Scandal-plagued Phoenix VA hospital given $10 million in bonuses to administrators

[tinydancer]

This is just a sin. This whole scam of hiding wait times to get bonuses or promotions at the expense of Veterans health makes me want to bazooka barf.

Just one hospital. One. They were giving out money hand over fist to not only doctors and nurses. Oh hell's bells the VA head honchos were doling out the bucks to secretaries and freaking cleaning staff.

Aye carumba!!!!! I want to see people in orange jumpsuits with their hands in silver bracelets for denying services to Veterans.

The records were first obtained by the Arizona Republic, which first requested them in March.

The VA paid $2.5 million in 2011, $3.5 million in 2012 and $3.9 million last year. The merit-based bonuses were doled out to nearly 650 employees each of those years.

The employees included doctors, nurses, administrators, secretaries and cleaning staff.

'The VA employee recognition and awards program provides an entire range of rewards to recognize employees who make contributions that support goals and objectives across the facility,' Phoenix VA spokeswoman Jean Schaefe said.

A VA inspector general's report found that 1,700 veterans seeking treatment at the Phoenix VA hospital were at risk of being 'lost or forgotten' after being kept off the official waiting list.



Scandal-plagued Phoenix VA hospital gave $10 million in bonuses to staff | Mail Online

 

[depotoo]

For the final year, if spread proportionately, each would have received $6 grand.
When did bonuses even become part of govt. agencies? This is the exact reason why it shouldn't be policy.

To receive bonuses they resort to criminal activity, never once giving mind to the fact, that is actually what they are engaging in. I hope, as you, those that conspired for higher bonuses, by denying care, are charged and locked up after guilt is determined.
And this bonus policy is wiped out for all agencies.

 

[tinydancer]

For the final year, if spread proportionately, each would have received $6 grand.
When did bonuses even become part of govt. agencies? This is the exact reason why it shouldn't be policy.

To receive bonuses they resort to criminal activity, never once giving mind to the fact, that is actually what they are engaging in. I hope, as you, those that conspired for higher bonuses, by denying care, are charged and locked up after guilt is determined.
And this bonus policy is wiped out for all agencies.

I'd like to see the books completely open to examination to get a total of money in bonuses distributed to every VA hospital facility.

 

[The T]

For the final year, if spread proportionately, each would have received $6 grand.
When did bonuses even become part of govt. agencies? This is the exact reason why it shouldn't be policy.

To receive bonuses they resort to criminal activity, never once giving mind to the fact, that is actually what they are engaging in. I hope, as you, those that conspired for higher bonuses, by denying care, are charged and locked up after guilt is determined.
And this bonus policy is wiped out for all agencies.

WHY do ANY government workers get bonuses? They are there to SERVE...service...I'd like to see that practice discontinued on ALL levels. WE are being bilked by our government.

VETS are being given the shaft. Shameful.

 

[Sunni Man]

Cooking the books in order to qualify for bonuses is blatant theft.

And those who profited from this accounting fraud need to be arrested and charged with a Federal crime. ..

 

[depotoo]

I would love to find out when the feds began the bonus system for any agency.

As all of you, I think the simple idea of such is just atrocious. Think of how much more public employees are truly making, when you begin to add in these bonuses vs. the private sector. And we, the tax payer are paying it.

It encourages bad, even crimimal behavior depending on the objectives to obtain it. How can those that did this at the VA eveen live with themselves?

 

[Moonglow]

The govt. is working on getting da money back,,heh-heh....

 

[blastoff]

And that's just one example of waste/fraud from one location amongst the gigantic sprawling federal government bureaucracy that blankets our country. I can't even imagine how many billions the American taxpayers get taken for each and every year, after year through various scams like the Phoenix VA.

The idiots in Congress seemingly oversee everything, still have time to stick their noses into drug use in baseball and other nonsense, but somehow can't figure out how to watch our national purse strings.

Beam me up, Scotty!

 

[The T]

I would love to find out when the feds began the bonus system for any agency.

As all of you, I think the simple idea of such is just atrocious. Think of how much more public employees are truly making, when you begin to add in these bonuses vs. the private sector. And we, the tax payer are paying it.

It encourages bad, even crimimal behavior depending on the objectives to obtain it. How can those that did this at the VA eveen live with themselves?

And not to mention that a Gubmint worker makes TWICE than the same position in the PRIVATE SECTOR...HOW do they justify that crap?

 

[Moonglow]

And that's just one example of waste/fraud from one location amongst the gigantic sprawling federal government bureaucracy that blankets our country. I can't even imagine how many billions the American taxpayers get taken for each and every year, after year through various scams like the Phoenix VA.

The idiots in Congress seemingly oversee everything, still have time to stick their noses into drug use in baseball and other nonsense, but somehow can't figure out how to watch our national purse strings.

Beam me up, Scotty!

and drug test your kids in school, but no time to police ourselves...

 

[Moonglow]

I would love to find out when the feds began the bonus system for any agency.

As all of you, I think the simple idea of such is just atrocious. Think of how much more public employees are truly making, when you begin to add in these bonuses vs. the private sector. And we, the tax payer are paying it.

It encourages bad, even crimimal behavior depending on the objectives to obtain it. How can those that did this at the VA eveen live with themselves?

