Trump's 10 point VA plan rolled out and it looks feasible and sensible

[DarkFury]

I agree with a lot of it. The people that fuck up should be punished.

On the otherhand, I think a new modernized computer system that can handle the large caseload should be added.

Computers don't do surgeries, people do.

True, but computers can do the caseload much more efficiently and you need a lot less people working in government for that reason.

If you had been reading the news stupid vets died because staff never put them on the computer. What good is a new program if they don't use it?

 

[ThoughtCrimes]

This overhaul is .long overdue. The Veterans of America deserve so much more than what they have been getting. Everyone knows it and yet no one to date has been willing to take any drastic action to turn around the total mess the VA has been in.

YAY!

TRUMP'S TEN-POINT V.A. PLAN
1. Appoint a secretary of veterans affairs who will make it his or her personal mission to clean up the VA.

2. Remove and discipline federal employees and managers who fail veterans or breach public trust.

3. Ask Congress for legislation giving VA secretary the authority to remove or discipline employees who risk the health, safety or well-being of any veteran.

4. Appoint a commission to investigate all the wrongdoing at the VA and present findings to Congress as basis for new legislation.

5. Protect jobs of honest VA officials and promote them.

6. Create private 24-hour White House Hotline – answered by a real person – to ensure that no valid complaint about VA wrongdoing falls through the cracks, and fix remaining problems personally.

7. Strip bonuses to poor VA performers and give the money to employees who improve service, save lives and cut waste.

8. Reform our visa programs to put veterans at the front of the line for work.

9. Increase mental health care professionals and outreach to veterans outside the system.

10. Guarantee veterans the opportunity to seek medical care at VA facilities or private medical care instead, still paid for by the government.


Read more: Trump: I'm 'law and order' man, Hillary is 'secretary of status quo'
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Speaking OBJECTIVELY strictly as a vet and removing my anti-Trump hat, Trump's feel good plan would clear up maybe 5% of the recurring issues veterans have been up against in the past, are facing currently and will be fighting in the future. First off, all 10 of those items "Trump" outlined would only address SOME of the issues within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). And not a single one goes to the most pervasive problem within the VHA, which is also systemic throughout the VA system; that of the VA CULTURE!

The VHA does definitely have some fine caring people performing excellently, but they also have too many folks who just don't give a shit. But beyond that and more importantly, the entire VHA is shot through with bean counters shaving and cutting without regard for impacts to veteran care OR the law regarding delivery of promised benefits, but man do they hand out the bonuses. Trump's "plan" mentions bonuses, but proposes the impossible without a bottom up, top down plan embracing a de facto meritocracy to replace the current malignancy of cronyism; the main cause of the cultural dysfunctional pandemic within the VHA!

I don't see a single line in Trump's "Plan" addressing the huge problems of inconsistent adjudication, incompetence, often years waiting for a benefits claim and/or outright piss poor performance in the adjudication and delivery of promised benefits for veterans of these foreign adventures and intrigues since WWII. I'm sure Trump & Friends who wrote this "plan are completely ignorant of the existence of the Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA) that has that responsibility and NOT the VHA.

In short, Trump's "PLAN" is merely a political feel good ploy for the gullible and uninformed which merely follows a standard form perfected by politicos of long standing. This is a complex issue with many facets composing the whole. The problems the veterans of this Nation are facing are IMPOSSIBLE to address in ten bullet points, and it's foolish to pretend such is attainable by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[ThoughtCrimes]

I agree with a lot of it. The people that fuck up should be punished.

On the otherhand, I think a new modernized computer system that can handle the large caseload should be added.

The VBA completed that "new and improved" claim processing online system last year. In doing so, they did cut down on the thickness of the paper files but it still takes time for the VA adjudicators to read and evaluate each facet of each claim and the vet still has to send in a lot of off-line paperwork like medical file, service records and the like which must be scanned into the system INTO THE PROPER FILE, before the actual processing of the claim can begin.

Given these reps are required to review X number of claims per time unit and many claims can contain the equivalent of several hundred paper pages, what do you think happens to the accuracy of the review. For instance, my own claim took over two years to perfect and contained over 240 pages that I personally was required by the VBA to supply for my claim to say nothing of the military records which the VBA had to obtain by law!

The new system has helped but it's far, far from the ideal.