Senate bill sets VA health standards for women

Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Thursday introduced a bill that would require the Veterans Affairs Department to set standards in all its healthcare facilities to meet the needs of female veterans.

“As our nation’s military continues to see changes in demographics, it’s particularly important the VA adopts and makes necessary changes,” Heller, a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “There are countless distinguished women veterans who made sacrifices beyond measure and deserve nothing but the best treatment.”

{mosads}In addition to establishing standards, the measure requires every VA medical center to have a full-time obstetrician or gynecologist and demands they use women’s health outcomes as a performance measure for medical center executives.

It also calls for a Government Accountability Office study on the VA’s ability to meet the needs of women, including their privacy and security, at the agency’s healthcare sites.

There are about 2.3 million female veterans, and that number is expected to grow annually, as women make up 15 percent of the U.S. military’s active-duty personnel and 18 percent of the National Guard and Reserve forces.

The growing need has not escaped the notice of VA Secretary Robert McDonald.

More than 400,000 women “actively use VA for care, that’s double the number using VA care in the year 2000. We see annual increases in women veterans seeking care of about 9 percent, and this trend will continue and probably even go higher,” he told the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

“As more and more women come home from serving our nation, we owe it to them to make sure they can access safe, comfortable, and high-quality care at their local VA clinics,” according to Murray, who also sits on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs panel.

“Women veterans have specific health care needs that the VA must be able to meet, and this bill provides the department with the tools and resources they need to continue making progress and providing our women veterans with the care and support they deserve,” she said in a statement.