# VA Destroys Vets Medical Records To Eliminate Backlog



## boedicca (Feb 25, 2014)

This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!

In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila!   Much less backlog!  

This is what we should expect as the ginormous snowball of ObamaCare Fake Coverage causes a big backlog of requests for care in networks that are too small to handle the demand.

Hopenchange!

_mployees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) destroyed veterans medical files in a systematic attempt to eliminate backlogged veteran medical exam requests, a former VA employee told The Daily Caller.

Audio of an internal VA meeting obtained by TheDC confirms that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally canceled backlogged patient exam requests.

The committee was called System Redesign and the purpose of the meeting was to figure out ways to correct the departments efficiency. And one of the issues at the time was the backlog, Oliver Mitchell, a Marine veteran and former patient services assistant in the VA Greater Los Angeles Medical Center, told TheDC.

We just didnt have the resources to conduct all of those exams. Basically we would get about 3,000 requests a month for [medical] exams, but in a 30-day period we only had the resources to do about 800. That rolls over to the next month and creates a backlog, Mitchell said. Its a numbers thing. The waiting list counts against the hospitals efficiency. The longer the veteran waits for an exam that counts against the hospital as far as productivity is concerned.

By 2008, some patients were waiting six to nine months for an exam and VA didnt know how to address the issue, Mitchell said.

VA Greater Los Angeles Radiology department chief Dr. Suzie El-Saden initiated an ongoing discussion in the department to cancel exam requests and destroy veterans medical files so that no record of the exam requests would exist, thus reducing the backlog, Mitchell said.

Audio from a November 2008 meeting obtained by TheDC depicts VA Greater Los Angeles officials plotting to cancel backlogged exam requests.

Im still canceling orders from 2001, said a male official in the meeting.

Anything over a year old should be canceled, replied a female official.

Canceled or scheduled? asked the male official.

Canceled. _

Read more: VA destroyed veteran medical records to delete exam requests | The Daily Caller


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## Sunshine (Feb 25, 2014)

The VA is trying to practice using the primary care model and isn't really equipped for it.  Every veteran is supposed to get a physical every year, and letters go out to that effect.   I doubt that any complete record was destroyed, but likely just request for physicals.  In specialty clinics, if a person hasn't been seen in a year, they cannot get their meds refilled.  You have to use some common sense.  I would refill meds for people who had net been seen in a year but with a big notice on the bottle that said, 'no more refills until seen in clinic.'  That usually did the trick.  

One thing I learned working in state and federal facilities was to always look your bet and always dot your 'Is' and cross your 'Ts'.  Any day you walked out to go to your care the press could be standing there waiting for you.


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## boedicca (Feb 25, 2014)

In this case, the destruction of records involved complete deletion so that no record of the request for an exam remained.   I can see closing out obsolete requests, but outright eliminating that an exam request every existed is rather beyond the pale.


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## Bill Angel (Feb 25, 2014)

I get my healthcare from the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center. If a Vet has an urgent care issue they can visit the emergency care section and they will be examined by a physician that day. But you can end up waiting several hours if you are not in pain . The facility also has a Patient Advocate whom you can take complaints to. I had a  problem getting to see my Primary Care physician, so I contacted the Patient Advocate and she got me an appointment with my physician the same day that I had complained.


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## Sunshine (Feb 25, 2014)

boedicca said:


> In this case, the destruction of records involved complete deletion so that no record of the request for an exam remained.   I can see closing out obsolete requests, but outright eliminating that an exam request every existed is rather beyond the pale.



I think there is more top the story.  Having worked in the VA, I know how their computer documentation system works.  Clerks cannot delete appointments, only cancel and state the appointment was canceled by patient or by clinic.  When I took a sick day, it said 'canceled by clinic.'  If the patient called and canceled it said 'canceled by patient.'  Psych hospital discharges had to be seen 4 times in 30 days.  That meant overbooking for me, but it had to get done.  New patients had to be scheduled within 2 weeks of their request.  Many in primary care were waiting longer than that for their routine physicals, though, and they kept a running list so they could plug them into cancellation spots.  Anyone with an emergent condition was evaluated and sent to the ER.  Walk ins were seen that day.  No clinician can delete a record, nor does one have the authority to call up IT and tell them to delete a patient record.  I know some clinics are more efficient than others, but this story just doesn't add up.


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## Moonglow (Feb 25, 2014)

Sunshine said:


> The VA is trying to practice using the primary care model and isn't really equipped for it.  Every veteran is supposed to get a physical every year, and letters go out to that effect.   I doubt that any complete record was destroyed, but likely just request for physicals.  In specialty clinics, if a person hasn't been seen in a year, they cannot get their meds refilled.  You have to use some common sense.  I would refill meds for people who had net been seen in a year but with a big notice on the bottle that said, 'no more refills until seen in clinic.'  That usually did the trick.
> 
> One thing I learned working in state and federal facilities was to always look your bet and always dot your 'Is' and cross your 'Ts'.  Any day you walked out to go to your care the press could be standing there waiting for you.



Yes you can get your meds filled.
My primary team doc left for another position(late 2012), the replacements have been temporary, now that we have gotten a permanent one I get to go to the VA for my annual checkup. My scripts for narcs have expired but I call in every month and they are re-filled.I've been doing it this way for a little over a year.

I hear people taking script testosterone are getting strokes. I was going to request that on my next visit,but now, I am not so sure since strokes are in my family history..


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## Moonglow (Feb 25, 2014)

Bill Angel said:


> I get my healthcare from the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center. If a Vet has an urgent care issue they can visit the emergency care section and they will be examined by a physician that day. But you can end up waiting several hours if you are not in pain . The facility also has a Patient Advocate whom you can take complaints to. I had a  problem getting to see my Primary Care physician, so I contacted the Patient Advocate and she got me an appointment with my physician the same day that I had complained.



I go to the VA in Fayetteville, Ar. I have nothing but compliments on their abilities even with a heavy case load..


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## Sunshine (Feb 25, 2014)

Moonglow said:


> Sunshine said:
> 
> 
> > The VA is trying to practice using the primary care model and isn't really equipped for it.  Every veteran is supposed to get a physical every year, and letters go out to that effect.   I doubt that any complete record was destroyed, but likely just request for physicals.  In specialty clinics, if a person hasn't been seen in a year, they cannot get their meds refilled.  You have to use some common sense.  I would refill meds for people who had net been seen in a year but with a big notice on the bottle that said, 'no more refills until seen in clinic.'  That usually did the trick.
> ...



Once a clinician gets to know a patient, you can do things that need to be done.  Bottom line on those 'rules' is that a clinician's practice is not regulated by the silly rule maker upper.  We are regulated by the medical and nursing boards.  If the VA makes a rule that you can't give a medicine until the patient comes in, they can't enforce it.  You are under your own license and let's say someone is late for their visit and a clinician refuses to renew  he patient's oxygen.  In life and death situations you have to go ahead and renew or send them to the ER.  You can't withhold life saving meds because they are late for their physical.


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## Sunshine (Feb 25, 2014)

The more I think about this the more I'm thinking it is just a disgruntled employee or former employee trying to make trouble for the department.  As a manager in a place like the VA you WANT to be able to show that your clinic doesn't have enough staff to handle the case load if that is indeed the case.  That way you can make a reasonable request of the director for more staff.  If the manager didn't do that and try to get adequate staffing, then he/she is a little slow.


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## usmcstinger (Feb 26, 2014)

This is not the first the VA has destroyed records.

The National Association of Radiation Survivors (NARS), an organization formed to help atomic veterans in 1982 has tried to bring the issue to national attention. Litigation by NARS in the past has revealed that the Veterans Administration destroyed critical documents related to radiation exposure of GIs that clams adjusters were prejudiced against radiation claims, that they opposed legislative changes in favor of atomic vets, and even violated VA regulations and federal laws. The VA admitted that it denied 99.49% of claims brought by atomic veterans and their widows.


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## jillian (Feb 26, 2014)

boedicca said:


> This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare



not to normal people


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## WillowTree (Feb 26, 2014)

Why do the wounded warriors advertise on TV for help?


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## Sunshine (Feb 26, 2014)

usmcstinger said:


> This is not the first the VA has destroyed records.
> 
> The National Association of Radiation Survivors (NARS), an organization formed to help atomic veterans in 1982 has tried to bring the issue to national attention. Litigation by NARS in the past has revealed that the Veterans Administration destroyed critical documents related to radiation exposure of GI&#8217;s that clams adjusters were prejudiced against radiation claims, that they opposed legislative changes in favor of atomic vets, and even violated VA regulations and federal laws. The VA admitted that it denied 99.49% of claims brought by atomic veterans and their widows.



Before they got the new electronic charting system, patient records were a nightmare.  I worked in TN back in the 90s and they would bring patients from other VAs that didn't have a psych provider.  Half the time they forgot the record.  Seeing a patient you don't know without a chart is a nightmare.  

The way the current system works, I don't see how this could have happened.  I also don't see why.  Because if the back log is that large, that is clear justification for getting more staff.  It can take a while to happen, but it did get me some help when I was having to see too many patients in a day.  

I am inclined to think there was a disgruntled employee or former employee who was seeking revenge for some real or imagined wrong and called the OIG.


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## usmcstinger (Feb 28, 2014)

VA Hospitals at Northport and Manhattan, NY are very good. One reason is their affiliation with very good private Hospitals. Northport is connected with Stony Brook Hospital and Manhattan with NYU Medical Center. In addition, the are in close proximity to each other. They have meetings once a week with representatives of Veterans Organizations that are in the areas they service. 

http://va-hospital.findthebest.com


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## Sunshine (Feb 28, 2014)

usmcstinger said:


> VA Hospitals at Northport and Manhattan, NY are very good. One reason is their affiliation with very good private Hospitals. Northport is connected with Stony Brook Hospital and Manhattan with NYU Medical Center. In addition, the are in close proximity to each other. They have meetings once a week with representatives of Veterans Organizations that are in the areas they service.
> 
> VA Hospitals | Ratings, Care Outcomes, and Performance Data



Nashville and Murfreesboro are pretty good as well.  They are affiliated with Vanderbilt.

I, myself, was always rated very high in the surveys.


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## waltky (Mar 1, 2014)

The faster dey go, the behinder dey get...

*VAs time to resolve disability appeals shoots up*
_February 28, 2014  WASHINGTON  The average time for a denied claim to work its way through the cumbersome Department of Veterans Affairs appeals process shot up to more than 900 days last year, double the departments long-term target._


> After hovering between 500 and 750 days for the past decade, what the VA refers to as its appeals resolution time hit 923 days in fiscal 2013. That was a 37 percent jump in one year, from 675 in fiscal 2012, according to a review of the departments annual performance report.  The departments long-term goal is to get that figure to 400 days, although the trend over the past decade has been in the other direction.  Asked about the slowdown during a conference call to discuss the VAs appeals system, the department said it has been reviewing the measure to see if its the most meaningful one to convey to veterans how long the appeals process might take. The department also said it was continuing to look for ways to make the process more efficient.
> 
> Laura Eskenazi, the official who oversees the departments Board of Veterans Appeals, cautioned that the long processing time is not at all indicative of inactivity. She said the many layers built into the system prompt many of the delays.  The VA organized a conference call Thursday with reporters to explain its complicated, multi-layered appeals process, which begins when a veterans claim for disability benefits is denied in full or in part.  Disability benefits are awarded to veterans who suffer physical or mental injuries during their military service. They range from $131 a month to $2,858 a month for a single veteran.
> 
> ...


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## Sunshine (Mar 1, 2014)

waltky said:


> The faster dey go, the behinder dey get...
> 
> *VAs time to resolve disability appeals shoots up*
> _February 28, 2014  WASHINGTON  The average time for a denied claim to work its way through the cumbersome Department of Veterans Affairs appeals process shot up to more than 900 days last year, double the departments long-term target._
> ...



This isn't just the VA.  Federal pensions are also backlogged.  I had a patient who was a former postal employee who had been waiting several months for his to start.  I don't know what the VA was doing, but mine started pretty quickly compared to what I was reading and hearing about.  It wasn't much of a concern to me because it was small and in the interim they paid for all my insurance.  But government services under Obama have become most inefficient.  One does have to wonder why.


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## waltky (Mar 18, 2014)

Granny says, "Dat's right - what took `em so long?...

*Some veterans will now have their Social Security disability benefits expedited*
_March 18, 2014 ~ The federal government has launched a new process to expedite Social Security disability claims for a special category of veterans, the Social Security Administration announced Tuesday._


> Under the new system, veterans with a VA disability compensation rating of 100 percent Permanent and Total will have their applications for Social Security disability benefits processed faster, similar to the way the agency currently handles disability claims from Wounded Warriors.  We have reached another milestone for those who have sacrificed so much for our country, and this process ensures they will get the benefits they need quickly, acting Social Security commissioner Carolyn Colvin said in a news release. While we can never fully repay them for their sacrifices, we can be sure we provide them with the quality of service that they deserve. This initiative is truly a lifeline for those who need it most.
> 
> Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., who introduced legislation in Congress to promote the initiative, praised the change.  No one wants to put Americas veterans through a bureaucratic runaround, he said in the release. As the baby boomer generation ages and more veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan need care, this common sense change will help reduce backlogs and cut through unnecessary red tape so that our most disabled veterans receive the benefits theyve earned.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Apr 15, 2014)

Stuck in the middle with you...

