Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include comment from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs press secretary Pete Kasperowicz.
Officials tasked with overseeing benefits for veterans living in the V.I. are looking at ways to ensure the delivery of health care. Concerns over staff reductions at the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department rose in March, with reports that 80,000 VA jobs would be cut nationwide.
To get a better idea of what may lie ahead, Government House announced a delegation led by the V.I. Office of Veterans Affairs would meet with federal officials in Puerto Rico.
As they returned from the late April meeting, some members of the delegation were still uncertain about what to expect. One delegate said they heard officials from VA Caribbean Healthcare mention that up to 900 positions could be eliminated.
Caribbean Healthcare currently employs 3,749 staffers, according to information on VA.gov. Together, they serve the health care needs of roughly 71,000 veterans in Puerto Rico and the USVI.
And some, like Veterans Affairs State Director Patrick Farrell, returned from the meeting determined to get ahead of the changes. “We want to know as the territory, what can we do to provide some type of a continuity in care for our veterans because, of course, the medical, the health of our veterans is very important to us,” Farrell said.
Representatives of Schneider Regional Medical Center and the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital joined the discussions; St. Croix leaders attended virtually. Sen. Avery Lewis, chair of the 35th Legislature Government Operations, Veterans Affairs and Consumer Protection Committee, joined the V.I. delegation.
“I was glad to be part of the delegation. I went to meet with the officials in Puerto Rico so we can learn more from them about what’s happening at the federal level,” said SRMC Chief Executive Tina Comissiong. The medical center chief said where and when those changes may appear, the V.A. Community Choice Program may help offset some reductions.
Lewis pointed to resources already in place, which may mean some vets may have to travel no farther than St. Croix.
“In the clinic services, we have in both districts, we have the primary care in St. Croix and St. Thomas. We have the telehealth services in only part of St. Thomas. We have the mental health and the nutrition. And in St. Croix … St. Croix they have a cardiology set up for telehealth. And the telehealth services actually have equipment there in case the doctor needs to check your EKG,” Lewis said.
Farrell said he felt reassured by the appearance of David Issacks, a regional director with VA Health care. Isaacks oversees operations at all veterans-linked medical centers in Florida.
And because Isaacks’ ranking in the national network stands over Caribbean regional leaders, Farrell said there is someone who may have greater insights on how to navigate the changes once they appear in the future.
In a statement sent to the Source early Tuesday morning, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs press secretary Pete Kasperowicz said the agency’s goal “is to increase productivity, eliminate waste and bureaucracy, increase efficiency, and improve health care and benefits to Veterans,” all without making cuts to health care or benefits to Veterans or VA beneficiaries.
“We’re conducting a comprehensive, data-driven review of all agencies and processes within the department with the goal of fixing the problems that have kept VA on the Government Accountability Office’s high-risk list since 2015,” said Kasperowicz.
“We’re going to maintain VA’s mission-essential jobs like doctors, nurses and claims processors, while phasing out non-mission essential roles like [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] officers. The savings we achieve will be redirected to Veteran health care and benefits,” he said.
“Our goal is to reduce the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) positions to 2019 levels — roughly 398,000 employees — down from roughly 470,000 employees currently, which is about a 15 percent decrease. But those staff changes have not happened yet.”
