Congressman Biggs Expresses Displeasure with the VA's Elimination of the End of Year Hospital Rating
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Andy Biggs sent a letter to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie to express displeasure with the VA's recent decision to eliminate the End of Year Hospital Rating.
Read the text of the letter below:
February 11, 2020
The Honorable Robert Wilkie
Secretary
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C., 20420
Dear Secretary Wilkie,
Thank you for your service to our nation's veterans, especially my constituents in Arizona. While I am encouraged by the progress that has been made to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), there is still much progress to be made in our State.
I am displeased with your decision to eliminate the End of Year Hospital Rating, which has ranked the Phoenix VA as a one-star medical center every year since 2016. Improving the Phoenix VA rating has been my priority for years; however, your decision will prevent transparency and accountability to our veterans.
Why has the VA replaced the star-rating system with complicated quality measures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services? This change means that veterans will now have to dig deep through the VA's online system and read through complex sheets of data to find out how their VA is performing.
The reality is: the star-rating system was an easy way for the VA, Congress, and veterans to get a topline view on how their local VA medical centers were performing compared to others across the country. Accountability is important, especially when it comes to keeping our promises to our nation's veterans.
I know that the VA always experiences a negative news cycle when the annual End of Year Hospital Ratings come out. That's why I am concerned that your decision was made to simply avoid accountability.
Mr. Secretary, the VA needs to find a simpler and more understandable metric to communicate to veterans and the American taxpayer about the state of their VA medical centers. We should not be putting veterans through the bureaucratic nightmare of reading complicated, bureaucratic sheets. Additionally, the VA should spend more time focused on improving care for veterans rather than ways to hide the system failures.
I expect an opportunity to personally discuss this matter further. I am looking for a timely explanation as to why the VA has taken this direction.
I look forward to working with you to ensure that the Phoenix VA is making significant improvements and hits the appropriate quality measures to improve its one-star rating.
Sincerely,
Andy Biggs
Member of Congress
Congressman Andy Biggs is a second-term Representative from Arizona's Fifth Congressional District, representing parts of Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, and Queen Creek. Congressman Biggs is a member of the House Judiciary and Science, Space, and Technology committees. He lives with his wife, Cindy, in Gilbert.