U-S Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has turned down a request to come to Hot Springs to talk about the VA’s proposed reorganization plan that would close the Hot Springs VA Medical Center, but will meet with opponents of the plan next month in Washington, DC.
Eight members of the South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming congressional delegations had written Shinseki in October, urging him to come to Hot Springs to see the facilities and discuss the proposal, but he said in a letter dated Wednesday that it wasn’t possible and that one of his undersecretaries could meet with the lawmakers in Washington.
The response was unacceptable to the three members of South Dakota’s congressional delegation…Senators Tim Johnson and John Thune and Congresswoman Kristi Noem…leading Johnson, chairman of the Senate Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, to push for something more.
He got it in a Thursday phone call with Shinseki during which he emphasized how important it was that the secretary meet with opponents of the VA plan and hear directly from veterans and area communities.
Shinseki then agreed to meet in Washington sometime next month with representatives from the Save the VA Committee. Johnson, who will host the meeting, says he’s looking forward to the discussion.
The VA unveiled its reorganization plan last December. It calls for replacing the Hot Springs center with an outpatient clinic and dialysis unit, a new residential rehabilitation center in Rapid City, and expanded contracting for medical services through hospitals and health care providers across its service area.
Supporters of the Hot Springs center formed the Save the VA Committee…which developed its own competing plan that would expand operations in Hot Springs with an inventive pilot program at what backers say would be a much lower cost than the VA plan.
In his letter saying “no” to the request for a visit, Shinseki said no decision has been made on the reorganization plan, but also offered a series of comments that generally support the idea.
He said a new outpatient clinic in Hot Springs would see VA providers continue to offer care in a “modern, more efficient building designed to provide primary care, mental health and some specialty care.”
Shinseki also wrote that expanding contract services would not be a major change since the VA had “purchased specialty and long-term care from community health-care facilities for over 20 years.”