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Members highlight uneven VA access, tele‑mental‑health needs and continuing EHR problems
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Summary
Lawmakers across districts described long commutes for specialty care, telephone wait times at local VA clinics and lingering errors in VA electronic health records (Cerner/Vision), urging oversight, field hearings and cautious further rollouts of VA IT changes.
Representative Schreyer told the committee that veterans in Wenatchee, Washington, face a worsening mental‑health crisis and that the closest vet center providing full mental‑health services is a two‑hour drive; she said tele‑mental‑health expansion is important but ‘‘we also have to maintain access to in‑person counseling.’’
Members from Ohio and California described long travel times to reach VA medical centers and chronic phone wait times at local clinics. Representative Kaptur said northwest Ohio veterans often travel to Ann Arbor for care because of historic VISN alignments and locality pay differentials; Representative Carbajal said phone hold times can exceed an hour and veterans must sometimes drive more than an hour for an appointment.
Several members and the chair raised persistent problems with VA health IT, specifically the Cerner/Vision rollout, noting the system has ‘‘lots of errors, significant delays’’ and non‑uniform implementation across sites; the chair said he is working with the secretary and asked for improvements before further rollout. Members requested follow‑up briefings, oversight and consideration of field hearings focused on access and coverage issues.
No formal committee votes or directives were issued during Member Day; members asked staff to coordinate with VA on reports and potential field hearings.
