VA Recommendations to the AIR Commission

About this Website

This website provides information regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) recommendations to the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission to modernize and realign the VA health care system.

Announcement of VA's Recommendations
Federal Register Notice

Volume I: Introduction, Approach and Methodology, and Outcomes
Volume II: Market Recommendations
Appendices

About the Recommendations

VA has served Veterans and the Nation for decades by providing high-quality health care, training the United States health care workforce, spurring innovation and medical discoveries, and – as shown powerfully during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic – serving as the backstop for the U.S. health care system in times of emergency. We are proud to offer health care services to the approximately nine million Veterans enrolled to receive care from VA.

We owe those Veterans an agile and adaptable VA that keeps pace with their evolving needs and remains on the leading edge of U.S. health care. To do that, we must look to the future and take deliberate steps that will update our nationwide health care facility infrastructure and provide VA’s talented workforce with the tools they need to continue providing Veterans with world-class access and outcomes.

VA came to our recommendations to the AIR Commission by asking ourselves one question above all else: what is best for the Veterans we serve? The result of asking ourselves that question repeatedly, in markets across the country, is a set of recommendations that will help VA to:

• Cement VA as the primary, world-class provider, and coordinator of Veterans’ health care for generations to come;
• Build a health care network with the right facilities, in the right places, to provide the right care for all Veterans, including underserved and at-risk Veteran populations in every part of the country — making sure that our facilities and services are where the Veterans are;
• Ensure that the infrastructure that makes up VA in the decades ahead reflects the needs of 21st century Veterans — not the needs and challenges of a health care system that was built, in many cases, 80 years ago; and
• Strengthen VA’s roles as the leading health care researchers in America and — with VA’s academic partnerships — the leading health care training institution in the America.

To inform the recommendations, VA conducted a multi-year large-scale assessment of VA’s health care system. The Department has analyzed extensive data, conducted interviews with leaders at every VA medical center (VAMC) across the country, conducted listening sessions with Veterans and other stakeholders, and consulted with Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs).

VA looks forward to collaborating with the AIR Commission as it assesses these recommendations and transmits its own recommendations to the President.