*Soldiers stuck in backlogged disability system can't go forward, can't go back*
_April 13, 2014 Sgt. Chris Peden is stuck. The Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier is spending his last months in the Army too damaged to be the gung-ho paratrooper of his first Iraq deployment but not ill enough to be cut loose from his enlistment with his Stryker brigade._


> He&#8217;s in the limbo of a disability system the Defense Department created seven years ago with good intentions. It was designed to make sure wounded service members smoothly enroll for veterans benefits and start receiving checks within a month of leaving uniform.  For Peden, the downside comes in the hundreds of days he&#8217;s had to continue showing up at battalion headquarters even though he can&#8217;t concentrate, struggles with mood swings and has physical injuries that slow him. With little to do because he can&#8217;t handle much responsibility, he sometimes passes the time playing games on his cellphone.  &#8220;I can&#8217;t do what I used to do. I&#8217;m not capable,&#8221; said Peden, 32, a Tacoma resident diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and who endured several head injuries early in his military service.
> 
> A year and a half ago, he was sent home early from a Stryker tour in Afghanistan.  &#8220;My brain literally just doesn&#8217;t work the way it used to,&#8221; he said.  He is among about 700 soldiers in Lewis-McChord&#8217;s 7th Infantry Division who are leaving the Army for medical reasons through a joint Defense Department and Veterans Affairs program known as the Integrated Disability Evaluation System.  The IDES process is supposed to take 295 days from the time the Army begins considering a soldier for an early medical retirement to the day that soldier starts receiving VA benefits.  But the military and the VA have yet to hit the deadlines they set in 2007 when they laid the groundwork for the program. The average time soldiers spend in the system sits just shy of 400 days &#8212; about 3½ months longer than the target.
> 
> ...



See also:

*Combat veterans battle an enemy within: Addiction*
_April 13, 2014 ~ The first time Pearson Crosby went to the methadone clinic at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center in early 2013, he asked his father to go with him.  But couldn't tell him why._


> Crosby, who played varsity basketball at Council Rock High School South, had served four years in the United States Marine Corps, with two tours in Iraq.  When he came home from war in late 2008, he soon faced another scourge - addiction to prescription pain medications. His life descended into another hell, one maybe worse than war.
> 
> He couldn't admit to himself, much less to his family, what he'd become. And now, on Jan. 24, 2013, the VA insisted that if he wanted to continue getting care, he needed to join its hardest cases at the methadone clinic.  "I wasn't understanding the gravity of the situation," said Robert Crosby, Pearson's father, tears welling in his eyes as he recalled the day. "And when I got down there and saw the guys coming in, guys in their 50s and 60s, going there since Vietnam, all I could do was cry."  Crosby, now 28, could no longer deny where his life was headed. Seeing people tied to the clinic every day terrified him.
> 
> ...


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## Howey (Apr 15, 2014)

Two points:

Funny how those of us on the board who use the VA praise it, and..

Wouldn't it be nice if Congress would allocate more funds for VA care?


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## Howey (Apr 15, 2014)

News Releases - Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs


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## Politico (Apr 16, 2014)

They do it with SS claims all the time. Why not the VA too.


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## waltky (Aug 26, 2014)

‘Entitlement’ mentality on bonuses at VA facilities...

*Lawmakers blast VA over ‘entitlement’ mentality on bonuses*
_June 20, 2014  WASHINGTON — House lawmakers said Friday a pay bonus system where senior executives essentially wrote their own performance evaluations might have fueled patient scheduling abuses and dysfunction at the Department of Veterans Affairs._


> Between 2010 and 2013, not one of the more than 400 VA senior executives received a performance rating of less than “Fully Successful,” even as hospitals and clinics hid wait times with secret lists, some veterans died from disease outbreaks, and many more waited months for basic health care, said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.  “Bonuses are not an entitlement,” he said. “They are a reward for exceptional work. VA’s current practice only breeds a sense of entitlement and a lack of accountability.”  Congress has been searching for answers over the past two months after revelations employees throughout the VA falsified wait lists to mask long waits. About 57,000 veterans nationwide have waited over a month to receive health care guaranteed as part of their military service, and whistleblowers have claimed delays have led to deaths.
> 
> A VA inspector general investigation found the wait times — falsified at 70 percent of facilities — were used to issue rewards and bonuses to department management.  “It seems the only thing the Department of Veterans Affairs is effective at doing is writing bonus checks to each other,” said Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., calling the VA the most mismanaged department in the federal government.  Miller said the bonus awards were given out in some questionable cases. An administrator overseeing a Pittsburgh VA hospital where a deadly outbreak of legionnaire’s disease was given a one-time, $63,000 bonus.
> 
> ...



See also:

*VA: No proof that delays in care caused deaths at Phoenix hospital*
_August 25, 2014 - In a written memo about the report, VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald said: "... OIG was unable to conclusively assert that the absence of timely quality care caused the death of these veterans."_


> The Department of Veterans Affairs says investigators have found no proof that delays in care caused any deaths at a VA hospital in Phoenix, deflating an explosive allegation that helped expose a troubled health care system in which veterans waited months for appointments while employees falsified records to cover up the delays.  Revelations that as many as 40 veterans died while awaiting care at the Phoenix VA hospital rocked the agency last spring, bringing to light scheduling problems and allegations of misconduct at other hospitals as well. The scandal led to the resignation of former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. In July, Congress approved spending an additional $16 billion to help shore up the system.  The VA's Office of Inspector General has been investigating the delays for months and shared a draft report of its findings with VA officials.
> 
> In a written memorandum about the report, VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald said: "It is important to note that while OIG's case reviews in the report document substantial delays in care, and quality-of-care concerns, OIG was unable to conclusively assert that the absence of timely quality care caused the death of these veterans."  McDonald acknowledged that the VA is "in the midst of a very serious crisis." He also promised to follow all recommendations from the inspector general's final report.  "We sincerely apologize to all veterans and we will continue to listen to veterans, their families, veterans service organizations and our VA employees to improve access to the care and benefits veterans earned an deserve," said McDonald's memo, which was also signed by Carolyn Clancy, VA undersecretary for health.  The inspector general's final report has not yet been issued. The inspector general runs an independent office within the VA.
> 
> ...


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## dadsgm (Aug 26, 2014)

Yes there is a problem with getting request for a disability rating processed by the VA; Yes there is a problem getting an appeal processed. The government has thrown money at the VA in order to improve/shorten the process but the problem resides in system procedures and in ancient technology ( hand written applications and files) circulated by individuals.  Until those processes are addressed in total nothing will change about gaining access to the VA.  Once you do gain access (receive your disability rating or letter of authorization to use the VA) the problem still exists in that most Hospitals and clinics do not have the personnel (Doctors, Specialists, or space and equipment) to handle the increased number of patients.  This will require additional personnel, equipment and clinic/hospital space and that is currently being addressed by the Congress and the VA.  It will take time perhaps years for the kinks to be worked out but they will be.
Once you are in the system /patient as I have been for 20+ years you will find it to be very good.
Yes there are problems in various facilities but the vast majority are dedicated and well versed in their profession.  It is those others that you as a patient have got to report and stand up to. Remember, they are their to give you the health care you need and you have to let someone know that it isn't happening.


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## waltky (Aug 28, 2014)

'Systemic malfeasance' at VA facilities...

*Beyond Phoenix: VA IG report finds systemic malfeasance*
_August 27, 2014  WASHINGTON — The VA problems discovered in the inspector general audit released Tuesday go far beyond the Phoenix hospital system. Staff across the country including top leadership and managers were found guilty of ethical lapses and responsible for delays in veteran care at hundreds of facilities. Here are some of the other significant audit findings:_


> *  Various hospitals and clinics used six distinct schemes to manipulate patient wait times, including keeping paper lists outside the official electronic schedule, listing next available slots as veterans’ desired appointment dates, and canceling and rescheduling solely to reduce the appearance of a wait.
> 
> *  Despite the widespread manipulation, top VA management waived a requirement requiring certification of scheduling practices at hospitals and clinics during 2012 and 2013, which could have uncovered the activity. A VA official present when the decision was made said medical facility directors put up “significant resistance” and were “concerned about certifying results that may be later found inaccurate” by the IG.
> 
> ...



See also:

*Philly VA training slides depicted veterans as ‘Oscar the Grouch’*
_August 27, 2014 ~ An internal training guide used by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Philadelphia compares veterans unhappy about their care to Oscar the Grouch._


> The beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs depicted dissatisfied veterans as Oscar the Grouch in a recent internal training guide, and some vets and VA staffers said Tuesday that they feel trashed.  The cranky Sesame Street character who lives in a garbage can was used in reference to veterans who will attend town-hall events Wednesday in Philadelphia.  "There is no time or place to make light of the current crisis that the VA is in," said Joe Davis, a national spokesman for the VFW. "And especially to insult the VA's primary customer."
> 
> The 18-page slide show on how to help veterans with their claims, presented to VA employees Friday and obtained by The Inquirer, also says veterans might be demanding and unrealistic and tells VA staffers to apologize for the "perception" of the agency.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Aug 29, 2014)

The heart of the issue...

*CBO: Why VA claims exploded and ways to slow the trend*
_August 28, 2014 ~ America’s population of living veterans fell by almost five million, or 17 percent, from 2000 to 2013. So why did the number of veterans drawing disability compensation climb by 55 percent over that period? And why has yearly VA disability payments tripled since 2000 to reach $60 billion in 2014?_


> The Congressional Budget Office explains why in a new report, and the primary reason is not found among veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.  That source of claims is significant but not yet near its peak.  A greater factor has been liberalized laws and policies on “service connected” ailments, particularly decisions to compensate Vietnam War veterans for common medical conditions of aging and lifestyle because of an “association” with possible exposure to herbicides used in that war.  For example, in 2000 only 38,000 veterans from all war eras were receiving disability compensation for diabetes.  By last year, 320,000 veterans from the Vietnam War alone drew diabetes-related compensation.
> 
> The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) expanded its list of diseases presumed caused by Agent Orange to ischemic heart disease, Parkinson’s disease and certain types of leukemia in 2010.  By June of last year, that decision had led to VA processing 280,000 claims for the newly presumptive ailments and to making $4.5 billion in retroactive disability payments.  Another factor of growth in VA claims has been a weak labor market, CBO says, which encourages out-of-work or underemployed veterans to apply for disability compensation.  Current law allows them to do so at any age and as often as they like.  Indeed, laws enacted in 2000 and 2008 required VA to strengthen the help given to veterans to apply for disability benefits and substantiate claims.  VA also increased outreach to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and eased PTSD diagnostic requirements.
> 
> ...



See also:

*Phoenix VA horror stories: Case file vignettes from VA IG investigation*
_August 27, 2014 ~  Here are some excerpts from some of the case files in the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general's investigation:_


> Case No. 29
> 
> In late summer 2013, a man in his early 60s with heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and hepatitis B and C, had severely depressed cardiac function, indicating heart failure and increased risk for sudden death. He had an implantable defibrillator placed in his heart but it had been removed. A Phoenix cardiologist recommended that he have a similar device implanted in four to five weeks. In early 2014, still without the procedure, the man collapsed in his kitchen and died three days later. According to the report, timely placement of the device "might have forestalled that death."
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Sep 11, 2014)

VA disability claims records also manipulated to hide overly long delays...

*Whistleblower claims records manipulation by VA appeals board*
_September 10, 2014  WASHINGTON — Mirroring a scandal that engulfed its health care system, VA managers handling disability benefit appeals also manipulated records to hide overly long delays in deciding cases, an agency whistleblower testified Wednesday on Capitol Hill._


> The chairman and head office staff of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals shifted cases in a tracking system in 2012 to wipe evidence it had held some for months, and over a year in at least one case, Kelli Kordich, an attorney with the board, told a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee.  The sworn testimony sparked concerns among lawmakers that the systematic practice of doctoring electronic records at hundreds of VA hospitals and clinics to disguise long wait times may have spread to other areas of the sprawling federal agency.  The Board of Veterans’ Appeals, which now has 280,000 pending appeals cases, said the incidents happened two years ago and were quickly fixed.
> 
> Kordich said a VA union sent a letter to former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki in June 2012 notifying him that board staff were unnecessarily delaying appeals. Veteran cases ranged from 120 to 415 days old, including five cases held personally by the board’s principal deputy vice chairman.  “Most of the cases involved decisions on appeals of waiting veterans that already had been prepared by board attorneys and were simply awaiting the signature” of the head office staff, she said.
> 
> ...



