President Barack Obama has requested $54.9 billion in healthcare funding for the Department of Veterans' Affairs for fiscal year 2012 and $56.7 billion for fiscal year 2013, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office in June.
The VA's overall operating budget for 2012 is $132.2 billion.
VA officials said estimate was increased by about $1.4 billion for fiscal year 2012 and $1.3 billion for fiscal year 2013 to support healthcare-related initiatives proposed by the Obama administration, such as expanding homeless veterans programs, opening new healthcare facilities, offering additional services for caregivers and providing benefits for veterans exposed to Agent Orange.
Mark Yow, the VA's associate chief financial officer for resources management, said one major VA goal is to implement new models of patient-centered care.
"Each veteran will have a dedicated team of healthcare professionals that works together to coordinate and deliver the optimal level of care," said Yow. "The goal is to have this fully operational by the end of 2012."
Yow said the VA is also focused on several healthcare initiatives to help veterans receive services more quickly.
"We are expanding healthcare access for veterans to make it easier to get appointments. Also, there is now a presumption of service connection for Agent Orange and ALS for veterans who served in Vietnam so that they can receive care faster," he said. "There are also many efforts being made to deliver care to veterans in rural or highly rural settings."
Other major areas of spending for the VA in 2012 include $6.9 billion for the expansion of institutional and non-institutional long-term care services, $5.5 billion for inpatient and outpatient mental health services and $270 million to meet the needs of women veterans.
The president's requested funding allocations for 2012 also include a request for about $953 million in contingency funding to provide additional resources in the event that the economic downturn results in increased use of VA healthcare services.
Although Ryan Steinbach, from the Veteran's Health Administration Communications Office, said he could not be sure of a connection to the poor economy, he reported an increase in enrollees and said veterans have been using VA healthcare benefits at a greater rate in recent years.
This could also be attributed in part to the VA's increased outreach and communications efforts to educate veterans about the benefits they are eligible to receive, said Steinbach.
The President's request for appropriations for VA healthcare relied on anticipated funding from several sources, including collections, unobligated balances of multiyear appropriations and reimbursements.
For more on legislation and policy, see bit.ly/hfn-policy