During the holiday season, I, and the NAVAPD Board, recognize that the work done by each of our member physicians, dentists, and podiatrists can often feel like it is done in a dark silo; and that our struggles, concerns, and challenges are ours and ours alone. It is difficult to see the Light when we are presented with ever increasing patient loads, increasing performance metrics, increasing quality inspections, utilization concerns, recruitment, and retention challenges, increasing bureaucracy, and the like. It is even more difficult when our members report that there is an overall lack of concern for improving physician and dentist staffing, morale, and decreasing physician and dentist burnout.

I hear and share your concerns. I have received multiple emails this year from members, non-members, and veterans discussing various issues they would like NAVAPD to examine. In this past year NAVAPD made progress into improving conditions for our physician and dentist members by bringing your concerns directly to those in Congress.

I want to take a moment to illustrate what we have done in 2023:

1. I met with staffers from the Democratic House VA Subcommittee on Health, Oversight and Investigations and Workforce Retention, Recruitment and Modernization. A robust discussion was held on issues facing NAVAPD members including Physician and Dentist pay, Recruitment and Retention, HR Modernization, the Electronic Health Record, the MISSION Act and the PACT Act, and Asset and Infrastructure Review.

2. On behalf of our members, I signed a Letter of Support urging Congress to Appropriate the $980 million dollars that Friends of VA requested. NAVAPD supported this request because it would improve the quality of healthcare delivered by VA to the veterans.

3. I also submitted a letter directly to Congress asking for an appropriation of $995 million dollars to improve Physician and Dentist compensation, improve recruitment and retention of physicians and dentists, leverage HR Modernization to expedite new hires, provide double the CME funding for all physicians and dentists, regardless of specialty or board certification, and provide relocation funding among other incentives to attract and retain quality physicians and dentists.

4. I was approached by the VA Committee on Appropriations to get NAVAPD’s view of what is needed by physicians and dentists to choose VA as a career.  The comments I provided exposed multiple areas where NAVAPD had identified significant gaps in compensation which make VA a less than desirable career for physicians and dentists. I provided NAVAPD’s recommendations to the Appropriations Committee on how to close the pay gap.

5. I was invited by Senator Tester to participate as a panelist in a round table discussion on VA workforce issues. The comments provided by NAVAPD were incorporated into the Senator’s proposed legislation.

6. For the first time, NAVAPD held two virtual town halls for our members with the four corners of the Senate and House VA Committees.  This allowed our members to have direct access to Congressional members.

7. NAVAPD partnered with Tufts University to offer a discount on Dental CME courses.

8. On behalf of NAVAPD anesthesiologists, I wrote a letter to Secretary McDonough and Dr. Elnahal asking them to uphold physician led anesthesia care, and to not allow CRNA’s to be solely in charge of anesthesia care for veterans in VA. 

9. NAVAPD joined with Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute (VHPI) and with nine other organizations in submitting a Statement for Record opposing S.1315 legislation.

10. On behalf of NAVAPD and our membership, I recently signed a Letter of Support for Senators Moran and Blumenthal’s proposed legislation commonly known as the “VA Medical Center Security Report Act of 2023.

As you can see, NAVAPD has accomplished a lot in 2023 to improve circumstances for our members and the veterans we serve. Our work will continue into 2024. NAVAPD is planning additional town halls (likely to occur in the Spring and Autumn) so that our members can continue to have access to and voice their concerns directly to Senate and House members. We will continue to fight for improved pay, remove pay disparities across the enterprise, and provide insight and commentary on proposed legislation that directly affects our physician and dentist members.

I invite you to help us in our work.  You can look at proposed legislation that affects VA on the Congressional website www.congress.gov . If you want NAVAPD to know about something you have seen, heard, or read, please email us at president@navapd.org and encourage your colleagues to join us at www.navapd.org .

I wish each of you a happy, healthy, safe holiday season full of Love, Joy and Light.

Joseph T. Abate, DMD

President, NAVAPD