COVID-19 pandemic: VA provides health care assistance to civilians as part of the federal response : report to Congressional addressees
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Contributor(s):
- United States. Government Accountability Office. issuing body. United States. Congress. issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : United States Government Accountability Office, May 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- COVID-19 -- prevention & control Disaster Planning -- organization & administration Government Regulation United States United States. Department of Veterans Affairs
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Why GAO did this study. As the nation’s largest integrated health care system, VA has significant resources to respond to large-scale disasters and emergencies requiring a public health response. As a part of the nation’s federal response to COVID19, FEMA tasked VA to provide emergency resources to support states, territories, tribes, and other federal agencies through mission assignments. The CARES Act included a provision for GAO to report on the ongoing monitoring and oversight efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report describes (1) how VA determines its capacity to accept mission assignments and (2) the number and types of mission assignments VA conducted from March 2020 through February 2021, among other objectives. GAO interviewed VA officials and analyzed documents related to VA’s civilian health care response to COVID-19, including VA’s mission assignments from March 2020 through February 2021. GAO also interviewed FEMA and Department of Health and Human Services officials to obtain information on the interagency coordination efforts to assign and conduct mission assignments. GAO provided a draft of this report to VA, FEMA, and the Department of Health and Human Services for comment. VA and FEMA provided technical comments only, which GAO incorporated as appropriate, and the Department of Health and Human Services did not provide any comments. What GAO found. As part of its federal response to COVID-19, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) participates in a multiagency council, which includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The council reviews requests for emergency resources; upon approval by the council, these requests become mission assignments issued by FEMA. To determine its capacity to accept mission assignments from FEMA, VA consults with its regional networks and medical facilities. From March 2020 through February 2021, VA conducted 117 mission assignments across 38 states, one territory, and four tribes in response to COVID-19. The most common types of assistance provided were deploying VA staff to help treat patients at community medical facilities and providing inpatient care to civilians at VA medical facilities.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (iii, 34 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918317484306676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918317484306676