See also:

*'Tens of thousands' more medical staff needed, says VA chief*
_September 11, 2014 ~  The Department of Veterans Affairs needs “tens of thousands” more personnel working in VA hospitals and clinics to meet patient demand, the new VA Secretary, Robert “Bob” McDonald, told lawmakers Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee._


> The size of the staff shortage, McDonald said, explains why VA has launched “a big recruiting effort” which he kicked off recently with visits to Duke University and University of Pennsylvania medical schools to tell students there why “VA is where they want to work.”  Congress is pressing to clarify VA staff shortage as the department struggles to recover from a patient wait-time scandal, demand for care grows due to a force drawdown, and the nation at large also copes with a shortage of health workers, particularly mental health care capacity.  McDonald got more specific than some senators expected, at one point estimating the VA staff shortage at 28,000 against current staffing of 300,000. McDonald attributed that figure to his deputy, Sloan Gibson, who was acting secretary after retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki resigned in May.
> 
> When 28,000 elicited a “Wow” from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), committee chairman, McDonald added that it includes both “clinicians and other employees.”  Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) later challenged the figure, telling McDonald VA can’t hold a reliable number on its medical staff shortage before it completes an ongoing study of staff productivity and patient demand.  “How can you make a determination that you need 28,000 medical staff,” Tester asked. “I mean you’re a wonder-worker, probably, but in fact that information still hasn’t been hammered out.”  McDonald conceded the point.  “We are going through a process right now,” the secretary acknowledged, “where we are, location by location, specialty by specialty, [trying] to understand how many people we really need.”
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Sep 17, 2014)

Granny wants to know how dey rate a raise with the backlog dey got??...

*VA announces boost to pay scales for doctors, dentists*
_September 17, 2014 ~  Veterans Affairs doctors and dentists could earn $20,000 to $35,000 more a year as part of new VA Secretary Bob McDonald’s plan to recruit and retain more providers for veterans, the VA announced Wednesday._


> The VA has proposed the updated pay tables for doctors and dentists who provide care for veterans, but said the pay scale for physicians in leadership roles will not change.  A VA spokesman said the possible increase of the minimum and maximum pay ranges is for new hires or to help retain current employees, and does not mean that all doctors and dentists will automatically get a raise. Instead, he said, each decision about pay will be based on the skills and qualifications of the doctor or dentist being recruited.  McDonald foreshadowed the announcement Monday in San Diego, saying the VA needs to hire more doctors, nurses and clinicians and to “pay competitively” based on performance and experience to keep the new hires from leaving.
> 
> Competitive salaries are more important than ever for the VA, as the U.S. is in the midst of a doctor shortage that is expected to keep growing, reaching a national shortage of 130,600 doctors by 2025, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.  Medical schools have increased enrollment to meet the demand, but federally funded residency training programs remain in short supply because of a Congressionally mandated cap, according to the association. McDonald recently began a nationwide recruiting campaign in which he is visiting medical schools to tell new doctors why they should consider working for the VA.
> 
> ...



See also:

*Doctor: VA downplayed link between wait times, deaths*
_September 16, 2014:  WASHINGTON — Contrary to the findings of the VA’s inspector general, there is a link between wait times and patient deaths at veterans hospitals, according to prepared testimony from a VA doctor._


> “I believe the OIG case review overlooked actual and potential causal relationships between health care delays and veteran deaths,” Katherine Mitchell, medical director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System’s Iraq and Afghanistan Post-Deployment Center, said in a statement submitted for a House Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
> 
> Mitchell will be joined by retired Phoenix VA doctor Samuel Foote, who helped expose a growing scandal in veterans care. Foote said the Veterans Affairs Inspector General used a report on care at VA hospitals as damage control, rather than to get to the bottom of major deficiencies in the health care system. In his own testimony, Foote will say the Inspector General’s report looks like a coverup.  “I would like to use this statement to comment on what I view as the foot-dragging, downplaying and frankly, inadequacy of the Inspector General’s Office,” Foote wrote in prepared testimony also to be delivered Wednesday.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Oct 29, 2014)

Granny says, "Dat's right - what took `em so long?...

*VA removes Alabama medical director at center of scandal*
_October 24, 2014  WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs has removed an Alabama director who oversaw officials accused of falsifying data and manipulating patient records._


> James Talton was the director of the Central Alabama Veterans Healthcare System and had been on paid administrative leave since August, after revelations surfaced ranging from long wait times at system facilities to employees helping patients buy drugs. He was removed after an investigation by the Office of Accountability Review investigation substantiated allegations of “neglect of duty,” according to a VA statement.
> 
> The move comes a day after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other lawmakers blasted VA Secretary Bob McDonald for not doing enough to remove bad leaders amid a nationwide scandal in veterans’ health care. The scandal began this summer when whistleblowers revealed that officials had created secret wait lists to hide the facts that patients were denied care for months and that some died while awaiting treatment. It cost former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki his job and his replacement, McDonald, has been under increasing pressure to rid the system of officials seen as responsible for the problems.
> 
> ...



See also:

*McCain, other lawmakers blast new VA director for reform delays*
_October 23, 2014  WASHINGTON — The VA and its inspector general were hit with new criticism from Congress this week over the handling of records manipulation in the Phoenix veterans’ hospital system._


> Arizona senators John McCain and Jeff Flake on Thursday said newly appointed VA Secretary Bob McDonald is failing to terminate misbehaving executives such as disgraced Phoenix director Sharon Helman, despite a new law that fast-tracks firings.  Meanwhile, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., on Wednesday questioned the VA inspector general’s integrity and independence after a 2008 memorandum was made public showing the IG knew about VA records manipulation in Phoenix years before it blew up into a national scandal.
> 
> The IG launched a review of the department’s entire health care system last spring after reports that perhaps dozens of veterans died while waiting for care in Phoenix, and VA managers and employees doctored appointment records to hide the long wait times. The investigation confirmed the clerical wrongdoing and McDonald promised this summer to overhaul the system by eliminating bad executives and bad practices, such as records manipulation and retaliation against whistleblowers.  “The clearest example of your failure to change the culture at the VA is the continued employment of Sharon Helman … who has been on paid administrative leave for nearly six months,” McCain and Flake wrote in a Thursday letter. “Ms. Helman and other senior leaders collected huge bonuses for the timely delivery of health care to veterans, many of whom died while awaiting care after being placed on secret waiting lists.”
> 
> ...


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## Delta4Embassy (Oct 29, 2014)

boedicca said:


> This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!
> 
> In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila!   Much less backlog!
> 
> ...




That's clever. Can I do that with Mom's 'to-do list?'  "Finished!"


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## waltky (Nov 14, 2014)

Granny says can dey's bigwig butts...

*VA allowing executives extra time to challenge firings*
_November 13, 2014:  WASHINGTON — VA officials told lawmakers Thursday that it has been giving federal executives linked to its nationwide health care scandal more time to appeal firings because a new law aimed at faster terminations may violate their rights._


> Department of Veterans Affairs Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson told a House oversight committee the agency is allowing executives targeted for termination an additional five days to make their case. He said the VA fears the massive overhaul law passed over the summer does not provide enough time and would result in firings being overturned by an appeals board.  Months after the overhaul law passed, the VA has proposed disciplinary action against about 42 executives but has not fired any managers linked to the manipulation of records to hide long wait times at veteran hospitals, including Sharon Helman, the director at the Phoenix clinic where the off-books scheduling scandal erupted. The lack of action has rankled some in Congress who want faster action to root out a widespread culture of wrongdoing that led to the problems.  “The case law is very clear that we have to provide a reasonable opportunity [for VA executives] to respond to charges,” Gibson said.
> 
> The additional five days is not included in the law but was added after “clear and unequivocal” advice from VA legal counsel, he said. The overhaul passed in August streamlined an appeals process that often took many months and replaced it with one that can be completed in a month — one week for an executive to file an appeal and three weeks for an appeals board to rule on the appeal.  Gibson said the additional time was an effort by VA to square the requirements of the new law with legal precedent that indicated executives are entitled to a longer appeals window.  Members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee called the change an unnecessary new layer of bureaucracy that ignores the intent of Congress.  “The law is clear — it says they should be fired,” said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the veterans committee and a key architect of the VA overhaul law.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Dec 17, 2014)

Retaliation against VA whistleblower...

*Doctor says 'sham peer review' used to destroy his career after pointing out VA problems*
_December 15, 2014 — For 24 years, Navy Cmdr. Jeff Hawker served his country, leaving active duty to continue treating his military brethren as a Department of Veterans Affairs doctor. After he started working at the Salem VA Medical Center, though, he said it took just a few months for officials at the medical center to oust him and to destroy his career after he reported dangerous medical practices._


> “You serve and you come back and you run into the corruption and malpractice” of the VA , he said.  At a time when the VA is scrambling to hire doctors to make up for a critical shortfall, Hawker said he was the victim of a so-called “sham peer review,” a problem many say is widespread in the VA and little reported because the victims fear bringing attention to their negative reviews.  Hawker said vindictive local VA officials have effectively ended his career after he voiced serious concerns about patient safety at a busy Virginia hospital, including a doctor performing procedures Hawker said he wasn’t trained to do and life-threatening medical errors. Worse, Hawker said, veterans there are still at serious risk months after he reported the problems.
> 
> His allegations, passed through the office of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., were enough to trigger a health care inspection by the VA Office of the Inspector General and an investigation by the Virginia Board of Medicine. Those inquiries are ongoing.  “We are working diligently on it,” Veterans Affairs IG spokeswoman Catherine Gromek said.  Investigators for the House Veterans Affairs Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., has aggressively pursued cases of wrongdoing by VA officials, recently invited Hawker to meet with them to discuss his case.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Jan 9, 2015)

Doctor fatally shot at El Paso veteran's clinic...

*FBI: Gunman fatally shot doctor at Texas veterans' clinic*
_January 7, 2015 — The FBI has confirmed that a doctor was fatally shot at a West Texas veterans' clinic in an attack that also left the suspected gunman dead._


> Special Agent Mike Martinez on Wednesday declined to identify the doctor or the gunman.  The FBI is in the process of questioning hundreds of patients, staffers and others at the El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System clinic at Fort Bliss who may have witnessed the shooting Tuesday afternoon.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Jan 10, 2015)

Killer had threatened slain doctor...

*FBI: Gunman once threatened doctor he killed at VA*
_January 8, 2015 ~ A psychologist who was shot dead at a Texas veterans' hospital filed a complaint in 2013 saying his killer had threatened him, an FBI agent said Wednesday._


> Dr. Timothy Fjordbak, 63, was killed Tuesday by Jerry Serrato, a former Army soldier who worked for a brief time at the hospital as a check-in clerk. Serrato killed himself after shooting the doctor.  FBI Special Agent in Charge Doug Lindquist said Fjordbak had reported to police in October 2013 that Serrato verbally threatened him at a grocery store. Serrato approached Fjordbak, who didn't recognize him, Lindquist said.  The nature of the threat was "I know what you did, and I will take care of it," the agent said.  Peter Dancy, the facility's director, said there is no indication the two had a professional relationship when Serrato worked at the clinic.
> 
> Authorities said there were no records of any other threats to any other employees at the El Paso VA Health Care System.  Fjordbak was a "very respected doctor," Lindquist said. The doctor left private practice after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to treat military veterans returning from combat.  The doctor was killed on the fourth floor of the facility with a .380-caliber pistol. Serrato, 48, shot himself on the third floor, Lindquist said.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Sep 29, 2015)

Gov't. feather-bedders May Face Charges for Abusing Positions for Personal Gain...

*VA Officials May Face Charges for Abusing Positions for Personal Gain*
_Sep 28, 2015 | Two senior Department of Veterans Affairs officials could face criminal prosecution after the agency investigators found they coerced two VA regional office directors to leave their jobs so that they could then fill them._


> Diana Rubens had been a deputy under secretary for field operations until she took over as director for Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Philadelphia in June 2014. Kimberly Graves, formerly director of the Veterans Benefits Administration's Eastern Area Office (now called the North Atlantic District) took over as director of the St. Paul, Minnesota, VARO in October 2014.  "Our analysis of available evidence indicated two directors appear to have been inappropriately coerced to leave positions they were not interested in leaving to create vacancies for Ms. Rubens and Ms. Graves," the IG investigators said in the report.
> 
> The IG made criminal referrals to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia on the actions "orchestrated" by Rubens and Graves and said formal decisions on whether to prosecute are pending.  Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he expects the federal attorney's office to weigh the criminal referral and, if warranted, prosecute the officials "to the fullest extent of the law."  "This report is simply the latest in a long line of investigations showing VA officials helping themselves instead of helping America's veterans," Miller said.
> 
> ...


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## Moonglow (Sep 29, 2015)

Good, sadistic bastards...


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## waltky (Nov 2, 2015)

VA officials clam up at Congressional hearing...

