Options include expanding benefits to relocate to underserved VA medical facilities. Image: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA report on a spending bill (HR-8580) for the VA passed by the House, citing the department’s challenges in recruiting and retaining provider shortages, urges it to work with other agencies involved with providing health care services such as HHS and “think creatively” on how to identify and address such shortages.
Such cooperation might for example “explore ways the agencies can work together, such as by creating a taskforce, to increase the availability of providers, including in the behavioral health workforce and among physicians specializing in cancer, spinal cord, and neuropsychiatric conditions,” it says.
It also encourages the VA to:
* “explore opportunities in which VA can better compete with market pay rates and increase pay opportunities for physicians and other identified health care professionals;”
* “focus hiring efforts on converting clinical trainees to full VA employment immediately upon completion of their residencies through the utilization of the expedited hiring authority granted to the VA by Title 38,” and
* “explore potential options to enhance recruitment and retention, such as expanding benefits to relocate to underserved VA medical facilities and expanding reimbursement to clinicians for Continuing Professional Education, regardless of individual specialty or board certification.”
The report notes that the VA is to issue a comprehensive staffing report under previous law and also calls for special analysis of shortages of respiratory therapists and homeless veterans’ caseworkers.
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