Panetta: Defense and VA Need to ‘Kick Ass’ to Improve Service to Veterans

The bureaucracies in the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments hobble joint efforts to care for veterans, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told lawmakers at a House hearing Wednesday. Panetta, testifying at a joint hearing of the House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees along with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, said the cultures in the government’s two largest departments “resist change. They resist coordination. They resist trying to work together.”

Later in the hearing -- the first time both secretaries have appeared at such a joint session -- Panetta said he was frustrated by the lack of cooperation on key projects such as the integrated disability and health records systems and said, “we’ve just got to kick ass and try to make it happen . . . and that’s what we’re going to do.” Shinseki said the departments have developed separate programs to care for wounded soldiers and to manage their transition from Defense to VA and those programs “don’t quite harmonize.” At the top, Shinseki said he and Panetta have a close working relationship to spearhead development of what he considered the departments’ key joint project, the integrated electronic health record, and they have regular quarterly meetings and a strong commitment to make it happen.

Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, a VA Committee member, told Panetta and Shinseki, “I’m not sure that all members of your organizations share that commitment and will follow through.” President Obama jump started the joint records project in 2009 but Defense and VA do not plan to fully deploy the iEHR until 2017. Johnson said “another five years is unacceptable to me . . . fix it.” Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Howard “Buck” Mckeon, R-Calif., said Congress first mandated a joint health record over a decade ago...