*Subpoenaed VA Officials Refuse to Testify at Congressional Hearing*
_Nov 03, 2015 | Two Veterans Affairs Department senior executives invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination Monday at a congressional inquiry into claims they pushed other executives out of jobs that they then took over._


> Diana Rubens, director of the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Regional Office, and Kimberley Graves, director of the St. Paul, Minnesota Regional Office, plead the Fifth more than a half dozen times to questions from House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida.  The two are now facing disciplinary action under the provisions of the Accountability Act Congress passed last year to fast-track firings of VA employees for misbehavior or incompetence, Danny Pummill, principal deputy undersecretary for benefits, told lawmakers.  "They are now in the appeal process," Pummill said. "At the end of seven days, we can tell the committee what the punishment was."
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Nov 23, 2015)

2 VA senior executives demoted...

*2 VA Officials Demoted Amid Job-Manipulation Allegations*
_Nov 21, 2015 | Two high-ranking officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs were demoted Friday in response to allegations that they manipulated the agency's hiring system for their own gain._


> The VA said in a statement that Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves were demoted from senior executives -- the highest rank for career employees -- to general workers within the Veterans Benefits Administration.  Rubens was paid $181,497 as director of the Philadelphia regional office for the VBA, while Graves earned $173,949 as leader of the St. Paul, Minnesota, regional office.  The VA's acting inspector general said in a report this fall that Rubens and Graves forced lower-ranking regional managers to accept job transfers against their will. Rubens and Graves then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their pay while reducing their responsibilities.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Jan 8, 2016)

Granny says fire his butt...

*Implicated VA Exec: Fire Me or Let Me Go Back to Work*
_ Jan 07, 2016 | WASHINGTON -- A key executive in the wait list scandal at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System claims he's been held on paid administrative leave for 19 months because the VA lacks evidence to fire him._


> Lance Robinson, the assistant director at the Phoenix VA, was placed on leave May 30, 2014, after the VA office of inspector general found he was accountable for a scheme to cook the books at the facility to cover up dangerously long patient wait times.  Robinson was suspended with pay for failure to provide oversight while patient appointment requests were either hidden or destroyed. Another VA investigative body, the Office of Accountability Review, later found Robinson had retaliated against one of the whistleblowers.
> 
> Robinson's attorneys, in a Dec. 28 letter to Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee chairman, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the committee's ranking member, disputed the VA's stated reasons for disciplinary delays and cited external reviews that they say cleared their client of any wrongdoing.  "The fact that the VA has not actually terminated Mr. Robinson is its own admission that he did nothing wrong," Robinson's lawyer, Julia Perkins of Shaw, Bransford and Roth, said in a statement.  "They don't know what to do with him," she told Stars and Stripes. "They aren't willing to admit they were wrong because it is too high profile."
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Feb 26, 2016)

Shenanigans at Cincinnatti VA, Pennsylvania drunk nurse come to light...

*Cincinnati VA Officials Face Disciplinary Actions, Possible Charges*
_Feb 25, 2016 | The director of the Veterans Affairs Department's regional service network in Cincinnati, Ohio, Jack Hetrick, turned in his resignation on Thursday after hearing from VA headquarters he was to be fired and dismissed from federal service._


> At the same time VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. David Shulkin said he has removed the Cincinnati VA Medical Center's acting chief of staff, Dr. Barbara Temeck, from her job pending administrative action.  Investigators found evidence that Temeck ordered veterans be sent into the community for care as a cost-shifting measure, resulting in poor quality of care. They also substantiated misconduct by both Hetrick and Temeck related to Temeck's providing prescriptions and other medical care to members of Hetrick's family.
> 
> Some of the substantiated allegations may result in a criminal investigation, according to the VA.  "We are committed to sustainable accountability," Gibson said in announcing the actions against the two. "We will continue to use VA's statutory authority to hold employees accountable where warranted by the evidence. That is simply the right thing to do for veterans and taxpayers."  The Cincinnati VA facility has been the subject of VA investigations dealing with patient care and alleged employee misconduct.
> 
> ...



See also:

*Nurse Accused of Participating in Surgery at VA Hospital While Drunk*
_Feb 25, 2016 - A Pennsylvania nurse was under the influence of alcohol while assisting with an emergency surgery at the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center earlier this month, police said._


> Asked during a police interview why he thought he was being questioned, 59-year-old registered nurse Richard J. Pieri allegedly answered, "I guess it has something to do with me being drunk on call," according to The Times Leader.  Pieri was charged with reckless endangerment, driving under the influence and public drunkenness stemming from the Feb. 4 incident.  Pieri allegedly forgot he was on call on the evening of the surgery and reportedly told police that he drank four or five beers while playing slot machines at the Mohegan Sun casino in the Poconos. He was called to the hospital just before midnight, according to WNEP.
> 
> Surveillance video reportedly shows Pieri get out of his truck and bump into a concrete barrier on his way into the medical center. He nearly falls and stumbles numerous times, according to an affidavit viewed by The Times Leader.  His duties during the appendectomy procedure included prepping and retrieving the patient, preparing surgical materials, documenting the surgery and monitoring the patient's vital signs, the affidavit stated. But Pieri allegedly struggled to complete these tasks, finding it difficult to log in to a hospital computer and incorrectly logging times, The Morning Call reported.  A coworker anonymously reported Pieri, according to WNEP.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Mar 5, 2016)

Progress bein' made in breaking backlog...

*Pentagon, VA Make Progress in Breaking Medical Records Logjam: Carter*
_Mar 04, 2016 | Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday that his efforts to bring in top talent from Silicon Valley were making progress in solving one of the Pentagon's long-standing problems -- the integration of military service records with the Veterans Administration._


> Carter said that Chris Lynch, the new head of Defense Digital Services at the Defense Department, had "solved some important problems for us" by bringing coders and other experts with him "for what we call a tour of duty" on a temporary basis at the Pentagon.  One of the problems Lynch, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and former Microsoft executive, has worked on was improving data sharing in the department "to make sure our veterans get access to their benefits," Carter said. "Chris turned the whole thing around in a couple of weeks."  The records transfer issue has plagued both the VA and Defense Department for years. In 2013, the VA and the department gave up on their joint strategy to build a single, integrated record. The Pentagon later decided to purchase a commercial off-the-shelf system by awarding a $4.3 billion contract to a vendor team led by Leidos last year.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



See also:

*Ailing Blue Water Veterans Search for Agent Orange Evidence*
_ Mar 05, 2016 | During the Vietnam War, hundreds of US Navy ships crossed into Vietnam's rivers or sent crew members ashore, possibly exposing their sailors to the toxic herbicide Agent Orange. But more than 40 years after the war's end, the US government doesn't have a full accounting of which ships traveled where, adding hurdles and delays for sick Navy veterans seeking compensation._


> The Navy could find out where each of its ships operated during the war, but it hasn't. The US Department of Veteran's Affairs says it won't either, instead choosing to research ship locations on a case-by-case basis, an extra step that veterans say can add months -- even years -- to an already cumbersome claims process. Bills that would have forced the Navy to create a comprehensive list have failed in Congress.
> 
> As a result, many ailing vets, in a frustrating race against time as they battle cancer or other life-threatening diseases, have taken it upon themselves to prove their ships served in areas where Agent Orange was sprayed. That often means locating and sifting through stacks of deck logs, finding former shipmates who can attest to their movements, or tracking down a ship's command history from the Navy's historical archive.  "It's hell," said Ed Marciniak, of Pensacola, Fla., who served aboard the USS Jamestown during the war. "The Navy should be going to the VA and telling them, 'This is how people got aboard the ship, this is where they got off, this is how they operated.' Instead, they put that burden on old, sick, dying veterans, or worse -- their widows."
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Mar 15, 2016)

Heads rollin' at Phoenix VA hospital...

*VA Firing Three Top Officials at Phoenix VA Hospital*
_Mar 15, 2016 | Three top officials at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, are being targeted for removal._


> VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson on Tuesday identified the three as Associate Director Lance Robinson, Chief of Health Administration Service Brad Curry, and hospital Chief of Staff Dr. Darren Deering.  The Phoenix VA became ground central to the wait-times scandal that eventually revealed that officials across the VA system were hiding their inability to meet appointment standards by keeping secret lists of veterans seeking care.  "It is vitally important to veterans in Phoenix and across the nation to understand that we will take appropriate accountability action as warranted by the evidence," Gibson said in a statement. "Frankly, I am disappointed that it took as long as it did for proposed actions to be made, but I am satisfied that we carefully reviewed a massive amount of evidence to ensure the accountability actions are supported."
> 
> The VA did not detail the allegations against the three but The Arizona Republic reported last month that the executives were under investigation to determine their "knowledge, involvement and culpability" in the wait-times manipulation and retaliation against whistle-blowers who exposed the problem.  Gibson said the cases against the three distracted from progress being made to improve veterans care, but removing them is an important step in getting past the past controversy and "refocusing solely on caring for our nation's veterans."  Two months ago Gibson changed VA policy to allow him to place officials subject to an administrative investigation into non-patient care where they could carry out duties as assigned. Previously, VA policy was to put the officials on paid administrative leave.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Mar 23, 2016)

More shenanigans at the VA...

*VA Suspends Top Official in Relocation Scam*
_ Mar 23, 2016 | WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs is suspending the head of the Veterans Benefits Administration for allowing two lower-ranking officials to manipulate the agency's hiring system for their own gain._


> Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson says acting VBA chief Danny Pummill will be suspended without pay for 15 days for his role in a relocation scam that has roiled the agency for months.  Pummill failed to exercise proper oversight as Kimberly Graves and Diana Rubens forced lower-ranking managers to accept job transfers and then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their senior-level pay while reducing their responsibilities, Gibson said Tuesday.  Pummill is one of VA's five highest-ranking officials and leads VBA's employees across 56 regional offices nationwide that provide compensation and pension benefits, life insurance, home loans and other services to millions of veterans.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



See also:

*Lawmaker Questions Why VA Reinstated Employee Linked to Armed Robbery*
_Mar 23, 2016 | A House lawmaker is demanding answers from the Veterans Affairs Department over how an employee fired after being convicted of charges related to a 2015 armed robbery could win her job back._


> Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican from Florida and chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, also wants to know if Elizabeth Rivera's termination from the VA hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was challenged "by the fact that the HR [Human Resources] manager responsible [for] imposing her discipline, Mr. Tito Santiago Martinez, is a convicted sex offender."  In a March 22 letter to VA Secretary Bob McDonald, Miller said, "The union allegedly asserted that Ms. Rivera should be reinstated in her job since Mr. Santiago was also convicted of a crime and therefore cannot discipline other employees who have been convicted of crimes."
> 
> Miller sent the letter the same day The Daily Caller reported that Rivera was arrested in connection with an armed robbery last year.  According to a June 16 online report on the San Juan news site Metro, Rivera was in a car with Rolando River Febus when Febus stepped out of the vehicle armed with a gun and attempted to rob a couple. Local police spotted the incident and Febus fled on foot, leaving Rivera in the car.  Although initially charged with armed robbery, she ultimately pled guilty to two misdemeanor charges, according to the Caller report, which did not detail the charges.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Mar 24, 2016)

Zeroing out wait times to cover backlog...

*Inspector General: VA Schedulers ‘Zeroed Out’ Wait Times for Texas Veterans Seeking Health Care*
_March 23, 2016 | An investigation by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) “substantiated” reports that schedulers at the VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Houston, Texas “zeroed out” patient wait times between 2010 and 2014 in order to make it appear that veterans were being seen by healthcare professionals during the standard 14-day time period._


> “Interviews of [25 current and former] schedulers in all three services disclosed that clerks had been trained to schedule by using the patients’ actual appointment date as their desired date,” a March 8 report by Quentin Aucoin, assistant inspector general (IG) for investigations at the VA, revealed.  “If an appointment was not available on the patient’s desired date, then the clerks were instructed to use the actual appointment date as the desired date. The clerks did this by ‘going out of the system and going back in’, so as to reflect that the desired date and the appointment date was the same, thereby zeroing out the wait time,” the report stated.
> 
> A former Primary Care supervisor told inspectors that “if clerks were scheduling patients outside of the 14-day time frame, they could be ‘written up’, which he later defined as written counseling,” the IG report stated.  Another VA employee said that “the desired date and the actual appointment day always had to be zero, and that if they failed to do this, their name would appear on ‘a list’.”  One supervisor “denied that she ever instructed anyone to do this,” the IG reported. “She agreed that the guidance may have been misinterpreted by some clerks, but emphasized it was never her intention or direction that wait times should be zeroed out.”
> 
> ...


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## koshergrl (Mar 24, 2016)

CareOregon destroys their unworked backlog as well. This is a common practice with socialist medicine.


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## Sun Devil 92 (Mar 27, 2016)

koshergrl said:


> CareOregon destroys their unworked backlog as well. This is a common practice with socialist medicine.



Can you supply a link.


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## waltky (Apr 16, 2016)

Granny says, "Dat's right - Now we know how dey been makin' progress onna backlog...




