David Shulkin | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2017 | |
| 9thUnited States Secretary of Veterans Affairs | |
| In office February 14, 2017 – March 28, 2018 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Deputy | Thomas G. Bowman |
| Preceded by | Bob McDonald |
| Succeeded by | Robert Wilkie |
| 11thUnder Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health | |
| In office July 6, 2015 – February 13, 2017 | |
| President | Barack Obama Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Robert Petzel |
| Succeeded by | Shereef Elnahal (2022) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | David Jonathon Shulkin (1959-07-22)July 22, 1959 (age 66) Highland Park,Illinois, U.S. |
| Political party | Independent[1] |
| Spouse | Merle Bari |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Hampshire College (BA) Drexel University (MD) |
David Jonathon Shulkin (born July 22, 1959) is an American physician who served as theUnited States Secretary of Veterans Affairs from 2017 to 2018 under PresidentDonald Trump, after serving as theUnder Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health from 2015 to 2017, under PresidentBarack Obama. On March 28, 2018, Trump dismissed Shulkin from his positionby tweet,[2] and announced thatPhysician to the PresidentRonny Jackson would be nominated as Shulkin's successor. (Jackson's nomination was withdrawn a month later.)[3][4][5][6]
David Shulkin was born July 22, 1959, to Jewish parents Mark Weiss Shulkin and Sonya Lee Shulkin (née Edelman),[7] at theFort Sheridan U.S. Army base inHighland Park, Illinois[8] where his father was an Armypsychiatrist.[9][10] Both of his grandfathers fought inWorld War I.
Shulkin earned aBA fromHampshire College in Massachusetts in 1982, followed by anMD degree from theMedical College of Pennsylvania (which has since merged intoDrexel University) in 1986. He then did hismedical internship atYale School of Medicine, and hisresidency andfellowship in General Medicine at theUniversity of Pittsburgh's Presbyterian Medical Center. He was aRobert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.[11]
Shulkin specialized inhealth care management.[1] He has been described as one of the "high priests" ofpatient centered care.[1] Shulkin was the President and chief executive officer ofBeth Israel Medical Center inNew York City.[12] While there, Shulkin would walk the wards after midnight after he discovered the night shift was providing a lower quality of care.[1] He also was president ofMorristown Medical Center and as vice president ofAtlantic Health SystemAccountable Care Organization.[13]
He was the first Chief Medical Officer of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital and later at the University of Pennsylvania Health System,[14]Temple University Hospital, and the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital.[15]
His other academic positions have included Chairman of Medicine and Vice Dean atDrexel University College of Medicine, and Professor of Medicine atAlbert Einstein College of Medicine.[16] Shulkin has been the editor ofJournal of Clinical Outcomes Management andHospital Physician, and has been on the editorial boards of several journals, includingJournal of the American Medical Association. He founded and served as the chairman and CEO of DoctorQuality, Inc., a consumer-oriented information service.[17][18]
Shulkin has written several peer-reviewed journal articles and other professional publications.[19] In 1999, Shulkin started apay for performance company called DoctorQuality, which ultimately failed.[1]
In 2015, Shulkin left the private sector when he was named by PresidentBarack Obama asUnder Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health in theUnited States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).[20][21][22][23] When his staff told him it would take ten months to organize a summit oncombat veteran suicides, Shulkin told them that during the wait 6,000 veterans would die and to get it done in one month, which they then did.[1]
On January 11, 2017, Shulkin was nominated by President-electDonald Trump asUnited States Secretary of Veterans Affairs.[24] Trump, who had first considered five others, nominated Shulkin after a recommendation by AmbassadorDavid M. Friedman.[1] On February 13, 2017, theUnited States Senate unanimously confirmed Shulkin as the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs in a 100–0 vote,[25] making him the only cabinet nominee by President Trump to have unanimous consent.[26] He was the first non-veteran to hold the position.[27] In this position, Shulkin oversaw the government's second-largest agency, with over 350,000 employees and 1,700 facilities.[1] Shulkin hoped to increase reliance on private health care for routine procedures, like hearing aids, so the department could focus on its core mission of caring for the wounded.[1]
For President Trump's address to ajoint session of Congress on February 28, 2017, Shulkin was thedesignated survivor in the line of succession of the president.[28]
In April 2017, Shulkin had every VA hospital and clinic begin publicly posting quality data and wait times.[1] He wanted to provide those with a less than honorablemilitary discharge with free mental health care.[1]
In May 2017, behind closed doors, Shulkin asked his VA healthcare directors to get rid of in-house optometry and audiology services to veterans—instead farming out those services to private community care.[29]
