Heller doubles down on protecting veterans from unsafe, poor-quality care

In the wake of a new U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on veterans’ health care, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) on Tuesday urged his fellow senators to swiftly pass bipartisan legislation he introduced this month to ensure that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) cannot hide medical providers’ mistakes.

“The nonpartisan GAO’s findings are truly shocking, worrisome, and downright reprehensible. It is a shame the GAO has found that the VA has not been forthcoming when it comes to reporting poor-performing doctors to the National Practitioner Data Bank and state licensing boards, and that’s why Congress must immediately pass the VA Provider Accountability Act,” said Heller, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

The GAO report to the Veterans’ Affairs Committee released this month reviewed five VA medical centers and found that required reviews for providers following concerns about their care delivery “were not always documented or conducted in a timely manner,” the report said. The report pointed out that the VA did not report 90 percent of its poorly performing clinical providers to the National Practitioner Data Bank, which could have prevented those providers from crossing state lines and putting more patients at risk.

“Congress must now act swiftly to help ensure that our military veterans are not at risk of receiving unsafe care from poor-performing and dangerous medical professionals and ensure these individuals are held accountable outside the VA system,” Heller said.

Heller’s bill would require the VA to report actions taken against providers to the National Practitioner Data Bank and to state licensing boards. S. 2107 would also bar the VA from signing settlements with fired employees that enable error concealment or purge negative personnel records.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), an original cosponsor of the VA Provider Accountability Act, joined Heller in asking Senate colleagues to pass the legislation.

“While I appreciate that VA is making attempts to correct this on their own, I believe these improvements in accountability measures need to be codified,” Manchin said. “I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to push this important piece of legislation through quickly.”