Covid-19 Pandemic: VA Provides Health Care Assistance to Civilians as Part of the Federal Response
Abstract
As the nation's largest integrated health care system, VA has significant resources to respond to large-scale disasters and emergencies requiring a public health response. As a part of the nations federal response to COVID-19, FEMA tasked VA to provide emergency resources to support states, territories, tribes, and other federal agencies through mission assignments. The CARES Act included a provision for GAO to report on the ongoing monitoring and oversight efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report describes (1) how VA determines its capacity to accept mission assignments and (2) the number and types of mission assignments VA conducted from March 2020 through February 2021, among other objectives. GAO interviewed VA officials and analyzed documents related to VA's civilian health care response to COVID-19, including VA's mission assignments from March 2020 through February 2021. GAO also interviewed FEMA and Department of Health and Human Services officials to obtain information on the interagency coordination efforts to assign and conduct mission assignments.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1174790
Entities
People
- Ann Tynan
- Cathleen J. Hamann
- Colin Ashwood
- Debra A. Draper
- Jacquelyn Hamilton
- Kenisha Cantrell
- Stella Chiang
- Vikki Porter
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office