WASHINGTON — Should another major health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic occur, the Veterans Affairs (VA) Department may not be ready.
The department may not have a way to calculate the additional costs needed to address the emergency.
Those are the conclusions of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which, in a new report, calls for the VA to make improvements.
The pandemic was called a once-in-a-generation public health emergency.
The VA administered 8.9 million vaccine doses performed 3.6 million COVID-19 tests, and conducted 12.7 million COVID-19 virtual screenings in 2021 alone.
Now, the GAO, in its report, says the VA was not prepared to estimate the amount of supplemental funding needed during such a catastrophic event because it did not have the modeling capacity to do so.
GAO Health Care team Director Sharon Silas says the VA needs to be better prepared to quickly estimate resource needs to allow better management and planning, in the event of another global health crisis.
"You know, our veterans are some of our most vulnerable population. And the VA's mission is so incredibly important," said Silas, in an interview Tuesday with 13News Now.
Silas continued: "So, I think anything the VA, and the VHA within the Veterans Administration can do to be better prepared to be better informed about the funding they're going to need to continue to provide health care services to our vets during a catastrophic event is incredibly important."
The VA received about $36.7 billion in supplemental funds for its pandemic response efforts.