*IG Report: VA Has Been Shredding Documents Needed for Veterans' Claims*
_Apr 16, 2016 | Department of Veterans Affairs investigators conducted spot checks at 10 veterans benefits offices around the country and came to a disturbing conclusion: The VA has been systemically shredding documents related to veterans' claims -- some potentially affecting their benefits.  The VA Office of Inspector General conducted the surprise audit at 10 regional offices on July 20, 2015, after an investigation into inappropriate shredding in Los Angeles found that staff there was destroying veterans' mail related to claims, according to an OIG report released Thursday._


> Investigators arrived unannounced at regional offices and sifted through 438,000 documents awaiting destruction as of 11 a.m. Of 155 claims-related documents, 69 were found to have been incorrectly placed in shred bins at six of the regional offices: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Reno, Nev. There were none at Baltimore, Oakland, San Juan and St. Petersburg, Fla.  Investigators determined that two of the 69 documents affected benefits directly, nine had the potential to affect benefits and the rest would not affect benefits but were required to be in the claims folders before destruction and were not there.
> 
> It was enough, the report said, to conclude that not only were the problems systemic, the impact could be serious.  "The potential effect should not be minimized," the report concluded. "Considering that there are 56 [VA regional offices], and if weekly shredding is conducted, it is highly likely that claims-related documents at other VAROs are being improperly scheduled for destruction that could result in loss of claims and evidence, incorrect decisions and delays in claims processing."
> 
> ...


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## Publius1787 (Apr 17, 2016)

boedicca said:


> This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!
> 
> In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila!   Much less backlog!
> 
> ...



Take heed all of you who want government sponsored universal healthcare in the Canadian/British stripe. You'll end up getting getting the quality of care they get at the VA; a place so filled with mediocrity that the only doctors who work there are the ones who can't gain employment anywhere else.


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## The Great Goose (Apr 17, 2016)

Publius1787 said:


> boediccin p said:
> 
> 
> > This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!
> ...


The nurses I know say that they would rather go into public if they needed it. They've worked in private and they say its understaffed and the doctors are worse.


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## Publius1787 (Apr 17, 2016)

The Great Goose said:


> Publius1787 said:
> 
> 
> > boediccin p said:
> ...



Nah, private holds them to a higher standard where they actually need to work and can be fired easily. Public guarantees them a job where they can get away with mediocrity, a pension, and gain job security via a firing process whereas the only way you could lay someone off is that they happen to commit suicide while on the job. And even then they would need to go through the normal 10 year layoff procedure. Just to think that the VA has screwed thousands of vets (many of the died) and hardly anyone one gets fired. My God the horror stories I could tell you about the VA.


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## The Great Goose (Apr 17, 2016)

Publius1787 said:


> The Great Goose said:
> 
> 
> > Publius1787 said:
> ...


No it doesn't.


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## Publius1787 (Apr 17, 2016)

The Great Goose said:


> Publius1787 said:
> 
> 
> > The Great Goose said:
> ...


Ladies and gentlemen, I've found another one.


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## Publius1787 (Apr 17, 2016)

Sunshine said:


> boedicca said:
> 
> 
> > In this case, the destruction of records involved complete deletion so that no record of the request for an exam remained.   I can see closing out obsolete requests, but outright eliminating that an exam request every existed is rather beyond the pale.
> ...



Yeah, my "friend" had a number of cancellations on him the VA claimed was "cancelled by the patient." It was a falsehood of course. This happened 4 times without his knowledge. He'd go in to get care and they'd turn him away telling him that his primary care doctor wasn't in.


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## Publius1787 (Apr 17, 2016)

Bill Angel said:


> I get my healthcare from the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center. If a Vet has an urgent care issue they can visit the emergency care section and they will be examined by a physician that day. But you can end up waiting several hours if you are not in pain . The facility also has a Patient Advocate whom you can take complaints to. I had a  problem getting to see my Primary Care physician, so I contacted the Patient Advocate and she got me an appointment with my physician the same day that I had complained.



The patient advocate is a sham. I tried to file a complaint on a family members behalf and the advocate kept rescheduling on me. I eventually visited and waited for hours. I finally caught up with her as she was leaving and she told me she was off the clock. It was 3:30 pm. It was the last time I made the 2 hour drive to meet with her.


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## The Great Goose (Apr 17, 2016)

Publius1787 said:


> The Great Goose said:
> 
> 
> > Publius1787 said:
> ...



you have not.


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## Publius1787 (Apr 17, 2016)

Sunshine said:


> Moonglow said:
> 
> 
> > Sunshine said:
> ...



I can't tell you how many times I played the bouncing between the ER and primary care clinic game.

ER: "That's the responsibility of your primary are provider."
PC: "My GOD WHY ARENT YOU IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM!!!"
ER: "I don't care what your PC doc says, we aren't authorized to do that for you, and we can't run those tests."
PC: "How'd it go? WHAT!!! Lemme make a phone call for you!"
ER: "We cant do that. Huh? Call this number? Do I look like your secretary!!??"
(Finally get the PC to call ER. ER Admits patient and releases with problem unresolved and undiagnosed but with a great amount of pain. Told to follow up with PC. Bed ridden for 5 months of excruciating pain, finally get a consultation for surgery when results come in from many follow on visits, consultation scheduled in 3 additional months, lost 80lbs.)

The VA is garbage!!! Of course they call and ask you to come in. They give yo a time and you tell them you need to consult with a friend because you're in excruciating pain, you cannot drive, and you need to ensure that the chosen time is good for your friend who will drive you. They tell you that they'll refuse to wait for you to call your friend on an additional phone and tell you that they'll just mark you down as a patient cancellation for failure to come up with an appointment time and/or adhere to the time they chose for you. Of course, in order to call them back you got to call the standard VA number again, make the request, and wait 48 hours for them to call you back.

If you need to get in touch with your primary care doc/facility do you think you can simply call or e-mail them? Nope, place a call in the 1800 line, tell them who you want to speak to, they'll tell you to wait to be contacted, and then they wait 48 hours to contact you if they contact you at all. Sometimes they never contact you back. The VA is garbage!!!

I'm a combat veteran and many members of my family are combat veterans. I have a ton of friends I served with who were combat veterans. All of them have VA horror stories. Some of them simply bite the bullet and go through private insurance because it is so much easier and the care is so much better.

This is just a small taste of the VA horrors, I have soooo many more examples!!! But the good news is that if you're a homeless vet who served out Vietnam in an office and managed to scam your way into the VA you have a one stop shop for your drug addiction. And when they schedule your PTSD social group/get to gather and you find that you happen to be the only combat veteran among a group of 15, don't be surprised because 90% of PTSD cases are fraudulent and simply used to increase benefits. Oh I could go on forever!!!! What is the topic discussed by these non-combat veterans who supposedly have PTSD you may ask? How to increase their disability, bitching about the disability they have, and teaching others how to scam the system for more disability and further scam the taxpayer. But don't they discuss their war time experiences in order to treat their PTSD? HELL NO!! FEW OF THEM HAVE ANY WAR TIME EXPERIENCE, AND THE ONES THAT DID RARELY SERVED IN COMBAT AND DID NOT HAVE A COMBAT JOB!! Oddly enough, the infantry are the least likely to get treatment for PTSD. But the guy who served in the ADMIN office is proud to tell you about his made up war experiences.


Soooo, I see I'm rambling now. Summary: THE VA IS GARBAGE!


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## Publius1787 (Apr 17, 2016)

The Great Goose said:


> Publius1787 said:
> 
> 
> > The Great Goose said:
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## waltky (Jun 10, 2016)

Three years to adjudicate a claim is w-a-y too long...




*Advocate: VA Must Reform Appeals Process 'Sooner Rather Than Later'*
_Jun 10, 2016 | A director at the Veterans of Foreign Wars doesn't know if Congress will pass legislation aimed at fixing the VA appeals claims backlog before or after the November presidential election._


> But given the problem has been growing for several years -- and a roughly 18-month implementation window, Gerald Manar is comfortable saying his organization "certainly supports addressing this problem and getting it done sooner rather than later."  In an interview Thursday with Military.com, the national services director for the VFW added, "but the problem is, this is a major election year."  With all 435 members of the House and 34 senators -- about a third of the Senate -- seeking re-election in the fall, there is little time to get a proposed appeals reform bill through the two congressional veterans' affairs committees and out to the two chambers for votes.  "The VA is pushing very hard to get both committees to do something this year," he said. "Whether it happens before July [when Congress goes into recess] or in the lame duck session, they understand that if it doesn't get done this year, it'll be another year before it gets done."
> 
> Manar also noted even if the bill is approved by Congress, about a year and a half will pass before the Department of Veterans Affairs can actually begin implementing it.  "I think 18 months is a realistic amount of time to gear up to take on the new claims processing initiative," he said. There will be changes required to VA information technology systems and a host of other modifications to the process, he said.  "We saw with the Choice Act that if you rush it, you don't do a good job," Manar said. He was referring to legislation intended to give veterans greater choice and more opportunities to go outside the the department for care. But the bill translated into different types of agreements for different providers, and thus problems for veterans trying to get treatment.  "The VA got burned on that once; they don't want to rush [this]." Manar said.
> 
> ...


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## regent (Jun 11, 2016)

Sunshine said:


> The VA is trying to practice using the primary care model and isn't really equipped for it.  Every veteran is supposed to get a physical every year, and letters go out to that effect.   I doubt that any complete record was destroyed, but likely just request for physicals.  In specialty clinics, if a person hasn't been seen in a year, they cannot get their meds refilled.  You have to use some common sense.  I would refill meds for people who had net been seen in a year but with a big notice on the bottle that said, 'no more refills until seen in clinic.'  That usually did the trick.
> 
> One thing I learned working in state and federal facilities was to always look your bet and always dot your 'Is' and cross your 'Ts'.  Any day you walked out to go to your care the press could be standing there waiting for you.


Where is it written that every vet is supposed to get a yearly physical? There is a priority list for veterans and certain vets are treated for service connected disabilities, the rest, as room is available.


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## waltky (Jun 19, 2016)

VA abandoned 'Fast-track' Firing Authority...




*Lawmakers Blast VA for Abandoning 'Fast-track' Firing Authority*
_Jun 17, 2016 | Lawmakers are furious that Veterans Affairs Department will no longer use the fast-track system for firing employees that Congress gave it more than a year ago._


> Department officials on Friday notified lawmakers they were passing on the expanded firing authority included in the VA Accountability Act of 2014. Officials haven't yet explained the move, and the department's record of disciplining employees under the law is unclear.  Lawmakers have repeatedly criticized VA Secretary Bob McDonald for what they say is an inability to fire problem employees, including one who returned to work after being arrested in connection with an armed robbery in Puerto Rico.  For example, Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia and chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said the decision to not use the expedited authority of accountability act is "outrageous and unconscionable.  "Two years ago, veterans were forced to wait far too long for care because of incompetent executives," he said. "Since then, we've seen scandal after scandal emerge at the department. While some progress has been made to hold those responsible accountable, there is still a long way to go and choosing to ignore these key reforms is a slap in the face to our veterans."
> 
> Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican from Florida who heads the counterpart panel in the House, said the the department "isn't very good at disciplining employees, but this decision calls into question whether department leaders are even interested in doing so.  "After all, VA is a place where egregious employee behavior, such as armed robbery participation and wait-time manipulation, is routinely tolerated," he said. "This decision underscores the urgent need for civil-service reform across the federal government that enables leaders to swiftly and efficiently discipline those who can't or won't do their jobs -- an ability that is presently almost nonexistent."
> 
> ...


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## Sun Devil 92 (Jun 21, 2016)

Publius1787 said:


> The Great Goose said:
> 
> 
> > Publius1787 said:
> ...



I remember this from way back them.

Funny.


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## waltky (Jun 22, 2016)

Granny says, "Shame on `em...





*Report: Wait Times Manipulated at Houston-area VA Clinics*
_ Jun 22, 2016 — Staff at Houston-area Veterans Affairs facilities improperly manipulated wait times for Texas veterans wishing to make a medical appointment, according to a federal report released Monday._


> The Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Inspector General said more than 200 appointments were incorrectly recorded for the year that ended in June 2015. Two former scheduling supervisors and a current director of two VA clinics instructed staff to incorrectly record cancellations as being canceled by the patient, the report shows.  Veterans in many instances then encountered average wait times of nearly three months when the appointments were rescheduled.  "These issues have continued despite the Veterans Health Administration ... having identified similar issues during a May and June 2014 system-wide review of access," according to the report. "These conditions persisted because of a lack of effective training and oversight."
> 
> Federal inspectors also determined that wait times for other veterans were understated by more than two months.  As a result, wait times "did not reflect the actual wait experienced by the veterans and the wait time remained unreliable and understated."  VA officials in the Houston area were directed to provide additional training for staff, improve scheduling audit procedures and take other steps to correct the lingering issue.
> 
> ...


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## saveliberty (Jun 22, 2016)

Purging Agent Orange contact from the records should prove helpful...


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## waltky (Jul 7, 2016)

Network of Public-Private Care Providers suggested to reduce VA wait times...




