The VA told Congress that less than 30% of the 520,000 veterans with substance use disorders in its care are getting treatment specific to their condition.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is falling short of its hiring goals in a multiyear effort to expand veterans’ access to substance use disorder treatment.
The Veterans Health Administration launched a multiyear hiring initiative in fiscal 2022. VHA, in its 2022 budget request, told lawmakers that less than 30% of the 520,000 veterans in VA care with substance use disorders are receiving care specific to their condition.
The VA set ambitious hiring goals and received more than a quarter-billion dollars from Congress, between FY 2022 and 2023, to support this hiring initiative.
However, its inspector general’s office says the initiative “has fallen significantly short of expectations, leaving gaps in services for veterans struggling with substance use disorders.”
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“The program has been plagued by unspent funds, poor communication, and hiring delays,” the IG’s office wrote in a report released publicly on Wednesday.
In two years — fiscal 2022 and 2023 — VA medical centers made only 837 new hires, about 65% of the nearly 1,300 approved positions. The department, however, was expected to fill 90% of its approved positions within one year — by the end of FY 2022.
The VA, in those two years, received $267 million to increase hiring, but spent less than half of that money on bringing in new employees.The IG office found that VHA didn’t spend more than $100 million of the money and returned it to its finance office. It spent $54 million on substance use disorder program purposes that didn’t expand staffing.The agency watchdog said VA medical centers retained $14 million of this money for “other purposes.” The VA received $267 million in two years (FYs 2022 & 2023) to increase hiring, but spent less than half of that money on bringing in new employees (Source: VA OIG). Undersecretary for Health Shereef Elnahal told the inspector general’s office that VHA agrees with its […]
VA hiring fell ‘significantly short’ of goals to expand substance abuse treatment for vets
