The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs plans to reorganize the Veterans Health Administration structure, in an effort to improve veterans’ healthcare, eliminate bureaucracy and apply VA policies consistently across all department medical facilities.

Under the plan, the VHA Central Office will pivot to policy and oversight, while regional and clinical leaders will be empowered to focus on operations and patient care.

Meanwhile, lawmakers on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs announced new legislative proposals under the umbrella of VA reauthorization, which they say has not been comprehensively revisited in 30 years.

WHY IT MATTERS

Pending official congressional notification, the VA announced Monday that it plans to reorganize the VHA and make personnel changes beginning in early 2026 are long overdue.

"The current VHA leadership structure is riddled with redundancies that slow decision making, sow confusion and create competing priorities," VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement. "In other words, when everyone’s in charge of everything, no one’s in charge of anything."

The VA said that multiple reviews from its Office of Inspector General, the Government Accountability Office and others have shed light on governance weaknesses and management overlaps that slow the VHA down.

As part of the reorganization, the VHA Central Office would have responsibility for setting policy goals at operations centers while the Veterans Integrated Service Networks would conduct oversight and compliance, the VA said.

The reorganization will not reduce staff but put more power into decision-making at VA Health Care Systems, the department added.

"This initiative is not a reduction in force or an attempt to reduce staffing levels at VHA, and VA does not expect a significant change in overall staff levels once it’s complete," the department said.

Rep. Mike Bost, R-Illinois, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, reacted quickly to the VA announcement.

"I support the intent of Secretary Collins’ plan to break new ground and restructure the agency to meet the needs of today and tomorrow’s veterans, their families and their survivors," he said in a separate statement on Monday.

"Change can be a good thing. Veterans and their families gave us a clear mandate last November that business as usual is not cutting it and we must cut through the bureaucracy, remove the red tape, and push VA forward."

The committee he leads is also undertaking VA reauthorization.

Bost, along with Reps. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, Keith Self, R-Texas, and Mike Flood, R-Nebraska, announced a series of bills the following day that aim to reform VA programs and benefits delivery – including pay structure, advisory committees and political appointments.

VISN lacks accountability, Bost said in a statement about the reauthorization effort on Tuesday.

"Simply put, this outdated structure created in the mid-1990s no longer aligns with the scale, complexity, geographic demands or performance management requirements of the modern VHA," he said.

THE LARGER TREND

This past week, The Washington Post reported that job cuts are planned at the VA. But the department pushed back on that report.

"No VA employees are being removed, and this will have zero impact on Veteran care," Secretary Collins said in a social media post on Saturday.

"VA is simply eliminating about 25,000 open and unfilled positions – mostly COVID-era roles that are no longer necessary," VA Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz told *Healthcare IT News *by email on Monday.

While Kasperowicz said positions have gone unfulfilled for a year and "are no longer needed," all VA medical facilities are continuing to fill vacancies.

News about the cuts, however, prompted lawmakers on Monday to question if enough resources would be available at the VA’s electronic health record modernization office as it embarks on new deployments in 2026, even amid concerns about ongoing glitches with the EHR system.

ON THE RECORD

"Under a reorganized VHA, policymakers will set policy, regional leaders will focus on implementing those policies and clinical leaders will focus on what they do best: taking great care of veterans," said Collins in a statement Monday.

"The VA reauthorization strategy I am leading is to build on the changes Secretary Collins and the Trump administration are doing to right the ship and make VA programs work better," Bost said in a statement on Tuesday.

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News. *Email: *[email protected] Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.