In early July 2017, Shulkin announced that any settlement with an employee will require the approval of the undersecretary, assistant secretary or equivalent senior-level official. This effectively stopped all settlements.[30] Lawyer Debra D'Agostino said that this will increase litigation against the VA and taxpayers will be paying for the VA's defense of itself and any illegal actions of its leadership. D'Agostino also said that federal agencies found liable for discrimination or whistleblower retaliation are not penalized as severely as private companies as compensatory damages are limited and there are no punitive damages available.[30]
On March 28, 2018, Trump announced on Twitter that Shulkin had been fired[31] and would be replaced by appointeeRobert Wilkie in the interim. Trump also announced thatRear AdmiralRonny Jackson would be nominated to replace Shulkin.[32]
Following his dismissal in March 2018, Shulkin highlighted the political pressure from the Trump White House to dismantle VA healthcare and send veterans to the private sector. In aNew York Times editorial, Shulkin warned that "privatization is a political issue aimed at rewarding select people and companies with profits, even if it undermines care for veterans."[33] Much of the political push to privatize VA healthcare comes from the political advocacy groupConcerned Veterans of America (CVA), which was backed byCharles andDavid Koch.[34] Privatization of VA healthcare is overwhelmingly opposed by veterans and veteran service organizations (VSO).[35] Political aides assigned to VA, includingJohn Ullyot,Camilo J. Sandoval andJake Leinenkugel, battled with Shulkin over the issue and advocated for his removal in an effort to coerce him to support privatization.[36][37] Shulkin's removal as head of the VA renewed concerns among veterans that the Trump administration would privatize VA healthcare.[38]
In September 2017,The Washington Post reported that Shulkin spent nearly half his time on a July 2017 international trip to Europe—which was paid for by taxpayers—sightseeing and shopping with his wife, Merle Bari.[39] Shulkin later toldThe Washington Post that he did "nothing inappropriate" on the trip, that the trip was taken primarily to attend aFive Eyes conference, and that personal visits to "various historic and other sites inLondon and inDenmark" were done "on nights, on weekends, the day before the conference started" and were "paid for by me".[40]
In February 2018, a report by Michael J. Missal, the Inspector General of Veterans Affairs, concluded that Shulkin's staff had misled both the agency's ethics officials and the public about the nature of the eleven-day trip.[41][42] The report said that Shulkin's chief of staff, Vivieca Wright Simpson, had altered emails and had made false statements to make it look like Shulkin was receiving a Danish government award to justify his wife accompanying him on the taxpayer-funded trip. The Veterans Administration had paid over $4,300 for her airfare. The Inspector General said that the overall expense for the trip was at least $122,334. The report also said that Shulkin had inappropriately accepted tickets toWimbledon worth thousands of dollars and had directed an aide to act as a "personal travel concierge" for the trip. The Inspector General referred his concerns about the potential criminality of the actions undertaken by Shulkin's chief of staff to theDepartment of Justice, which declined to prosecute.[43]
In an interview withNational Public Radio the day after his dismissal, Shulkin said that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs has been invited to this conference for decades and that he gave three different lectures at this particular conference. Shulkin reiterated that the personal trips were taken outside the time of the conference was held. He said that the only expense incurred by his wife that was paid by the federal government was for hereconomy class airfare, which had been approved in advance. When the airfare expense was later questioned, Shulkin said he reimbursed the federal government for the cost. He also said that prior to his dismissal the Trump Administration had forbidden him from speaking to the media to respond to the accusations publicly.[44] The VA Inspector General report found no evidence that Shulkin was ever aware of the actions alleged to have been taken by the Chief of Staff. Furthermore, an internal VA Committee that reviewed the matter concluded that "there was no indication of fraud, misrepresentation or bad faith", on the part of Shulkin.[45]
Shulkin is married to Merle Bari, a dermatologist.[46] They have two children.[8]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 After Words interview with Shulkin onIt Shouldn't Be This Hard to Serve Your Country, November 2, 2019,C-SPAN |
After a thorough investigation, OIG's findings included (1) the Chief of Staff's alteration of a document and misrepresentations to ethics officials caused Secretary Shulkin's wife to be approved as an 'invitational traveler,' which authorized VA to pay her travel costs (although only airfare was claimed); (2) Secretary Shulkin improperly accepted a gift of Wimbledon tickets and related hospitality; (3) a VA employee's time was misused as a personal travel concierge to plan tourist activities exceeding that necessary for security arrangements; and (4) travelers' documentation was inadequate to determine the trip's full costs to VA. The OIG did not assess the value of the trip to VA or determine whether the Europe travel, as conducted, was 'essential,' per VA policy.
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Robert Petzel | Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health 2015–2017 | Succeeded by Poonam Alaigh Acting |
| Preceded by | United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs 2017–2018 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Cabinet Member | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Cabinet Member | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Cabinet Member |
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