Heinrich touts plan to reassess veterans clinic data

May 6—The outlook for four endangered Northern New Mexico veterans' outpatient health clinics has brightened.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich on Thursday announced he has a "working agreement" with the head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to reassess data that is providing the impetus behind a recommendation to close the facilities.

The VA recommendation earlier this spring to close clinics in Española, Gallup, Raton and Las Vegas, N.M., came under withering fire from veterans and their families who say their health needs will not be adequately met if the facilities close.

Heinrich, Sen. Ben Ray Luján and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández have been critical of the data and have held community meetings well attended by veterans and families. The clinics serve 4,717 New Mexico veterans.

Heinrich, chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the VA, issued a news release saying he and VA Secretary Denis McDonough had reached an agreement to take another look at the data.

Heinrich and other members of the state's congressional delegation have been critical of a recommendation the VA made to the Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission, charging the panel relied on a questionable assessment derived from data compiled from December 2018 to November 2020. The main concern, according to a news release, is the data doesn't account for health care shortages in New Mexico and the effects of COVID-19 on the health care market.

The study, which was released in March, said the agency should centralize medical services in major hubs throughout the country, based on demand. It recommended the shuttering of smaller facilities, including the four clinics in New Mexico.

But in community meetings, Luján, Heinrich and Leger Fernández heard from veterans who said the clinics are critical to their lives, contending the long drive to Albuquerque isn't always possible and takes them away from trusted medical care they've long enjoyed.

The report recommended modernizing the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center in Albuquerque. It also said New Mexico had 69,090 veterans enrolled in the VA health care program and is projected to see a nearly 4 percent decrease by the 2029 fiscal year.

In a Wednesday hearing to review the VA's budget for the 2023 fiscal year and appropriations requests for the 2024 fiscal year, McDonough said the commission should update the recommendations once a separate assessment is completed. He said the VA had asked a "red team" to look at the data; it determined the information is dated.

"The GAO [Government Accounting Office] said it is dated. The IG [inspector general] has said that data is dated," McDonough said in response to a question from Heinrich.

McDonough added the agency has hired a contractor to update the numbers.

"If the data has moved in an appreciable way, I think the commission should update their recommendations to reflect it," McDonough said.