VA has entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice that would give them the authority to place some veterans under guardianship if they are unable to make their own healthcare decisions.
In an effort to regain some of the congressional authority that has eroded in the last year, Republicans on the House VA Committee are seeking to develop an authorization process for VA similar to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which is used to annually fund the military and some VA construction projects.
According to Democrats and some veterans’ advocates, VA staffing cuts are having a direct negative impact on patient care, despite promises from agency leaders that they would not. They also argue that the department’s effort to eliminate vacant positions only serves to camouflage the state of the agency’s staffing deficiency.
Investigators have linked recent incidents of VA patients dying by suicide to inadequate TBI care, leaving legislators concerned that veterans with traumatic brain injuries are falling through the cracks.
While VA’s investment in artificial intelligence is growing year over year, a preliminary report from the department’s Office of the Inspector General raises concerns about the agency’s ability to ensure patient safety.
A report released by VA shows the veteran suicide rate is the highest it has been since 2018, despite the intense focus the federal government has put on prevention in recent years.
VA Secretary Doug Collins, appeared before the House VA Committee to defend his plans to reorganize the department, declaring, “We’re the largest healthcare system in the country, but we’ve never acted like it.
While VA has officially lifted the hiring freeze that’s been in place for the last year, staff shortages don’t seem to be easing, according to a new report.
Congress is considering several pieces of legislation that would create new funding opportunities for non-VA providers to provide care to veterans outside the community care system.
In the waning days of 2025, VA quietly reinstated its near-total ban on abortion care and counseling. The ban was implemented following a memo from the Department of Justice stating that their revised interpretation of federal law prohibits the department from providing abortion services to veterans and their families.
VA’s audiology clinics see more than 447,000 new patient appointments annually. For many of these veterans this is the one contact they have with VA throughout the year.
Legislation recently introduced in the Senate seeks to push VA and DoD to adopt a single credentialing system for healthcare providers, eliminating the redundant processes that create unnecessary delays in clinician hiring. It also would theoretically allow clinicians to move more easily between DoD and VA facilities.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appear skeptical about VA’s ability to successfully undertake a proposed overhaul of its community-care network—an endeavor projected to cost $1 trillion over 10 years. Congress, along with the general public, only learned about the department’s plan when VA released its request for proposals at the end of 2025.
Recent reporting by the Wall Street Journal has raised concerns about VA treating patients with multiple central nervous system medications, a mixture some veterans referred to in the article as “combat cocktails.”
The House of Representatives has passed legislation that would restore the collective-bargaining rights of federal workers, including the majority of VA employees. Those rights were removed following an executive order from President Donald Trump in March and carried out by VA leadership in August.
According to a recent report from the VA’s Office of the Inspector General, staffing shortages and an overreliance by VA facilities on interpreting non-priority cases is causing extensive delays in National Teleradiology Program services, leaving veterans and providers in limbo.
As VA prepares to resume the rollout of its electronic health record (EHR) system modernization program this April in Michigan, lawmakers are concerned that the department and its development partner, Oracle, might be overconfident in their ability to deliver.
VA has announced its largest reorganization effort in decades, one that would drastically reduce the number of VISNs and prune top-level leadership, consolidating oversight authority under the undersecretary for health. According to VA leaders, the move will cut duplicative bureaucracy and ensure consistent application of VA policies across facilities.
A series of Washington Post articles published in recent months characterizing the VA benefits system as rife with fraud, overspending and ease in manipulation generated immediate backlash from VA leaders, legislators and veterans’ advocates.
Researchers at the University of Rhode Island have developed what they describe as a cost-effective, customizable, easy-to-use tabletop pressure wave generator that can mimic the kind of explosive blasts that cause brain injury in military servicemembers.