 When it comes to veterans' health care reform, it's hard to separate the noise from the truth. So DAV is setting the record straight. Some politicians, political and veterans groups have suggested VA should only focus on operating specialized centers of excellence to treat things like amputations, blindness, spinal cord injuries, burns, PTSD and traumatic brain injury. VA should focus on areas of expertise and build centers of excellence around these disciplines. We can develop centers of excellence and replace the VA. So why is this such a bad idea? And how could it possibly hurt veterans? To start, the VA's current system of 150-plus medical centers and 1000-plus outpatient clinics would shrink significantly, forcing veterans into the private sector for all their remaining care. As VA facilities would be located further apart and in mostly urban areas, hundreds of thousands of veterans would be forced to travel farther and wait longer for the care they need. In addition, splitting veterans' health care between VA specialists and private routine care providers creates a disconnect, thereby diminishing the quality of veterans' overall care and making it much harder to coordinate their treatment. So what's a better solution? Rather than downsizing the VA to address access issues, we should provide new access options by creating VA urgent care centers, extending operating hours to nights and weekends, and continuing to expand the use of telemedicine and web-based healthcare to make the system more convenient, efficient and responsive to the needs of veterans. Don't get lost in the noise. Learn more and get involved in the effort to reform veterans' health care at dav.org slash setting the record straight.