Independent Review of VA’s Special Disabilities Capacity Report for Fiscal Year 2020

VA must submit an annual report to Congress documenting its capacity to provide specialized treatment comparable to that available as of October 9, 1996, for veterans with spinal cord injuries and disorders, traumatic brain injury, blindness, prosthetic and sensory aids, or mental health issues. This requirement was set by Congress to ensure that the decentralization of the Veterans Health Administration’s field management structure in the late 1990s did not adversely affect VA’s ability to care for veterans with disabilities. Each year, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) is required to report to Congress on the accuracy of VA’s special disabilities capacity report. This OIG report identified some minor errors, data omissions, inaccuracies, and inconsistencies in the fiscal year (FY) 2020 capacity report that have persisted from the OIG’s FY 2019 review. For example, VA cannot report mental health capacity data comparable to that from 1996 as required by law because of changes in how treatment outcomes of veterans with mental illness are defined and tracked. VA issued its FY 2020 report before the OIG released its FY 2019 review and therefore couldn’t correct some of the identified issues. Congress would be better served by modernizing the reporting metrics to assess VA’s capacity to provide care for these veterans. Additionally, VA continues to not report its capacity on all required data at the national, Veterans Integrated Service Network, and medical facility levels where such services are provided.