Summer is over. Autumn is here. Cooler weather is upon most of the country and leaves are beginning to change displaying brilliant colors in the northern part of the nation. The end of the fiscal year is upon us as well. The autumn sees Congress returning to the Hill and resuming their work after a summer hiatus.  Even though the kids were on summer vacation, Congress was on summer vacation, many of our NAVAPD members were on summer vacation, NAVAPD did not take a vacation and was hard at work for our members.

As a result of our work, many of our members are seeing changes in pay related to pay table and tier changes.  There have been recruitment and retention incentives implemented because of our work in support of, as well as opposition to, several Congressional bills.

We have sent letters to the Hill opposing bills that would remove physician led anesthesia care, rejected cuts to non-discretionary spending and supported increased funding for prosthetic research.

Over the summer, NAVAPD partnered with the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute to oppose several disastrous bills that would affect our members.  We opposed language in the Senator Moran’s HEALTH Act that would require VA to only consider veteran’s preference for obtaining care in the civilian sector.  If this bill is passed with that language, every veteran would potentially become eligible for community care based solely on their preference. This would destroy VA provided healthcare.

NAVAPD opposed specific language in Senator Tester’s Making Community Care Work for Veterans Act. The bill would allow routine vaccinations, eye care, and audiological services to be obtained without having a VA referral to community care.  NAVAPD argued that if self-referral is allowed, even for just a few services, those who are pushing for privatization of VA healthcare will demand self-referral for all VA healthcare services.

NAVAPD President, Dr. Abate, has had several meetings with House and Senate VA staffers in Senator Moran’s office to discuss the above bills, the specific language that is of concern to our members and some solutions and changes in language that NAVAPD sees as more viable than the way the  current bills are written.

Additionally, Dr. Abate has asked those staffers to participate in a townhall with our members. The staffers have agreed. The townhall will occur on November 6, 2023 at 5pm EST. We encourage you to attend the townhall, so that the staffers can hear concerns directly from you, our members. They have agreed to give a brief presentation on the various bills they are working on related to VA Healthcare. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for questions.  

Please follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn. Please let your colleagues know about the upcoming townhall and encourage them to join NAVAPD if they are not already a member. If you have specific concerns, please reach out to the board member for your region. You can find your contact here.