December 10, 2012: By the Numbers

December 10, 2012: By the Numbers

$53 billion
and 
$49 billion

FY 2013 costs of the VA and DoD health systems, respectively, according to a report issued earlier this year by the Government Accountability Office -- Department-Level Actions Needed to Assess Collaboration Performance, Address Barriers, and Identify Opportunities.

In a nutshell, the report encourages more VA/DoD "collaboration sites" to enhancing savings and improve efficiency, and that these sites "develop performance measures related to access, quality, and costs." The report identified four areas of "incompatible policies and practices:"

  • Information technology (IT) systems. Because VA and DOD collect, store, and process health information in different IT systems, providing access to information needed to best treat patients has proved problematic.
  • Business and administrative processes. Different billing practices, difficulties capturing patient workload information, and overlapping efforts in credentialing providers and computer security training reduce efficiency.
  • Access to military bases. Balancing base security needs with veterans' needs to access medical facilities on base creates some difficulties.
  • Medical facility construction. Misaligned construction planning processes hinder efforts to jointly plan facilities to serve both VA and DOD beneficiaries.