Membership Appeal

2020 - is there any doubt that this is a year that will be remembered for decades? The pandemic arrived stealthily, but then gathered speed and ran across the country. As always, VA physicians, podiatrists, dentists, and countless other groups of healthcare providers united to protect and treat our Veterans -- Americans who are within the highest risk groups because of age and multiple underlying diseases and disorders. Without fail, our providers came to work, risked exposure for themselves and their families, and provided the care needed. Some fell ill. Some died.

Imagine a Veterans Affairs Department that, just as unwaveringly, embraced and promptly compensated its physicians, dentists and podiatrists, and other healthcare providers for the extraordinary risks they took to care for our Vets. Instead, the VA, as typical, set about on a bureaucratic hide-and-seek process with nebulous edicts of bonuses and lack of clear guidance and expectations of the process. Finally, VA physicians and most others have received the incentives that the VA Memorandum of March 2020 offered. The delay in making good on this support of their publicly lauded heroes – taking almost until the next surge – was ridiculous.

NAVAPPD expects more from the VA for its physicians, dentists and podiatrists, and the other healthcare professionals who make the VA system work. We expect the VA to seek and respect their input, partner with them to ensure the best possible care for our nation’s Veterans and protect and reward them for extraordinary service and sacrifice. We expect the VA to take the knowledge and insight that we clinical experts can provide to make the VA the respected organization Veterans expect and deserve. We expect a VA that properly recognizes and compensates its physicians and dentists for the enduring contributions they make, rather than seeking to marginalize and repress these professionals and their opinions. We expect more.

This is what each and every physician, dentist, podiatrist and other healthcare professional should raise their voices to obtain. This is the VA that NAVAPPD seeks – day in, day out -- through education, advocacy, and sometimes confrontation.  And we need YOUR help to keep up the pressure. You can raise your voice by joining us.

NAVAPPD has long worked with Congress to assure your contributions are recognized and concerns are heard, and to give NAVAPPD members a safe place to talk about the things in their medical centers that needed immediate attention. Throughout our history, we have sought collaboration with the VA, but sometimes cooperative efforts have failed. NAVAPPD has twice sued the VA over vital issues and backed others in legal efforts to hold the VA accountable for its failures or unfair practices. 

The effects of COVID-19 have made maintaining contact and good relations with Congress more difficult, but we continue to represent your needs to congressional leaders and committees. NAVAPPD sought congressional support for a mandated means of compensation for the heroic work of VA physicians and dentists during the COVID-19 surge, but the VA’s internal memo diverted Congress from this, and then remained unactualized for far too long for many.

No other organization or negotiating body works specifically and exclusively for VA physicians, dentists and podiatrists. NAVAPPD has always been there working for these VA professionals. This is NAVAPD’s 45th year in operation, and I couldn’t be more proud of what we have accomplished over the years:

• We helped establish market-equitable pay

• We helped achieve performance pay

• We worked with VA on weekend leave time

• We helped protect CME benefits

• We helped secure VA physicians’ right to control their own “off-duty” time.

 Our work isn’t done. There is so much more to do for you and with you, as this chaotic year has shown. With COVID-ravaged leadership in the VA Central Office and ongoing politics on Capitol Hill, it is more important than ever for you to have representation in Washington, DC. With all we have done, we will be focused on key issues such as:

• Failure of the VA to move quickly on meaningful COVID-risk compensation

• The systematic erosion of performance pay

• The continuing attacks on CME benefits

• Unfair treatment of physicians, podiatrists and dentists who report wrongdoing in and by the VA

• Inaccurate “productivity” systems that do not reflect real productivity

• Managerial abuse of these inaccurate productivity systems

• Abuse of Temporary Status for physicians, podiatrists and dentists

• Mismanagement, which renders physicians, podiatrists and dentists inefficient in providing care to Veterans

• The transformation of physicians, podiatrists and dentists into glorified clerks, while their roles are given to non-physicians.

 NAVAPPD can give you access and representation. I encourage you to join today!  Membership dues are just $160/year for full-time physicians and dentists, $100 for part-time, and $80 if you’re retired. We also offer a lifetime membership option for $1,500, which is a great value given the amount of time most physicians and dentists dedicate to their careers in the VA.

With your membership comes news and information on issues important to you and, most importantly, access to decision makers and others who have influence within the Veterans healthcare field.  We partner with other related organizations that can help us reach your goals. Let us help you serve our veterans and provide them with the very best medical care they deserve. Give us the tools AND the membership numbers to make our voice strong.

We hope you’ll join our cause and let us work for you, too. Join here.