Veterans meet about health care at town hall

WASILLA — On Tuesday, Jan. 22, a crowd of 48 veterans attended the quarterly Veteran’s Town Hall event at the Menard Sports Center. Hosted by the Alaska Veteran’s Affairs Healthcare System, this event was a chance for veterans to get updated on any relevant information and changes in the VA and have their voices heard during the open discussion.

“I think in the past 18 months we’ve made, what I hope, are tremendous improvements for a veteran’s ability to get timely care,” Alaska VA Healthcare System director Dr. Timothy Ballard said.

Ballard said that when he started directing the Alaska VA Healthcare System in 2016, the Valley had one primary care provider through the VA, but now there are three providers. He noted that they also hired a psychiatrist, which they did not have in the past.

Ballard said that all the Alaskan VA clinics have grown significantly, particularly in the past year. He said that his mentality has been, “you take care of the staff, you give them the appropriate resources to take care of the veterans and good things happen.”

“We went from being the bottom five in the country from staff satisfaction [2016]… We are now number 20 of best places work in the VA and next year I expect us to be in the top 15 or top 10,” Ballard said.

Ballard said it was a “sad story” that 800,000 of his fellow government employees have been furloughed during the government shut down. He said that veterans receiving medical care through the VA will not have any issues due to the recent government shutdown.

“There will be no impediment to veterans getting their healthcare issues addressed during the government shutdown whatsoever. I think that’s good news,” Ballard said.

Ballard said that the Mission Act was passed last June. It’s a compressive bill designed to restructure VA operations. He noted an important date relevant to Veterans receiving care from the VA. On June 6 the Choice Program will fade away entirely, to be replaced by the Mission Act.

The Choice Program is a benefit that enables eligible Veterans access to health care from a local provider in their community as opposed to waiting for a VA appointment or traveling to a VA facility. Ballard said that Alaska has its own set of unique components that go along with the Mission Act and connecting medical providers.

“The good news is that Alaska VA will still set up all specialty care appointments, referrals and authorizations. None of that will change. You’re not gonna get anybody from Phoenix in a call center telling you to drive to Juneau for an appointment,” Ballard said.

Ballard commented on recent news of complaints against the VA not utilizing all of their funds for suicide prevention. He said that last year the Alaska VA “completely executed their budget.”

“We hired two new suicide awareness coordinators. We were not given any additional budgeting from suicide perspective and so what you’re reading about in national stories has to do with the distribution of funds from our central office peripherally,” Ballard said.

Ballard said that bringing up the topic of suicide awareness is very important. He said that 20 veterans across the U.S. commit suicide every day, which is essentially 7,300 people every year. He said that out of those 20 veterans committing suicide per day, only a fraction are enrolled in the VA so they can only be aware of veterans in their care. That’s one of the prevailing reasons Ballard made a public plea for everyone to reach out to veterans to ask if they are enrolled in the VA.

“This is a community involvement opportunity,” Ballard said.

Ballard said that he made a promise last year that the Alaska VA would hire 100 staff members within a year to combat their understaffing dilemma. He said that they had 555 staff members for the entire state.

“By the time we got to the end of our fiscal year, we had hired 189 new people in our organization in one year; of which 120 were new positions. I can tell you every clinic has staff to take care of veterans,” Ballard said.

Ballard said that with the staffing problem taken care of, their biggest problem is space. He said that waiting rooms at the Mat-Su VA Outpatient Clinic are typically packed. Looking forward, he said that addressing their limited space issues is their next challenge to overcome. He said that they submitted a request for a regional contracting office for more space and they should get an answer within the next six to 12 months.

“Believe me it’s pretty tight,” Ballard said.

He said these additions to VA clinics may be an expansion of an existing clinic or a new building but his expectation is that sometime at the tail end of this summer, the Mat-Su clinic will have information on where it’s going to be.

Ballard said that the Alaska VA currently has about 140 veterans receiving homecare, mostly in Anchorage and the Valley. He said that as they expand, they will be able to provide more care to veterans who cannot leave their homes.

Ballard said of the about 70,000 to 90,000 veterans in Alaska, only 36,000 are enrolled in the VA and 24,000 use their services on a regular basis. He said that he could guarantee that there was a myriad of veterans in need of their services but they don’t even know who they are.

“If you know someone who’s a veteran, ask… Not everybody is going to be eligible for healthcare benefits but you never know until you try,” Ballard said.

Ballard also mentioned two more upcoming events. There is the Ruff Carpet Event, a service dog show at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage, and the 2019 National Veteran’s Golden Age Games in Anchorage from June 5 to 10.

Alaska VA Healthcare System selected to host the National Veteran’s Golden Age Games. Veterans 55 and older within the VA system are eligible to compete in the games.

“This is going to be a great opportunity for Alaska to be able to show off. We’re gonna have a thousand veterans from all over the country coming up here to compete in activities.

Registration starts Feb. 25. Ballard said that he anticipates that filling up in just three days so he encouraged eligible veterans to sign up as quickly as they can. He noted that they will need about 1,000 volunteers to help host the Golden Age Games- which includes a variety of competitive events like track swimming, golf, pickle ball, horse shoes, and billiards. Ballard said that veterans as old as 90 are gearing up to come up here for the games.

“We’re a very small station and any help we can get is gonna be great,” Ballard said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com