VA needs greater transparency over a new health care resource allocation process as well as written policies on monitoring resources, GAO has said.
It said VA’s new resource allocation process uses a standardized model, but that the transparency of networks’ decisions for allocating resources to medical centers is limited.
Under its new process, headquarters proposes medical center allocation amounts to networks using a standardized resource allocation model, network officials then review the proposed amounts and have the flexibility to adjust them, and finally networks report medical center allocation amounts to VA headquarters as well as any adjustments made to the allocation amounts as proposed by the model.
However, GAO said VA headquarters does not ask networks to report reasons for adjustments made to allocation amounts and that while networks reported reasons for some adjustments, others went unexplained.
VA officials told GAO that the new allocation process was not intended to be used to question networks’ decision-making, but to increase the transparency of networks’ allocation decisions to VA headquarters while maintaining network flexibility, the report said.
However, absent rationales from networks on all adjustments made to medical center allocation amounts, transparency for decisions made through the allocation process is limited, according to GAO-11-426.