And not to mention that a Gubmint worker makes TWICE than the same position in the PRIVATE SECTOR...HOW do they justify that crap?

By the low pay in the Reagan years..

 

[rightwinger]

Typically 5% of your payroll is budgeted for performance bonuses. $3 million a year for 650 employees seems within that range

The problem with that hospital was that they had more patients than they could handle with their allotted staff. Why should an overworked staff be punished?

 

[shart_attack]

Let's pass around Jon Stewart's "obscenity jar" so we can all scream into it.

VA, and Obama Administration!!!

 

[tinydancer]

Typically 5% of your payroll is budgeted for performance bonuses. $3 million a year for 650 employees seems within that range

The problem with that hospital was that they had more patients than they could handle with their allotted staff. Why should an overworked staff be punished?

Oh yeah they were so overworked they had to leave 1,700 vets off their waiting lists.
Give me a break.

This was fraud for bonuses and promotions. And it's more than in this one hospital.

Don't pretty it up or make excuses. Cooking the books is fraud. ETA: If they needed more staff they could have hired them. The money was there for bonuses but NOT for the vets.

Oh and another thing. The VA has been carrying over surpluses for the past 5 years. The money was there.

 

[rightwinger]

Typically 5% of your payroll is budgeted for performance bonuses. $3 million a year for 650 employees seems within that range

The problem with that hospital was that they had more patients than they could handle with their allotted staff. Why should an overworked staff be punished?

Oh yeah they were so overworked they had to leave 1,700 vets off their waiting lists.
Give me a break.

This was fraud for bonuses and promotions. And it's more than in this one hospital.

Don't pretty it up or make excuses. Cooking the books is fraud.

How does that reflect on the performance of Doctors, nurses, technicians and other staff unrelated to making appointments?

 

[Siete]

Bonus time? Make an appointment and we'll get back with you.

 

[depotoo]

Typically 5% of your payroll is budgeted for performance bonuses. $3 million a year for 650 employees seems within that range

The problem with that hospital was that they had more patients than they could handle with their allotted staff. Why should an overworked staff be punished?

Oh yeah they were so overworked they had to leave 1,700 vets off their waiting lists.
Give me a break.

This was fraud for bonuses and promotions. And it's more than in this one hospital.

Don't pretty it up or make excuses. Cooking the books is fraud. ETA: If they needed more staff they could have hired them. The money was there for bonuses but NOT for the vets.

Oh and another thing. The VA has been carrying over surpluses for the past 5 years. The money was there.

The typical ones will deny the facts. The truth isn't something they deal in.

 

[rightwinger]

I would love to find out when the feds began the bonus system for any agency.

As all of you, I think the simple idea of such is just atrocious. Think of how much more public employees are truly making, when you begin to add in these bonuses vs. the private sector. And we, the tax payer are paying it.

It encourages bad, even crimimal behavior depending on the objectives to obtain it. How can those that did this at the VA eveen live with themselves?

I thought conservatives liked pay for performance. Don't want a bunch of public employees getting paid the same regardless of how hard they work.
The bonus pool is typically 5% of the total payroll and the best performers typically get the larger bonus

Why do you want to punish a doctor who saved someone's life or a nurse who comforts some veterans because four or five administrators cooked the books?

 

[rightwinger]

I would love to find out when the feds began the bonus system for any agency.

As all of you, I think the simple idea of such is just atrocious. Think of how much more public employees are truly making, when you begin to add in these bonuses vs. the private sector. And we, the tax payer are paying it.

It encourages bad, even crimimal behavior depending on the objectives to obtain it. How can those that did this at the VA eveen live with themselves?

And not to mention that a Gubmint worker makes TWICE than the same position in the PRIVATE SECTOR...HOW do they justify that crap?

Do you think a VA Doctor makes twice what he would make in private practice?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/us/doctor-shortages-cited-in-va-hospital-waits.html?_r=0

Dr. Phyllis Hollenbeck, a primary care physician, took a job at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Jackson, Miss., in 2008 expecting fulfilling work and a lighter patient load than she had had in private practice.

What she found was quite different: 13-hour workdays fueled by large patient loads that kept growing as colleagues quit and were not replaced

At the heart of the falsified data in Phoenix, and possibly many other veterans hospitals, is an acute shortage of doctors, particularly primary care ones, to handle a patient population swelled both by aging veterans from the Vietnam War and younger ones who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to congressional officials, Veterans Affairs doctors and medical industry experts.

 

[Papageorgio]

I would love to find out when the feds began the bonus system for any agency.

As all of you, I think the simple idea of such is just atrocious. Think of how much more public employees are truly making, when you begin to add in these bonuses vs. the private sector. And we, the tax payer are paying it.

It encourages bad, even crimimal behavior depending on the objectives to obtain it. How can those that did this at the VA eveen live with themselves?

I thought conservatives liked pay for performance. Don't want a bunch of public employees getting paid the same regardless of how hard they work.
The bonus pool is typically 5% of the total payroll and the best performers typically get the larger bonus

Why do you want to punish a doctor who saved someone's life or a nurse who comforts some veterans because four or five administrators cooked the books?

You got things a wee bit messed up, if a private company wants to hand out bogus bonuses, that is completely up to them, it's their company and they answer to stockholders. This is tax money, it wasn't earned, it is fraud, no one was punished because the bonuses would never have been paid.