Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and Sen. John Boozman (Ark.) introduced S. 10—the VA CAREERS Act of 2023, legislation to bolster efforts to recruit and retain strong clinical and managerial leadership in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system and make other important improvements to attract clinicians in scarce medical specialties.
In the wake of COVID-19, physicians, nurses and other clinical and administrative executives are in short supply throughout the health care industry. In addition, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has been hampered with salary caps which prohibit them from effectively recruiting and retaining critical health care professionals in their local markets. In addition to modification of pay limitations for specialty medical positions and increasing pay caps for certain leadership positions in VHA, the bill would allow VA to pay for licensure costs for recipients of VA scholarship programs; require additional staff training on care models for managing older veterans’ health care needs; expand leave options for clinicians during national emergencies; provide reimbursement for continuing medical education costs for certain employees; and modernize VA’s human resources program.
DAV supports the VA CAREERS Act of 2023, in accordance with DAV Resolution No. 056, which urges our support of efforts to recruit and retain a robust VA clinical workforce. We commend Senators Tester and Boozman for their bipartisan leadership in ensuring the VA health system can remain competitive with the private sector in attracting and retaining health care professionals who are able to provide the highest quality care to our nation’s veterans.
Please use the prepared email to ask your senators to support S. 10—the VA CAREERS Act of 2023 or to thank them for their support.
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