Realign aging VHA infrastructure toward CBOCs and sharing partnerships instead of large campuses
Mandate urges creative realignment of underused 60-year-old VAMCs: expand Community Based Outpatient Clinics without further investing in obsolete campuses, and pilot facility-sharing with strained local systems—after noting AIR commission nominations stalled.
Mandate
Mandate Ch. 20 (Veterans Affairs) — VHA Budget: assess misalignment of facilities and rising infrastructure costs; embrace expansion of CBOCs as an avenue to maintain VA footprint without investing further in obsolete unaffordable campuses; explore pilots for facility-sharing partnerships between VA and strained local health systems.
Undo plan
1) Condition any campus downsizing on replacement capacity, travel-time standards, and specialty-care continuity.
2) Restart transparent Asset Infrastructure Review with balanced commission and public hearings—not silent closures.
3) Prefer modernization of high-need VAMCs where Community Care markets are thin.
4) Codify veteran/community notice and congressional notification before major bed/service cuts.
5) Verify: IG review that CBOC expansion does not create access deserts for inpatient/specialty care.