*Report on VA Calls for Network of Public-Private Care Providers*
_Jul 07, 2016 | A long-awaited report released Wednesday on the nation's troubled veterans' health care system recommends 18 "bold" changes, including creating a new network of public-private care providers, to address the crippling wait times and other problems at Department of Veterans Affairs._


> The Commission on Care called its report a "foundation for far-reaching organizational transformation," yet two members of the task force issued their own scathing dissent, saying the recommendations don't go nearly far enough to fix a failed system that needs a sweeping overhaul.  Debate over reform at the VA has been growing in the two years since the discovery of long appointment wait times revealed a pattern of data manipulation and poor access for veterans at VA medical centers across the country. Since then, promised reform has sparked volatile discussion. Controversial calls to close the VA and offer veterans privatized care, supported by the two dissenting commissioners, prompted unified opposition from major veterans organizations and sparked street protests by unionized VA workers.
> 
> The report submitted to VA Secretary Bob McDonald and President Barack Obama did not go that far, but it did identify a troubled system. The 15-member commission, created by Congress in the wake of the wait times scandal, found that despite billions of dollars spent to improve the sprawling health care system, the VA is still failing to provide adequate access to high-quality care. It suffers from flawed leadership, inadequate staffing, procurement problems and an antiquated IT system.  In their recommendations, the majority of commissioners endorsed a public-private network of community-based care that would replace the flawed Choice Program meant to give veterans access to private care when needed. They also called for creating a governing board to oversee reforms and operations at the Veterans Health Administration.
> 
> ...



See also:

*Group Criticizes VA Commission for Failing to Vote on Recommendations*
_Jul 06, 2016 | A veterans group is criticizing as inadequate the work of a congressional commission that concluded the Veterans Affairs Department still has "profound deficiencies" in delivering health care._


> The Concerned Veterans for America, an Arlington, Virginia-based organization that advocates for greater choice in veteran health care providers, described the panel -- of which it was a part -- as "broken," in part for failing to vote on its own recommendations.  "Basically we … have a broken commission, and because of a broken commission we have a broken report," said Darin Selnick, senior veterans affairs adviser for organization, which hosted a teleconference on Wednesday after the release of the panel's report.  Selnick, who served on the commission, participated in the teleconference with Stewart Hickey, a fellow commissioner and former executive director for AMVETS, and Dan Caldwell, vice president for political action at the Concerned Veterans for America.
> 
> The report includes some recommendations that Selnick and Hickey said they could support, such as creating a board of directors to oversee the Veterans Health Administration, eliminating the 30-day and 40-mile restrictions on using the Choice Act for non-VA care, and adopting a BRAC-like system to shut down unneeded VA facilities.  But they panned the overall package as continuing the status quo. They also criticized the commission for not putting each recommendation to a vote -- something that the chairmen of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees had wanted -- and for not publishing on the commission's website a letter dissenting from the recommendations.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Aug 7, 2016)

VA Access Improves but there is still work to do, jobs needed for vets...




*VA Access Improves, Work Still Needed: Report*
_Aug 05, 2016 | A new independent report on Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics found that although improvements have been made on issues such as access to care, there is still work to do._


> The Joint Commission, which conducts organization health care audits, began unannounced surveys on hospitals in the VA system between September 2014 and August 2015 at the VA's request, VA officials said. Some of the surveyed hospitals were then visited again through April of this year as part of a separate, previously scheduled round of visits, and their progress on key issues was examined, they said. The program looked at problems such as access to care, leadership and staffing.  "Phones were inconsistently answered when patients called to make appointments, even though insufficient staffing did not appear to be the reason," the investigation found. "Staff absenteeism also caused problems with access. There were often no plans for coverage. As a result, veterans would arrive with no one to see them and no process in place to assist them in rescheduling their appointment."
> 
> 
> 
> ...



See also:

*Post-9/11 Veteran Unemployment Rate Ticks Upward*
_Aug 05, 2016 | Unemployment rates for all veterans and especially for post-9/11 veterans went up in July despite a rosy government jobs report Friday that showed the U.S. economy strengthening._


> The Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report for July put the national unemployment rate at 4.9 percent, the same as in June, while overall veterans' unemployment rates were at 4.7 percent, up from 4.2 percent in June, even as employers made far more hires than expected.  The jobless rate for post-9/11 veterans, called Gulf War II-era veterans by the BLS, was pegged at 5.9 percent, up from 4.4 percent in June and 4.0 percent in May. Male post-9/11 vets had an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent in July, while female post-9/11 vets had an unemployment rate of 7.0 percent, the BLS said.  Unemployment rates for post-9/11 veterans had hit double digits during the recession before steadily coming down since 2011, according to BLS statistics.
> 
> In 2011, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law a program giving employers tax credits for hiring unemployed veterans. Other programs also have encouraged companies and government agencies to hire veterans.  Jackie Maffucci, research director for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, cautioned against drawing conclusions from the latest statistics on post-9/11 veterans jobless rates.  "While seemingly a large jump in the post-9/11 generation, the smaller sample size of the population sometimes results in more dramatic changes in rates from month to month," Maffucci said.  "While one month does not a trend make, it will be important in the next few months to monitor whether unemployment among the newest generations goes back down, as employment continues to be a primary concern among IAVA members," she said.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Sep 10, 2016)

VA system rigged for failure...




*Union Bosses, VA Bosses Rigging System for Failure*
_Sep 05, 2016 | U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican from Chumuckla, Florida, is the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. The views expressed in this commentary are his own._


> In an expletive-laden rant delivered earlier this year, a belligerent American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox threatened Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald with physical violence.  Cox was "prepared to whoop Bob McDonald's a--," he said. "He's going to start treating us as the labor partner … or we will whoop his a--, I promise you," Cox continued.  McDonald's response? Absolutely nothing.
> 
> The exchange perfectly encapsulates the corrosive influence government union bosses are having on efforts to reform a broken VA. It's a never-ending cycle in which pliant politicians and federal agency leaders bow to the bosses' demands to preserve the dysfunctional status quo of our federal personnel system, which almost guarantees employment for government bureaucrats no matter how egregious their behavior.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Sep 16, 2016)

Changes comin' `round to the VA...

*House Passes Legislation to Reform VA, Change Appeals Process*
_Sep 15, 2016 | WASHINGTON -- The House passed Department of Veterans Affairs reform legislation Wednesday evening that would change the process veterans use to appeal benefits claims and make it easier for the agency to fire bad employees._


> "This bill is about accountability," said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida, who introduced the legislation. "This bill is trying to give the [VA] secretary the tools he needs in order to hold employees accountable. We need to move forward."  The VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act, with amendments, passed by a 310-116 vote.  House Democrats, led by Rep. Mark Takano, D-California, ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, proposed some of the bill's amendments just before it was passed Wednesday. Many of the additions were aimed at different kinds of VA reform, including language seeking to improve the VA's ability to recruit physicians.
> 
> Before the vote, Takano, who ended up voting against the bill, thanked Miller for working to get some form of veterans legislation through the House. But Takano said he and Miller were "at odds on the underlying bill."  Instead, Takano and other Democrats voiced support during debate for a competing bill stalled in the Senate, the Veterans First Act. The Senate bill contains dozens of VA reforms, some of which Democrats attempted to get added to Miller's bill.
> 
> ...



See also:

*House Approves Bill to Make It Easier to Fire at VA*
_Sep 15, 2016 | WASHINGTON -- The House approved a bill Wednesday aimed at making it easier for the Department of Veterans Affairs to fire employees for misconduct or poor performance -- a source of ongoing tension with the Obama administration._


> The Republican-sponsored bill was approved, 310-116. Sixty-nine Democrats and 241 Republicans voted for the bill.  It would shorten the time employees are given to respond to proposed discipline or firing and would eliminate a provision that allows senior executives to appeal disciplinary actions to an independent review board.  GOP lawmakers have been urging the VA to fire more workers as a key step to improving the scandal-plagued agency.  House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller said a "pervasive lack of accountability among employees at all levels" is "the biggest obstacle standing in the way of VA reform."
> 
> The House bill is the latest in a series of efforts by lawmakers to respond to a two-year-old scandal over chronic delays for veterans seeking medical care, and falsified records covering up the long waits. Veterans on secret waiting lists faced scheduling delays of up to a year, and as many as 40 veterans died while awaiting care at the Phoenix VA hospital in Arizona, according to an investigation by the VA's inspector general.  Similar problems were soon discovered at VA medical centers nationwide, affecting thousands of veterans and prompting an outcry in Congress.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Oct 2, 2016)

VA withholding millions in benefits from housebound veterans...




*Veterans Denied Millions in Benefits by VA*
_Oct 01, 2016 | WASHINGTON -- Roughly $110 million in payments to thousands of housebound veterans was withheld from them by the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a new report from VA inspector general's office._


> The IG report found approximately 186,000 veterans as of March 2015 were designated as housebound because of illness or injury with errors in payments to about 33,400 of them. Others did receive payments, but they were delayed anywhere from five days to six years.  The report also found some veterans who were not designated as housebound received $44.3 million in money meant for housebound veterans.  "Staff did not accurately address housebound benefits," the report concluded. "As a result, some veterans did not receive benefits to which they were entitled, while taxpayer funds were wasted paying other veterans who did not meet the eligibility criteria."
> 
> The IG report blamed the errors on a faulty electronic system, poor training and management allowing VA staff to "arbitrarily decide these claims."  This is not the first time that VA's technology has been criticized. In its final report released in the summer, the Commission on Care -- a board established to propose recommendations for VA reform -- called the VA's technology "antiquated" and "disjointed." The commission called for a new system that would, in part, better allow the health care side of VA to communicate with staffers making benefits decisions.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Oct 30, 2016)

Granny says, "Dat's right - dey need to hire more doctors so dey can see more veterans...

*VA Slow to Implement Reform after Wait-time Scandal*
_Oct 29, 2016 | A GAO report states that, without a process in place, there’s “little assurance” the delivery of VA health care will improve._


> The Department of Veterans Affairs has been slow to make changes - or hasn't made changes at all - after numerous reviews into the agency after the 2014 wait-time scandal, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office.  Since it was discovered that employees at VA hospitals falsified data about veterans wait times, and veterans died while waiting for care, the agency has undergone internal and external reviews and inspections into its management practices, business processes, staffing levels and veterans' access to care.  The reviews, one of which cost the VA $68 million, concluded the agency needed to undertake a large-scale reorganization. But the VA doesn't have a process to follow through with those recommendations or effectively make changes, according to the report, which was released Thursday.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Nov 18, 2016)

Granny says, "Hey! Dem whistleblowers is s'posed to be protected...

*Veterans Affairs Whistleblower Resigns, Citing Retaliation*
_Nov 17, 2016 — A Department of Veterans Affairs employee who told Congress the agency was using unauthorized wait lists for mental health care in Colorado has resigned, saying he was subjected to retaliation for speaking out._


> Brian Smothers told The Associated Press Wednesday the VA had opened two separate inquiries into his actions and tried to get him to sign a statement saying he had broken VA rules. He said he refused.  Smothers also said the VA reassigned him to an office with no computer access, no significant duties and no social contact.  He called the VA's actions punitive and his working conditions intolerable. He said he resigned as of Tuesday.  VA officials had no immediate comment on Smothers' claim that he was punished for speaking up but said the agency does not tolerate retaliation. They said previously they take any allegation about unauthorized wait lists seriously and were cooperating with an inquiry.
> 
> Smothers alleges that Colorado VA facilities in Denver and suburban Golden used unauthorized wait lists for mental health services from 2012 until last September. He said the lists hid how long it takes for veterans to get treatment and made the demand for mental health care appear lower than it really was.  He said the longer that veterans have to wait for mental health care, the less likely they are to use it when it becomes available.  "It was totally unacceptable to me," Smothers said.  He added: "It's my hope that the incoming administration (of president-elect Donald Trump) goes and fires people."
> 
> ...



See also:

*Congress Backs Bill Requiring Timely Answers at VA Hotline*
_Nov 17, 2016 | WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs would have to ensure that all telephone calls and messages received by a crisis hotline are answered in a timely manner under a bill on its way to the president._


> The Senate on Wednesday gave final legislative approval to the measure. It comes after a report that more than one-third of calls to a hotline for troubled veterans are not being answered by front-line staffers because of poor work habits and other problems.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Dec 12, 2016)

Say what?!!!




*Report: VA Hospital Left Body in Shower Room for 9 Hours*
_Dec 12, 2016 — Staff at a Veterans Affairs hospital in the Tampa Bay, Florida area left a body in a shower for nine hours after a veteran died._


> Staff at a Veterans Affairs hospital in the Tampa Bay, Florida area left a body in a shower for nine hours after a veteran died and proper pickup procedures to the morgue weren't followed.  The Tampa Bay Times on Sunday reported that an internal investigation concluded that staff at the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System failed to provide appropriate post-mortem care to the veteran's body.  The investigative report said that leaving the body unattended for so long increased the chance of decomposition.  The unnamed veteran died in February after spending time in hospice care. The hospital's Administrative Investigation Board ordered retraining for staff.
> 
> Hospital spokesman Jason Dangel said hospital officials view what happened as unacceptable but have implemented changes to make sure it doesn't happen again.  "We feel that we have taken strong, appropriate and expeditious steps to strengthen and improve our existing systems and processes within the unit," Dangel said. "It is our expectation that each veteran is transported to their final resting place in the timely, respectful and honorable manner. America's heroes deserve nothing less."  The investigation found that once the veteran died, hospice staff members requested a staffer known as a "transporter" to get the body moved to the morgue.
> 
> ...



