Firings Won't Fix the VA's Biggest Problem

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald is promising a massive overhaul of the embattled agency, a restructuring that he has billed as the largest in its 84-year history. The West Point grad and former CEO of Procter & Gamble took over the department this summer after his predecessor resigned due to a scandal that involved VA staff manipulating records to hide the fact that veterans were waiting months longer for medical appointments than the hospitals claimed. “As VA moves forward, we will judge the success of all our efforts against a single metric: the outcomes we provide for veterans,” McDonald vowed Monday, on the eve of Veterans Day.

As that quote suggests, McDonald’s plan is ambitious in scope and short on details. The secretary has conceded his remake is still in the early stages, and the department has given no timetable for how long the reorganization will ultimately take. The most high-profile change that’s been announced thus far would be to create a single customer service bureau to make it easier for veterans to navigate a sprawling department that provides veterans with health care, but also benefits, burial, and even home loans.

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