Rep. Jim Banks: Make good on promises made to veterans

Memorial Day is rapidly approaching, the time when Americans of all walks of life pause and honor the sacrifices of our armed forces. As the keepers of peace abroad and guarantors of liberty at home, our brave men and women in uniform and veterans deserve no less than the very best our nation can provide. This is also a time when politicians of all stripes rightfully acknowledge that our government has not always honored promises made to veterans in healthcare, disability benefits, and education.

As I celebrate a third Memorial Day in the House of Representatives, two things have become clear to me.

First, there is a deeply held, bipartisan consensus to prioritize resources for our veterans. I have yet to meet anyone who, after being entrusted by their constituents to represent them in Congress, fails to appreciate the gravity of the commitment made to veterans.

Second, these resources have unfortunately not always translated into results. The Department of Veterans Affairs cannot simply get bigger. The dollars provided have to translate into modernization — real modernization that makes the organization more responsive and user-friendly to veterans. Technology is a big part of this kind of modernization, but we should not have technology for technology’s sake.

It is important to recognize some of the accomplishments the Department of Veterans Affairs has made in recent years. After over a decade of creating a new website for every conceivable purpose, most of them confusing and difficult to find, the VA has consolidated dozens of them into the new, simple www.va.gov. The VA has also started implementing online self-service tools allowing veterans to do things such as update their personal information and check the status of applications. If any consumer in America can apply for a mortgage online in a few minutes, there is no reason why veterans should have to wait on hold with a call center or send snail mail to interact with the VA. In healthcare, the VA created one of the earliest patient portals, and this year partnered with Apple to allow any veteran to access his or her medical records in the iPhone Health app.

These are steps in the right direction. Some of them were groundbreaking, not just for government, but for any big healthcare organization. However, there is much more to do.

Implementation of the new electronic health record and combining and streamlining the many programs through which the VA purchases private care are the biggest changes to VA healthcare in decades, and they are happening at the same time. The electronic health record has to not only create a seamless, lifetime record from enlistment to veteran status, but ensure that when veterans opt for community care their medical records follow them into their local doctors’ offices and then back into the VA. Veterans absolutely deserve choice in their healthcare, and modernizing this technology correctly can make healthcare provided in VA medical centers and in the community more collaborative, high quality, and effective.

VA healthcare has not been a self-contained system, walled off from the rest of American healthcare, for decades. At the same time, health information technology is advancing extremely rapidly. The department’s modernization needs to be grounded in these facts. The days of massive, complicated, tightly interdependent computer systems that take years to modify have to end. Instead, the VA should foster an open environment of apps, flexible interfaces to commercial software, and medical records that move with the veteran.

Creating this sort of environment is not easy for any healthcare organization, but as the largest health system in the U.S., the VA can lead the way and even shape the industry for the better.

This Memorial Day, I am honored to advocate for veterans in Congress. This is how I am working to make good on promises made.