See also:

*Sound Off: Should the U.S. Privatize the VA?*
_December 8, 2016 - Everyone knows that Department of Veterans Affairs medical care needs a lot of improvement. Thousands of veterans can’t get care as quickly as they need it and then there are the really disheartening administrative disasters at VA hospitals like the recent one at the Tomah VA Hospital in Wisconsin or the 2014 scandal at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Phoenix._


> There are claims that the Concerned Veterans of America (CVA), a group funded by the Koch Brothers, wants to disband the VA, requiring all veterans to get private healthcare. The CVA disagrees with those claims,  but its proposals would allow for a panel appointed by the president to review and possibly close some VA medical centers while using the money saved to open up more veteran health care to the private market.
> 
> During the election, Democrats suggested that President-elect Trump supports that position. That’s not really the case, but Trump did call the VA “almost a corrupt enterprise” and suggested that veterans should have more private care options than they currently do.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Dec 23, 2016)

The more things change, the more they remain the same...




*VA Discloses Ratings of Its 146 Medical Centers*
_Dec 23, 2016 | Several facilities racked by scandal continue to struggle, the ratings show._


> Most medical centers serving veterans across the country are improving, according to a once-withheld rating system just released by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Yet, the ratings show several facilities racked by scandal continue to struggle.  Of the 146 medical centers rated, 120 of them, or 82 percent, improved in the past year, according to the VA. But the Phoenix hospital, the epicenter of the 2014 wait-time scandal, was one of the worst rated, and the hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin – another one that has recently come under fire – saw a drop in performance this year.  The performance ratings were released to the public under pressure following an investigation by USA Today earlier this month that revealed the ratings were being held, undisclosed, within the VA.
> 
> The VA gave a one- to five-star rating to 146 VA medical centers across the country indicating their quality-of-care at the end of 2016. The information posted online also shows whether each hospital improved since the end of 2015.  The report prompted several lawmakers – including Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Tim Walberg, R-Mich. -- to call for the information to be publicly released. The John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit -- named for Debbie Dingell’s husband, former Rep. John Dingell -- was given the lowest rating, one star, for 2015 and 2016.  "Veterans, just like every other patient, deserve to know how their hospitals are performing and what services need to be improved," Dingell and Walberg wrote last week in a letter to VA Secretary Bob McDonald. "Having a secret rating system only serves to increase distrust of the VA and may give the appearance that the department has something to hide."
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Feb 13, 2017)

Congress needs to approve more VA medical facility leases...




*Lawmakers Attempt Action on 24 VA Facilities in Limbo*
_Feb 11, 2017 | The VA must receive congressional approval to lease medical facilities with annual rent payments totaling more than $1 million_


> A handful of lawmakers are again making attempts to open 24 new Department of Veterans Affairs facilities across the country, some of which have been held up by Congress for two years.  The VA must receive congressional approval to lease medical facilities with annual rent payments totaling more than $1 million, according to federal law. Combined, the 24 facilities -- most of them outpatient clinics -- would cost about $228 million during the lease periods, which in some cases can last 20 years.  Congress has not approved a medical facility lease for the VA since 2014, said the office of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.  Warner and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, reintroduced legislation that would give the VA the go-ahead to open the clinics. Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., reintroduced a similar measure in the House.
> 
> One of the pending leases is for a new outpatient clinic in Hampton Roads, Va., totaling more than $18 million. In 2014, veterans at the Hampton VA Medical Center suffered the longest average wait times in the country for primary care, the Hampton Roads Daily Press reported. The wait times resulted from an increase in the number of patients, along with space and staff shortages.  Warner, who represents Virginia in the Senate, said health care providers at the hospital need the clinic to better manage their workload.  "Veterans deserve convenient access to the high-quality health care they have earned through their service," Collins said in a written statement. "These facilities... will allow veterans to receive outpatient care without the stress and difficulty of traveling to larger VA medical centers, which may be located far away from their homes."
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Mar 8, 2017)

House Committee OKs Bill on VA Accountability...




*House Committee OKs Bills on VA Choice Program, Accountability*
_8 Mar 2017 | The House Veterans Affairs Committee approved bills Wednesday to extend and expand the Department of Veterans Affairs' Choice Program and provide for more accountability of VA managers._


> "Whether it's creating a culture of accountability at VA, expanding access to quality care or protecting the rights entrusted to our nation's heroes, these bills will improve the lives of America's veterans and build a better VA," said Rep. Phil Roe, a Tennessee Republican and the committee's chairman.  The proposed legislation now goes to the full House for passage. Similar bills are working their way through the Senate.  "I am proud to support these important bills and look forward to moving them through the legislative process," Roe said.
> 
> Sen. John McCain, part of a bipartisan Senate group backing expansion of the Choice Program, said in a statement, "We simply cannot afford to send our veterans back to the pre-scandal days of unending wait-times for appointments, and I will be working closely with our leaders in the House and Senate to ensure our legislation makes it over the goal line."  Another bill passed by the House Committee, the VA Accountability First Act, would give VA Secretary Dr. David Shulkin "increased flexibility to remove, demote, or suspend any VA employee, including Senior Executive Service employees, for performance or misconduct."
> 
> ...



See also:

*VA to Provide Mental Health Care to Vets with 'Bad Paper' Discharges*
_8 Mar 2017 | WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs will begin making mental health care services available to veterans with less-than-honorable discharges who urgently need it, VA Secretary David Shulkin told lawmakers Tuesday night._


> "We are going to go and start providing mental health care to those with other-than-honorable discharges," Shulkin testified to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. "I don't want to wait. We want to start doing that.  Discharges that are other-than-honorable, including a "general" discharge, are known as "bad paper" and can prevent veterans from receiving federal benefits, such as health care, disability payments, education and housing assistance.  Lawmakers and veterans advocates have said service members with bad paper were, in many cases, unjustly released from the military because of mental health issues. They estimate 22,000 veterans with mental illnesses have received other-than-honorable discharges since 2009.
> 
> Shulkin's announcement Tuesday follows a recent push from Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., to force the VA to provide emergency mental health care to veterans with other-than-honorable discharges. Coffman introduced a bill last month requiring the VA to do so.  Shulkin credited Coffman for "changing my whole view of this."  The plan was announced in response to a question during the hearing about how Shulkin would attempt to prevent veteran suicides. In addition to providing care to veterans with bad paper, the VA secretary also told lawmakers that he wanted to hire approximately 1,000 more mental health care providers.  "Our concern is those are some of the people that right now aren't getting the services and contributing to this unbelievably unacceptable number of veterans suicides," Shulkin said.
> 
> ...


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## Political Junky (Mar 9, 2017)

boedicca said:


> This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!
> 
> In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila!   Much less backlog!
> 
> ...


That it comes from the Daily Caller makes it totally unreliable.


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## boedicca (Mar 10, 2017)

Political Junky said:


> boedicca said:
> 
> 
> > This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!
> ...


 

^^^ Blithering no-nothing windbag ^^^


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## waltky (Jun 4, 2017)

Veterans dying before they can be seen by a VA doctor...




*Veteran Found Dead in Car at Parking Lot of DC VA Hospital*
_2 Jun 2017 | WASHINGTON -- A congressional committee and the VA opened an investigation into a veteran found dead in his vehicle parked at a medical center in Washington, D.C.._


> The veteran's sister found her brother inside his vehicle at the Washington, D.C., Veterans Affairs Medical Center about 8:30 p.m. May 16. He was reported missing May 15 when he didn't return from an appointment at the facility, The Associated Press reported.  The veteran was "slumped over and unconscious," according to a report by the Metropolitan Police Department. The VA chief of police and a VA investigator arrived at the scene and a medic pronounced the veteran dead before police arrived at the hospital, according to the report. A medical examiner is determining the cause of death. The name of the veteran has not been released yet.  The hospital director, retired Army Col. Lawrence Connell, told NBC Washington that he is investigating why the veteran wasn't discovered sooner after he was reported missing.  The VA central office in Washington did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.
> 
> The VA medical center in Washington, D.C., is under investigation after a veteran was found dead in his vehicle parked at the facility[/center]
> 
> ...


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## badger2 (Jun 5, 2017)

Archives or no archives, we won't forget over-prescription of opiates at VA and the Tammy Baldwin scandal, nor the tainted yellow fever vaccine story.


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## badger2 (Jun 5, 2017)

No, what we're saying is the (theft [italics]) of the actual document for a prescription taken away from the patient inside the medical facility. This is in line with the modus operandi prompting this thread: the victim cannot prove what is happening to them. The patient did not produce a video proving that the document for a prescription passed hands, which would of course, identify at least one of the perpetrators., this disappearance is the nazi book-burning being spoken of in this thread, which also links to medical journals disappearing in three dimensions from medical libraries in the Western Hemisphere. The pretext, the excuse, is to save space, whereas the beneficial part of the pretext automatically sets up a state-sponsored surveillance system. Fasciem, lknowledge envy and 666 kuklos exothen, are the concepts.


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## badger2 (Jun 5, 2017)

You instantly (if not sooner) go back to the Brian Rossell story to begin a file entitled "Veteran Sisters." This will link PTSD and refusal of treatment for PTSD. What psychopath (or group of psychopaths) decided to not treat Rossell?


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## Iceweasel (Jun 5, 2017)

The main problem with the VA is that it's filled with civil servants, which is an oxymoron these days. Many of them simply don't give a shit and do the barest minimum while scooping up their fat paychecks and bennies. As is too often the case with government employees.

I worked in a VA hospital for over three years and so my opinion isn't without reason. I also had some treatment there on occasion as an employee. Once I had an ear infection. The appointment took two months. When the doctor asked how long I had it he said "only two months?" in a casual indifferent way. 

He prescribed some ear drops so I went down to the pharmacy and handed over the script. And wait. And waited. Four hours later with almost no one in the waiting room, many having come and gone and me asking about it I was told to wait some more. I walked out without my medication. But for all I know it could have eaten my ear drum. You people that want government in medicine are clueless.


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## badger2 (Jun 9, 2017)

Tomah has been mentioned in this thread, and "bad paper" cases should be examined with much more rigour, exemplified in the Brian Rossell / PTSD suicide. Note that "bad paper" can be created from within a medical installation. The "bad paper" victim cannot prove that the prescription was stolen outright from them, though if they oppose the theft, they will be stigmatized as "bad paper." Predatory capitalism's movements of extreme violence (the thieves get paid twice) is a very special delirium and stigmatizes swiftly: once stigmatized as "bad paper" the victim-scapegoat may have problems in choosing a quality doctor or future problems with medical insurance.


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## waltky (Aug 14, 2017)

Granny says, "Dat's right - The Donald cleanin' up the VA backlog mess...





*Congress Approves Bill to Address VA Claims Backlog*
_12 Aug 2017 | Congress has sent the president a bill aimed at trimming a rapidly growing backlog of veterans' disability claims._


> The House approved the bill by voice vote Friday during a brief session, sending the measure to President Donald Trump. The House is on recess, but a handful of lawmakers gaveled the chamber in and out of a session that lasted less than five minutes.  The veterans' bill, approved by the Senate Aug. 1, would reduce the time it takes for the Department of Veterans Affairs to handle appeals from veterans unhappy with their disability payouts. The measure is part of an ongoing effort to reduce a longstanding claims backlog and is a priority for VA Secretary David Shulkin, who calls the appeals process "broken."
> 
> Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he was pleased at the bill's passage.  "When it comes to putting our nation's heroes first, there can be no doubt that Congress has been hard at work," Roe said. Besides the claims bill, Congress also approved a measure to remove time restrictions on veterans' use of GI Bill benefits and cleared a $3.9 billion emergency spending package to fix a looming budget crisis and extend a program that allows veterans to receive private medical care at government expense.  Trump is expected to sign all three bills.
> 
> ...



See also:

*Report: New Mexico VA Office Denies 90 Percent of Gulf War Claims*
_14 Aug 2017 - A Veterans Affairs office during the 2015 fiscal year denied more than 90 percent of benefit claims related to Gulf War illnesses_


> A Veterans Affairs office in New Mexico during the 2015 fiscal year denied more than 90 percent of benefit claims related to Gulf War illnesses, marking the ninth-lowest approval rating among VA sites nationwide, according to a federal report.  The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Albuquerque office denied 592 of 640 Gulf War illness claims in 2015, which is the latest yearly data available, The Albuquerque Journal reported earlier this week.  The report released in June from the Government Accountability Office found approval rates for Gulf War illness claims are one-third as high as for other disabling conditions. The Gulf War illness claims also took an average of four months longer to process.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Dan Stubbs (Aug 21, 2017)

boedicca said:


> This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!
> 
> In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila!   Much less backlog!
> 
> ...


