1,700 vets not on official wait list at Phoenix VA facility, preliminary report finds

[Forever_frost]

A preliminary report released Wednesday found “serious conditions” at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs facility, including hundreds of veterans who were never placed on an official wait list and faulty scheduling practices that meant some veterans would never see a doctor.

“We identified an additional 1,700 veterans who were waiting for a primary care appointment but were not on the [electronic wait list,]” the report from the VA inspector general said. “Most importantly, these veterans were and continue to be at risk of being forgotten or lost in Phoenix [healthcare system’s] convoluted scheduling process. As a result, these veterans may never obtain a requested or required clinical appointment.”

PHOTOS: Top 10 U.S. fighter jets

The department launched the investigation after reports surfaced last month that at least 40 veterans died while awaiting care on a secret wait list at the facility. Since then, staff members at other facilities around the country have raised similar concerns, making some believe the problem is systemic.

The IG is currently investigating or is scheduled to investigate 42 VA facilities, the report said.

The report also found real wait times different drastically from what was reported by the Phoenix facility. Of 226 veterans, the data from Phoenix showed the average wait time to be just 24 days for their first primary care appointment. The inspector general, however, found the average wait time was 115 days.

The preliminary report does not determine if delays in care resulted in delayed treatment or death, as all the necessary records have not yet been reviewed.

Three top VA officials are expected to testify before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Wednesday night after failing to appear before the committee last week. If they don’t show, the committee will subpoena them to testify on Friday.

Rep. Jeff Miller, Florida Republican and chairman of the committee, said the report’s findings should spur two actions: the launch of a criminal investigation into the VA’s scheduling practices and the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who many veterans groups have asked to step down.

SEE ALSO: VA hospital police caused fatal blow on vet who grew tired of waiting

“Today the inspector general confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt what was becoming more obvious by the day: Wait time schemes and data manipulation are systemic throughout VA and are putting veterans at risk in Phoenix and across the country,” Mr. Miller said in a statement.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/28/1700-vets-not-official-wait-list-phoenix-va-prelim/

[Forever_frost]

Well Shinseki is gone. Just 'resigned.'

[aggie97]

Veterans deserve, and have earned better than this.

However, compare the VA system to what they have in Canada. My father could use the VA system for health care, however, still chooses to have private insurance because going to the VA is at it's best, madly frustrating and inconvenient. In Canada, they have a single payer system and a majority of it's population still buys private insurance to get access to better and more convenient health care. Why we want to copy what is already proven to be broken is beyond stupid.

[Forever_frost]

The VA had until recently resisted the linkage of dozens of deaths in the Phoenix system directly to the wait-list fraud that has engulfed the agency, and finally forced the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. Whistleblowers claimed that 40 veterans died while stuck on paper lists as VA officials cooked the books, denying them access to medical care. Last month the VA finally recognized that 17 veterans at least died while being kept out of the appointment system, and yesterday acting Secretary Sloan Gibson announced that 18 more had been identified — bringing the total to 35 confirmed:

VA Chief: 18 Vets Left Off Waiting List Have Died

An additional 18 veterans in the Phoenix area whose names were kept...

An additional 18 veterans in the Phoenix area whose names were kept off an official electronic Veterans Affairs appointment list have died, the agency’s acting secretary said Thursday – the latest revelation in a growing scandalover long patient waits for care and falsified records covering up the delays at VA hospitals and clinics nationwide.

Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said he does not know whether the 18 new deaths were related to long waiting times for appointments but said they were in addition to the 17 reported last month by the VA’s inspector general. The announcement of the deaths came as senior senators reached agreement Thursday on the framework for a bipartisan bill making it easier for veterans to get health care outside VA hospitals and clinics.

The 18 veterans who died were among 1,700 veterans identified in a report last week by the VA’s inspector general as being “at risk of being lost or forgotten.” The investigation also found broad and deep-seated problems with delays in patient care and manipulation of waiting lists throughout the sprawling VA health care system, which provides medical care to about 9 million veterans and family members.

Richard Griffin, the VA’s acting inspector general, told a Senate committee three weeks ago that his investigators had found 17 deaths among veterans awaiting appointments in Phoenix. Griffin said in his report last week the dead veterans’ medical records and death certificates as well as autopsy reports would have to be examined before he could say whether any of them were caused by delays in getting appointments.

The issue of the whistleblowers is a key point, because that was not exactly a risk-free maneuver. At least 37 whistleblowers have claims of retaliation for their efforts to protect veterans from the fraud and abuse of the wait-list activities, Breitbart’s Kerry Picket reports, and the Office of Special Counsel has opened probes into them:

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced on Thursday that it is presently investigating allegations from 37 Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee whistleblowers at VA facilities in 19 states of retaliation for disclosing improper scheduling practices and other threats to patient care.

The OSC gives three examples of alleged retaliation toward VA whistleblowers they are looking into and were able to provide “interim relief to these employees” through requested stays to the particular VA’s in question. …

“In one case, the OSC requested and obtained a stay of a proposed 30-day suspension without pay for a VA employee who reported the inappropriate and continuous use of patient restraints in violation of VA rules and procedures,” the agency says.

