June 02, 2025

Takano, Blumenthal Call on Trump VA to Maintain Medical Data Transparency for Veterans & Congress

“Transparency in healthcare quality is not an administrative burden—it is a moral imperative.”

WASHINGTON – House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano (D-CA) and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) today pressed the Trump Administration to continue publicly reporting critical quality-of-care data for veterans amid news the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is considering deleterious changes to how this data is collected and shared 

“It has come to our attention the Department may be considering harmful changes not only to how quality-of-care data is collected, but how it is shared with Congress and the public,” wrote the lawmakers in a letter to VA Secretary Collins. “We are particularly concerned by reports that VA may cease submitting quality-of-care data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for inclusion in the annual Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings. This data is displayed on the CMS ‘Care Compare’ website and is designed specifically to help patients make informed decisions about where to receive care.”

The lawmakers also stressed their concerns with VA’s intention to reduce its briefings to Congress on Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning (SAIL) data—which provides critical oversight metrics: “This is wholly unacceptable. These briefings are typically brief—often under 30 minutes—but provide essential insight into performance trends, including mortality, complications, and patient satisfaction. SAIL data serves as a critical early warning system when a VA medical center is underperforming and requires attention.”

Currently, VA is required by law to collect and report data on clinical outcomes (e.g., mortality and complication rates), patient safety events (e.g., infections, readmissions), and patient experience indicators (e.g., satisfaction and coordination scores) at both VA and in the community.

The Committees’ leaders emphasized the harm of VA suppressing data around medical care, noting the Phoenix wait-time scandal in 2014: “Congress strengthened transparency requirements in direct response to the Phoenix wait-time scandal and VA’s placement on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List in 2015. Since then, statutory requirements have expanded—most recently by section 104 of the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act (P.L. 118-210)—and any attempt to roll back reporting obligations represents a step in the wrong direction.” 

The Committees’ leaders concluded: “[W]e urge you to reaffirm VA’s statutory obligation to maintain a uniform, systematic approach to quality data collection and reporting…Transparency in healthcare quality is not an administrative burden—it is a moral imperative. Veterans and their families deserve to know how well the system that serves them is performing. Congress cannot fulfill its oversight responsibilities if key data are delayed, diluted, or withheld.”

The full text of the Committees’ leaders letter is available here.

• Print
• Email
• Tweet