VA Medical Center in Charlotte, NC. The bill in part seeks to modernize VA’s pay system to help rural and other hard-to-hire markets. Image: JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA bipartisan bill (S-10) introduced in the Senate seeks to boost the VA’s ability to hire and develop employees, especially in the medical fields, as well as to bring more transparency to the department’s long-standing problem with high rates of vacancies in those occupations.
Those issues are particularly important as the VA gears up to provide care to those newly eligible under a law enacted last year providing benefits to those exposed to hazardous burn pits, said main sponsor Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee.
The would (in the words of his announcement):
* modernize VA’s pay system for physicians and other high-level clinicians, which will especially benefit rural and other hard-to-hire markets;
* pay for licensure exam costs for future clinicians participating in VA scholarship programs;
* expand eligibility for more health care staff to be reimbursed for ongoing professional education costs; and
* increase and fine-tune VA’s workforce data reporting requirements to help VA and Congress be better informed on how to improve the hiring and on-boarding process.
That would build on personnel-related provisions in the burn-pit benefits law, including resources for VA to increase hiring and retention, develop a national VA rural recruitment and hiring plan, and buy-out non-VA service contracts for health care professionals. That law also increased the cap VA can pay towards student loan repayments and provides an easier pathway to those new to the workforce, either in or recently finished their higher education, to work at the department.
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