, is a huge waste of money. Too many 3rd party entities that get in the way.
VA is pretty easy to attack right out of the box:
- A dirty secret is that the VA doesn't want to do research. Close it down. Maintain the databases. Give all the research employees a full year salary, then retire them. Let them go to the academic side, since they already know how to work with VA data. Then MANDATE complete openness of VA data. No fees or anything for access. Millions of Veterans, put all that data out there so some knowledge can be gained. I've seen VA data, there are important lessons to learn from it.
- Put my healthcare plan to work with Veterans. Giving them a Healthcare Debit Card would alleviate a massive amount of workload for the VA, allowing you to streamline and begin retirements and lower the budget. This would eliminate the red tape expense for the current programs where vets go outside of the VA network and then the gov arranges payment. This would mean that vets with mental health issues, addiction etc only need to go to the VA one time - to get the debit card. After, they no longer have to deal with the red tape at the VA to get help.
A lot of Veterans are used to going to the VA and would like to stay for at least part of their healthcare. Retain that option. Over time, if that preference changes and very few vets wish to utilize it, then you downsize some more.
- With an aging population, one of the things you can do is convert existing VA space to community living / nursing home space. Many vets would be better in a VA environment than private - has to do with reimbursement and things like that. As you reduce VA workload and streamline the operations, space is opened up at facilities, and it can be converted.
- Purge most of the SES employees at the VA. They are a waste of money. Other things that waste money and harm vets are the various policies on medications - for example your testosterone has to be absurdly low or the VA pharmacy will not allow a doctor to prescribe testosterone. This is idiocy and it's a departure from science. This harms people. They do similarly stupid things with default policies on thyroid meds and others. Also, the VA does not do what many other places do for controlled substances, like if you had a Rx for an ADHD / ADD medication. Many places allow you to get 3 months supply, or at least two. The VA gives just one. This increases workload for the staff and is an unnecessary burden on the patient.
- VA is huge and its buying power is massive. VA negotiates extremely cheap prices for drugs. That should be merged with DOD. The formularies in DOD and VA are different and this is idiotic. Merge them. This means continuity and further reduced prices. Additionally, merge their information systems. The VA network is trash and it's been trash for decades. It must be replaced. It should be exactly the same as DOD. There should be no difference in your medical record, how things are scheduled, how referrals are made and routed, etc, between VA and DOD. Aligned with that, every person leaving active duty should get a disability rating while still on active duty. You can purge a massive amount of VA red tape by doing this.
- You can also go the route of increasing funding while purging the SES employees and the stupid things that VA does, and actually make a commitment to making it the best healthcare in the world, rather than a large bureaucratic mess, which it has become. Most people would prefer to just see cuts, but this is another direction you can go.
The VA is an odd animal. Some VA hospitals are quite good. Some are bad. The red tape and policies are the worst part and they are universal. Many ways to save money and still enhance the product delivered.
VA is pretty easy to attack right out of the box:
- A dirty secret is that the VA doesn't want to do research. Close it down. Maintain the databases. Give all the research employees a full year salary, then retire them. Let them go to the academic side, since they already know how to work with VA data. Then MANDATE complete openness of VA data. No fees or anything for access. Millions of Veterans, put all that data out there so some knowledge can be gained. I've seen VA data, there are important lessons to learn from it.
- Put my healthcare plan to work with Veterans. Giving them a Healthcare Debit Card would alleviate a massive amount of workload for the VA, allowing you to streamline and begin retirements and lower the budget. This would eliminate the red tape expense for the current programs where vets go outside of the VA network and then the gov arranges payment. This would mean that vets with mental health issues, addiction etc only need to go to the VA one time - to get the debit card. After, they no longer have to deal with the red tape at the VA to get help.
A lot of Veterans are used to going to the VA and would like to stay for at least part of their healthcare. Retain that option. Over time, if that preference changes and very few vets wish to utilize it, then you downsize some more.
- With an aging population, one of the things you can do is convert existing VA space to community living / nursing home space. Many vets would be better in a VA environment than private - has to do with reimbursement and things like that. As you reduce VA workload and streamline the operations, space is opened up at facilities, and it can be converted.
- Purge most of the SES employees at the VA. They are a waste of money. Other things that waste money and harm vets are the various policies on medications - for example your testosterone has to be absurdly low or the VA pharmacy will not allow a doctor to prescribe testosterone. This is idiocy and it's a departure from science. This harms people. They do similarly stupid things with default policies on thyroid meds and others. Also, the VA does not do what many other places do for controlled substances, like if you had a Rx for an ADHD / ADD medication. Many places allow you to get 3 months supply, or at least two. The VA gives just one. This increases workload for the staff and is an unnecessary burden on the patient.
- VA is huge and its buying power is massive. VA negotiates extremely cheap prices for drugs. That should be merged with DOD. The formularies in DOD and VA are different and this is idiotic. Merge them. This means continuity and further reduced prices. Additionally, merge their information systems. The VA network is trash and it's been trash for decades. It must be replaced. It should be exactly the same as DOD. There should be no difference in your medical record, how things are scheduled, how referrals are made and routed, etc, between VA and DOD. Aligned with that, every person leaving active duty should get a disability rating while still on active duty. You can purge a massive amount of VA red tape by doing this.
- You can also go the route of increasing funding while purging the SES employees and the stupid things that VA does, and actually make a commitment to making it the best healthcare in the world, rather than a large bureaucratic mess, which it has become. Most people would prefer to just see cuts, but this is another direction you can go.
The VA is an odd animal. Some VA hospitals are quite good. Some are bad. The red tape and policies are the worst part and they are universal. Many ways to save money and still enhance the product delivered.
Posted on 11/14/24 at 8:31 am to Proximo
Let's be frank, there's a TON of waste in government across the board, including the VA and most especially the military.
My concern with the VA is cutting budgets because administration costs are both high and inefficient (and they super super are and have been) will most likely end up with the administrators cutting back care to punish vets aka voters instead of actually cutting the bloat. Someone needs to be monitoring how budget cuts are applied like a hawk or they will be instructed to be as painful and bumbling as possible.
My concern with the VA is cutting budgets because administration costs are both high and inefficient (and they super super are and have been) will most likely end up with the administrators cutting back care to punish vets aka voters instead of actually cutting the bloat. Someone needs to be monitoring how budget cuts are applied like a hawk or they will be instructed to be as painful and bumbling as possible.
Posted on 11/14/24 at 9:28 am to Proximo
ROEs under Obama, "if they shoot at you and drop their weapon you cannot return fire." Look what HRC/Obama did to Erik Prince...
Look what happened to Eddie Gallagher because of one woke new SEAL operator that whined Prince stole his energy drink from a fridge.
And the enemy knew our directives. As Obama had our Guys with guns to their heads from Iran on national TV...
AND THEN Obama capitulated Iran and enriched them making them give a pinky promise, just like released terrorists.
How did an Iranian spy get a USA clearance, credentials? What about the Imran brothers? Will Obama much less other Presidents get called out?
We are doomed until Obama's gernerals/DoD are purged.
Look what happened to Eddie Gallagher because of one woke new SEAL operator that whined Prince stole his energy drink from a fridge.
And the enemy knew our directives. As Obama had our Guys with guns to their heads from Iran on national TV...
AND THEN Obama capitulated Iran and enriched them making them give a pinky promise, just like released terrorists.
How did an Iranian spy get a USA clearance, credentials? What about the Imran brothers? Will Obama much less other Presidents get called out?
We are doomed until Obama's gernerals/DoD are purged.
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