According to the OSC, the employee had never before been punished in over two decades while working for the VA.

In another case at a different VA facility, an employee received a proposed seven-day suspension after conveying concerns to the Inspector General regarding inadequate scheduling and coding procedures at the facility.

One whistleblower called the culture of the VA similar to that of a “crime syndicate.” These cases may end up establishing that this description may be more accurate than even the whistleblower knew.

Meanwhile, the Senate has found a bipartisan compromise on VA reform, which they hope will allow for some quick improvements. There is at least one flaw in this plan, though:

Senators announced a broad proposal Thursday to address health-care failures at the Department of Veterans Affairs that would authorize spending $500 million to hire more doctors and nurses, allow veterans to be cared for outside the overburdened system and give the next veterans secretary greater authority to fire employees for incompetence. …

A key provision of the deal, already approved by the House, would allow the VA secretary to clear out the department’s clotted bureaucracy by immediately firing or demoting senior officials tied to mismanaged or delayed medical care for veterans.

The worker would be immediately removed from the payroll but, in a nod to concerns that career government employees were at risk of losing their due process rights, the Senate deal gives the worker up to seven days to appeal the decision to the Merit Systems Protection Board, a federal panel that hears such appeals. The board would have three weeks to issue a decision.

The agreement also would give veterans greater flexibility to seek medical care at facilities not run by VA if they are experiencing long wait times or live more than 40 miles from the nearest VA hospital or clinic. Veterans could choose instead to seek care at private facilities that accept Medicare, federally qualified health centers, Indian Health Service facilities or medical facilities run by the Defense Department.

The bill would authorize VA to sign leases for 26 major medical facilities in 18 states and Puerto Rico and to use $500 million in unobligated spending on new doctors and nurses with expedited hiring authority to meet growing demand for medical care from older, aging veterans and younger veterans trying to adapt to civilian life after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Did you spot the flaw? The ability to seek outside care with VA coverage depends on wait times. Just who will be measuring those wait times? Don’t think for a moment that vets spending VA money in private-sector clinics and hospitals won’t produce pressure to block them from doing so, and one way to ensure that will be to insist that wait times aren’t a problem at the local VA. If bonuses incentivized this wait-list fraud, just wait until these incentives come into play.

Veterans should have the unconditional ability to seek care for non-service-related illnesses and injuries wherever they please without asking a bureaucrat for a by-your-leave to do so. Real reform will include allowing for those choices, and anything short will be nothing more than a Band-Aid on a cancer.

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/06/06/va-confirms-additional-18-vets-in-phoenix-died-in-wait-list-fraud/

[2011GT]

Veterans deserve, and have earned better than this.

However, compare the VA system to what they have in Canada. My father could use the VA system for health care, however, still chooses to have private insurance because going to the VA is at it's best, madly frustrating and inconvenient. In Canada, they have a single payer system and a majority of it's population still buys private insurance to get access to better and more convenient health care. Why we want to copy what is already proven to be broken is beyond stupid.

Because it buys the democratic vote

[Forever_frost]

http://politics.suntimes.com/article/washington/audit-more-57000-awaiting-initial-va-visits/mon-06092014-1114am

Washington

The Veterans Affairs Department says more than 57,000 patients are still waiting for initial medical appointments at VA hospitals and clinics 90 days or more after requesting them. | AP Photo

Audit: More than 57,000 awaiting initial VA visits
Mon, 06/09/2014 - 11:14am
Sun-Times wires
@Suntimes | Email

WASHINGTON — More than 57,000 veterans have been waiting 90 days or more for medical appointments, the Veterans Affairs Department said in a wide-ranging audit released Monday. An additional 64,000 who enrolled for VA health care over the past decade have never been seen by a doctor, according to the audit.

The audit is the first nationwide look at the VA network in the uproar that began with reports two months ago of patients dying while awaiting appointments and of cover-ups at the Phoenix VA center. Examining 731 VA hospitals and large outpatient clinics, the audit found long wait times across the country for patients seeking their first appointments with both primary care doctors and specialists.

At Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital near Maywood, 97 percent of appointments were scheduled within 30 days, according to the audit.

The audit said a 14-day target for waiting times was "not attainable," given growing demand for VA services and poor planning. It called the 2011 decision by senior VA officials setting it, and then basing bonuses on meeting the target "an organizational leadership failure."

RELATED: McCain, Sanders strike bipartisan deal on VA

The audit is the third in a series of reports in the past month into long wait times and falsified records at VA facilities nationwide. The controversy forced VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign May 30. Shinseki took the blame for what he decried as a "lack of integrity" in the sprawling system providing health care to the nation's military veterans.

The audit released Monday said 13 percent of VA schedulers reported getting instructions from supervisors or others to falsify appointment dates in order to meet on-time performance goals. About 8 percent of schedulers said they used alternatives to an official electronic waiting list, often under pressure to make waiting times appear more favorable.

Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said the audit showed "systemic problems" that demand immediate action. VA officials have contacted 50,000 veterans across the country to get them off waiting lists and into clinics, Gibson said, and are in the process of contacting an additional 40,000 veterans.

MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press