VA Medical Resources Allocation System

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Resource Planning and Management System (RPM). GAO noted that: (1) RPM appears to be an improvement over previous VA resource allocation systems, since it forecasts expected workloads and provides data to better match resources to anticipated workloads; (2) RPM reduces the ability of facilities to take advantage of the system by providing more costly procedures; (3) VA has made limited use of RPM in assessing the reasons for differences in operating costs and in changing facilities' historical budgets; and (4) VA has not used RPM to allocate resources in a way that considers differences in veterans' access to care throughout the system.