The VA has 41,500 Unfilled Medical Jobs, Forcing Vets into Costly Private Care

The Veterans Health Administration has 41,500 job vacancies for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals across its sprawling health care system while it struggles to provide timely medical care for veterans, according to records obtained and analyzed by USA TODAY.

The failure to fully staff hospitals is one reason why the Department of Veterans Affairs paid for 1.5 million veterans to see doctors outside the agency in the past year, VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson testified late last month. Those private visits have cost U.S. taxpayers more than $7.7 billion, the VA said.

The added expenses have left the VA with a $2.6 billion shortfall this year, prompting VA Secretary Bob McDonald to plead with lawmakers Thursday to quickly pass a bill that would give him flexibility to shift money within the VA budget to cover the gap.

Gibson testified before Congress June 26 that the shortfall would not have been so large "if we were fully staffed up."

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Neither McDonald nor Gibson told Congress how many medical jobs are unfilled in its 150-hospital system, which funds roughly 210,000 full-time medical positions. Instead, both told lawmakers they have increased medical and non-medical staff by 12,000 in the past year.

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USA TODAY discovered the 41,500 vacancies as of late June in data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The full- and part-time positions include openings for 5,000 physicians, nearly 12,000 nurses and more than 1,200 psychologists, according to the data. ...

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