*I heard that they hired a guy from Mexico and he made a error  and thought the shredder was the copy machine.*


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## waltky (Oct 7, 2017)

Acting undersecretary for VA Health Care System Steps Down...




*Chief of VA Health Care System Steps Down*
_ 7 Oct 2017 | Dr. Poonam Alaigh, acting undersecretary for health since May, told VA employees that she was resigning for family reasons._


> The leader of the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system unexpectedly stepped down from her position, effective Saturday, leaving three top VA positions unfilled by permanent undersecretaries.  Dr. Poonam Alaigh, the acting undersecretary for health since May, sent a message to VA employees last week informing them she was resigning for family reasons.  "I have made the difficult decision to step down," Alaigh wrote. "I want you to know that it has been my greatest honor to serve [VA Secretary David Shulkin], each one of you and all of our veterans. As I prepare to now leave Washington, I thank you sincerely for what you have helped us to accomplish."
> 
> Alaigh will be replaced by Dr. Carolyn Clancy, who will take the position in an interim role. Clancy has been with the VA for more than 10 years and will now oversee a health system comprising more than 160 medical centers and 1,000 clinics that serves 9 million veterans.  The job switches hands during a time when the VA is wrangling with significant changes on how it delivers health care. The VA and Congress are expected to introduce proposals this month to overhaul the Veterans Choice Program, which allows some veterans to seek care in the private sector.  In addition to the undersecretary for health, the chiefs of the VA's two other sectors -- benefits and cemeteries -- are also temporarily filled.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Oct 20, 2017)

Politicians Outraged Over Vet's Death at VA Hospital...




*Politicians Share Outrage Over Vet's Death at VA Hospital*
_19 Oct 2017 | A nurse's aide was playing video games on her computer when she should have checked in on the patient._


> Members of the Bay State congressional delegation expressed outrage after a Vietnam veteran who required round-the-clock care died at the Bedford VA Medical Center.  The Boston Globe reported Tuesday that Bill Nutter, who had lost both legs to diabetes and had a condition in which his heart could stop, died at the veterans' hospital in July 2016 after a night-shift aide failed to check on him.  U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark said in an emailed statement: "When families trust the well-being of their loved ones to the VA, they deserve the peace of mind that comes with quality, compassionate care. That any veteran is subject to the treatment described today is unconscionable, and we must use every available resource to not only get to the bottom of what happened at the Bedford VA, but also to make sure it never happens again."
> 
> 
> 
> ...



See also:

* Training on Veteran Suicides Set at Nevada Prisons*
_19 Oct 2017  — Four months after he enlisted in the Army, John Morse IV was in Iraq. Last year, he hanged himself in a Nevada prison._


> Four months after he enlisted in the U.S. Army at 18, John Morse IV was on the front lines in Iraq training the sights of laser range finders on combat targets to be shelled.  For the next four years, the fire-support specialist watched dozens of people in his unit die, saw missile fire kill civilians and witnessed the aftermath of a mass beheading.  Last year, the 27-year-old who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder hanged himself in a Nevada prison.   His family was awarded a $93,000 settlement last week in a wrongful death suit accusing the Nevada Department of Corrections, a state psychiatrist and state psychologist of ignoring Morse's mental illness.
> 
> More important than the money, his family says, is the state's commitment to launch a new suicide training protocol for prison workers intended to help jailed combat veterans like their son — a decorated war hero they say deserved better.  "He entered the war a healthy, happy teenager and returned a devastated shell, emotionally ravaged and physically scarred," according to the lawsuit filed in April by his widow, Stephanie Morse, and parents Debbie and John Morse III. They had sought $800,000 in damages.  "Nothing can replace my son, but I'm satisfied," the father said.  The state initially offered $25,000 then agreed to the settlement in U.S. District Court in Reno — $92,500 for the family, $500 for a plaque or memorial.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Nov 6, 2017)

Granny says, "Dat's right - the more things change, the more dey remain the same...




*Will the VA's Transformation End Before it Really Begins?*
_3 Nov 2017 | There are rumors in the media that Shulkin interviewed for Tom Price's former Secretary of Health and Human Services role._


> David Shulkin, MD, has been a transformative force within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) during his two-year tenure. But now there are rumors in The Washington Post that he interviewed for Tom Price's former Secretary of Health and Human Services role.  Shulkin brings what The New York Times calls a "tireless focus on efficiency" from his private sector career in healthcare management. At the VA, Shulkin has already made waves by setting up online appointment booking for patients, releasing data around patient wait times, and shifting to a surprising electronic health record (EHR) vendor.
> 
> He has developed a reputation for making change happen and cutting through bureaucracy. As undersecretary, when his staff said it would take almost a year to plan an event to discuss veteran suicides, Dr. Shulkin said the delay would cost 6,000 veteran lives and successfully pushed to hold the summit in a month instead.  This possible exit comes just as the VA is about to roll out its master plan for ensuring every veteran has access to timely, quality care -- and at a time when the healthcare sector has just started to see the results of what Shulkin's focus on efficiency and technology could deliver.
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Nov 10, 2017)

Vietnam Vet dies in Michigan VA hospital foulup...




* Michigan Man Who Died Because of VA Error Was Vietnam Vet*
_10 Nov 2017 —  A man who died because of a stunning error at a Veterans Affairs hospital was a 66-year-old Vietnam War veteran._


> A man who died because of a stunning error at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Michigan was a 66-year-old Vietnam War veteran who liked to throw darts and shoot pool.  Roy Griffith confirmed to The Associated Press that his son, William Griffith, was the man who died last December when a nurse at a VA hospital in Ann Arbor mistakenly believed he had a no-resuscitation order.  Griffith's death was investigated by the inspector general at the Department of Veterans Affairs. A report released Tuesday called the case "disturbing," although the patient's name wasn't disclosed.
> 
> Griffith was suffering from chest pain and stopped breathing while recovering from artery bypass surgery. No one at the hospital attempted to resuscitate him, and he died the day after Christmas.  The elder Griffith declined further comment Thursday. William Griffith's wife, Roberta Griffith, also declined to comment.  "We miss him horribly," Griffith's sister, Sara Schuyler, told AP.
> 
> ...


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## Likkmee (Nov 10, 2017)

The V.A. is a socialist entity.......just like all the Hallowmas costume wearing retards stealing all of your tax dollars fighting socialism and communism. The very values these idiots adhere to.


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## Likkmee (Nov 10, 2017)

Please forgive me. *Unemployable *idiots


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## badger2 (Nov 20, 2017)

Both patient and administration names will be scrubbed. Brian Rossell, Charles Ingram.


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## badger2 (Nov 20, 2017)

Mandatory videocams so that Nurse Ratchet can pretend she's a star'n a silver-screen classic.


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## badger2 (Nov 20, 2017)

Shrink's worst nightmare, vets going in for an appointment, we recommend a small Olympus digital. That should suffice for the audio part. A collective purchase of this technology and the sharing of the unit can help keep costs low.


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## waltky (Jan 14, 2018)

VA Hospitals Could Be Left Vulnerable to Violence...
*



*
*VA Hospitals Could Be Left Vulnerable to Violence: Watchdog Report*
_12 Jan 2018 | WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs isn't following certain security standards at its hospitals and clinics that are required of all federal buildings, potentially putting patients and visitors at risk, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released Thursday._


> The watchdog agency's report detailed shortcomings in VA security, most notably that it does not require facilities to alter security measures based on fluctuating threat levels.  "This could leave staff, patients, and visitors, as well as property, vulnerable to unmitigated risks," wrote Lori Rectanus, a director with the GAO.  The report was sent to congressional committees, VA Secretary David Shulkin and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The VA agreed with the findings and responded that it was re-examining and updating its security policies.  Rectanus wrote in a letter to Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, that the hundreds of VA hospital and clinics nationwide recently had been "the target of violence, threats and other security-related incidents -- including bomb threats and violent attacks involving weapons."
> 
> She referenced one fatal shooting in 2015, when a psychologist was killed at a VA clinic in El Paso, Texas.  "Ensuring physical security for these medical centers can be complicated because VA has to balance safety and security with providing an open and welcoming healthcare environment," Rectanus said.  The VA requires security cameras, silent distress alarms, perimeter fencing and a police force at all of its hospitals, the report states. But security levels differ at each facility, and there's little oversight.  The agency leaves security decisions to local officials, and it doesn't have system-wide performance measures. That means the VA doesn't have the ability to determine what security measures are effective, the GAO found.  "VA cannot ensure that local physical security decisions are based on actual risk, are appropriate to protect the facility and are effective or whether the variations or the security impact of them are important," the report states.
> 
> ...


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## badger2 (Jan 16, 2018)

The VA scandal for over-prescription of opiates was linked to Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin, who is now in Washington.


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## waltky (Aug 7, 2018)

*New VA Secretary Pledges Cleanup Of Scandal-Plagued VA DC Hospital...*
*



*
*New VA Secretary Pledges Cleanup Of Scandal-Plagued DC Hospital*
* 7 Aug 2018 - In his second week on the job, new VA Secretary Robert Wilkie pledged a cleanup of the scandal-plagued Washington, D.C., Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center where inspectors found doctors using rusty surgical tools and identified a sense of "complacency" in the facility's leadership.*



> *Wilkie went to VAMC Monday, where he was told that plans were in place for "assuring reliable availability and sterilization of instruments for surgical procedures," the VA said in a release.  Wilkie also was told that an electronic inventory was being set up to make sure that the hospital, serving about 90,000 veterans in the D.C. area, overcomes chronic equipment shortages.  Previous reports from the VA's Office of Inspector General charged that VAMC staffers at times had to make emergency runs to neighboring hospitals to ask for supplies.  The hospital had to borrow bone material for knee replacement surgeries and also ran out of tubes needed for kidney dialysis, forcing staff to go to a private-sector hospital to procure them, the IG's report last year said.*
> 
> *VAMC officials also told Wilkie that they were doing better at making timely appointments, particularly for prosthetics.  "We had a good visit today, and I appreciated hearing from facility and regional leadership on the important work that has been done to address the Inspector General's concerns, as well as plans for resolving all its remaining recommendations," Wilkie said in a statement. "There have been substantial improvements over the past few months in practice management, logistics and prosthetics in particular, and leaders have a strong plan ahead for even more progress in the coming weeks."  Wilkie approved yet another shuffle of VAMC's leadership to implement the changes. The current acting director, Adam M. Robinson Jr., will return to his previous position as director of the VA Maryland Health Care System.*
> 
> ...


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## waltky (Sep 13, 2018)

*Drug-Running, Lax Opioid Testing Found in VA's Residential Treatment Programs...*
*



*
*Drug-Running, Lax Opioid Testing Found in VA's Residential Treatment Programs*
_13 Sep 2018 - Poor oversight and failures in testing procedures led to two non-fatal fentanyl overdoses last year at a VA residential treatment program in upstate New York in which patients acquired the potent synthetic drug from another veteran at the facility, the VA's Office of Inspector General reported Wednesday._


> In a similar report in July, the IG found that lax oversight and poor communication among staff were factors in the overdose death of a patient at another unidentified VA residential drug treatment program in 2015. That patient was found dead in a locked bathroom. An autopsy attributed the cause of death to a heroin overdose.  In the case at the Bath, N.Y., VA Medical Center's treatment program, Matthew Helmer, 34, of Hyde Park, N.Y., a resident in drug treatment, was charged in October 2017 with felony counts of drug possession by federal prosecutors, who alleged that he was a "runner" for other veterans in the program, the local Star-Gazette newspaper reported.  In court documents, a VA investigator said Helmer told him that "he knew that [patients] overdosed and were currently in the hospital," but was unaware of how they acquired the synthetic opioid fentanyl, the newspaper reported.  Drug paraphernalia was found in Helmer's room and he acknowledged that heroin was his own drug of choice, the newspaper said.  The IG's report focused on the 170-bed Domiciliary Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (DRRTP) in Bath, a town in New York's "southern tier" near the Pennsylvania border.
> 
> The DRRTP is part of the Bath VA Medical Center, the VA's oldest health care facility. The Bath facility was set up in 1865 as the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers returning from the Civil War. It currently serves about 13,000 veterans in the region.  The IG's report noted that "the Veterans Health Administration does not require treatment programs to routinely test for illicit drugs, such as fentanyl, that are trending in the community."  Following the two non-fatal fentanyl overdoses, the Bath center changed its urine drug screening (UDS) methods to include testing for the presence of fentanyl, but the tests went to "a non-VA laboratory with a turnaround time that compromised the timeliness of clinical intervention and overdose prevention," the IG report found.  The result was that "the OIG determined that the facility's fiscal year 2017 positive UDS tracking data was inaccurate."  The report also cited Bath center staff as saying that urine screening results were not properly recorded.
> 
> ...


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## Doc7505 (Sep 13, 2018)

Hmm...., this could never have happened under the fine leadership of Barack Obama. The blame should be Trump's even though this problem arose two years before he was elected.... Our mocha messiah can do nothing wrong.


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