Before Dan Doherty departed, he wrote about how the Veterans Affairs estimated that hundreds of thousands of their patients had died while waiting for care. At the time, Scott Davis, a program specialist at the VA Health Eligibility Center, divulged a report that was conducted within his department and that of the VA Office of Analytics titled “Analysis of Death Services. It was released in April of 2015. Now, we the Veterans Affair Inspector General’s report has given the exact number: 307,000. That’s how many veterans have died before their application had been process by the Eligibility Center (via CNN):
Hundreds of thousands of veterans listed in the Department of Veterans Affairs enrollment system died before their applications for care were processed, according to a report issued Wednesday.The VA’s inspector general found that out of about 800,000 records stalled in the agency’s system for managing health care enrollment, there were more than 307,000 records that belonged to veterans who had died months or years in the past.
In a response to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs’ request to investigate a whistleblower’s allegations of mismanagement at the VA’s Health Eligibility Center, the inspector general also found VA staffers incorrectly marked unprocessed applications and may have deleted 10,000 or more records in the last five years.
In one case, a veteran who applied for VA care in 1998 was placed in “pending” status for 14 years. Another veteran who passed away in 1988 was found to have an unprocessed record lingering in 2014, the investigation found.
VA Deputy Inspector General Linda Halliday noted that whistleblowers have provided essential information “to pursue accountability and corrective actions in VA programs.” In all, nearly 900,000 veterans still have their claims pending review. Additionally, the report found that the Health Eligibility Center (HEC) deleted 10,000 records from the Workload Reporting and Productivity (WRAP) tool since co-workers improperly marked applications as complete. Yet, a full review is not possible due to improper cataloging and storage of data:
While the HEC often deleted transactions for legitimate purposes, such as the removal of duplicate transactions, information security deficiencies within WRAP limited our ability to review some issues fully and rule out manipulation of data.WRAP was vulnerable because the HEC did not ensure that adequate business processes and security controls were in place, did not manage WRAP user permissions, and did not maintain audit trails to identify reviews and approvals of deleted transactions. In addition, the Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) did not provide proper oversight for the development, security, and data backup retention for WRAP. OI&T also did not collect and retain WRAP audit logs, evidence of administrative and user interactions within the database, in accordance with VA policy. In the absence of the audit logs, OI&T cannot analyze system activity for unauthorized or inadvertent undesired activity.
Veterans Affairs scandal is a fiasco, and a national disgrace regarding the inadequate care and attention that’s been given to those who have served our country. Waiting periods and “secret waiting lists” for sick veterans were unearthed in this tedious, frustrating, and wholly deplorable saga that still isn’t over. So far, only three Veterans Affairs personnel have been fired since the scandal broke in April of 2014.
Updates are sure to follow.
Vet care is a cost Congress never thinks about when going to war.
Just keep buying those bombs and tanks boys, don’t worry about the poor shell-shocked bastard who is statistically going to end up homeless or dead-by-suicide.
Window into BOcare.A scam to fraud America.Trump will dump bocare
Politicians worried about vets becoming home grown terrorists, please.
I understand there are at least 900,000 more vets waiting to get VA provided health care.
An argument in favor of a single payer government run health care system.
“After seeing how the government manages the healthcare of our veterans, we decided to put them in charge of the healthcare for the whole country. We deserve to get it good and hard.”
A very apt description.
Okay, I posted this in the Military draining us high and dry article…
obviously, I was a day early.
The VA has already come up with a solution, as Admin has informed us in this IG report.
Is everyone aware that the $814 billion and change projected to be spent for “Defense” of the country includes the ever-increasing Veterans Administration health care system AND the disability and compensation payments made to veterans and/or former spouses of veterans killed in action or as a result of injury or disease while on active duty.
So, we seem to have two or three conflicts going on (depending on how you want to count Iraq… are we in or out?) and they are the kind of nasty duty that sends young boys home sans arms, legs and with incredibly debilitating cases of PTSD (having volunteered at some VA help centers, I can tell you it is enough to break a mother’s heart). Since they (the bean counters who send in the numbers) PROJECT around $350 billion and change (educated guestimate) for VA costs this fiscal year and the costs have been increasing by about 10 percent each year (if not more) due to increases in claims and demands for compensation, how should this issue be resolved?
I was telling my uber liberal friend that I had counseled a young man who had lost a foot and part of his leg to an IED and he was being fitted for a leg so he could start college this fall. All paid for by the VA. Age: 25. Face scarred with shrapnel and burns. But, except for some cynicism issues and probably PTSD, he seemed to be optimistic about his future. My friend said “WELL, ISN’T THAT NICE THAT THE GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO PAY FOR HIS COLLEGE NOW.”
I was a bit shocked and said “Well, he did lose most of one leg.”
She said “It is an all volunteer military. He knew what he was getting into.”
I didn’t argue with her because I knew that if she got hurt at her job and lost her leg, her company would most likely have to get her a new leg, but for some reason, because she loathes the military, she thinks this young man is mooching off the government because they are sending him to college on the GI bill under the Vocational Rehabilitation Program.
Anyway… just thought I’d throw it out for discussion because I just happen to know more than the average person about the VA and the myriad of programs available to veterans because I volunteered to help vets figure out how to use them. For years.
Not now. Don’t ask.
my experience over ten years with VA always good, of course nothing wrong. nevertheless it has been two years since i have seen my doc, i do not trust them after all the 2nd amendment debate arrived. if asked i was going to recommend my doctor get a gun if she did not have one, many who work in VA are not vets. i was criticized for government handout, remember telling that person, guess what, obummercare. is the care you wished for. like cattle when i was drafted, assembly line, beaucoup shots at once, little expectation of VA being much different. euthanasia is the name of the game.
Its about culling the herds.The political elites do not want the vets when they return home.
Why is it that the sheep that cheer the loudest for the soldier fighting for “American interests” and our “freedoms”, are for the most part silent about the damaged vets?
So, how is this different than the general population? I don’t know about your area, but around where I live the Veterans are inundated with help. The health services available to them greatly exceeds the health care available to the general public. If you had ever been in a war zone or on a ship near a war zone, well, “Katie bar the door”. you will choke on the money that the throw at you. If you have an affliction 40 years after the conflict that a small percentage of vets who were in the war zone have, then here is your disability pension.
One of my friends had a heart condition (He weighs 350 pounds!). they gave him a check for $80,000.00. He told me (his actual words) that eh asked the doctor what his problem was. The doctor said, “you are a hog!” I have other forend s that have health insurance from a Fortune 500 company and don’t use it because , when they go though the Veterans organization, they get “travel pay” for driving 100 miles.
Another friend, who is 87 got a 20% disability pension because he had “frostbite” in Korea. It never seemed to bother him for 60 years. The entire system has become another form of welfare. Let the down votes begin!!!
I’m a veteran. Did my hitch in Uncles’ Navy, got shot at, hit ports of call in Europe too soon after WWII and saw with my own eyes what wars do to people, infrastructure and Governments. I went North of the Arctic Circle and to the Eastern end of the Med, through the Suez into the Red Sea. the Brits then jumped into the Suez and blocked it with several sunken ships, trapping us in the Red Sea (where we patrolled for 6 weeks, supplied from Karachi, Pakistan, and eating Shit on a shingle three meals a day for the whole time.
I have an “account” with the VA and you’d think it wouldn’t be so hard to get something out of them. I got hearing aids “issued” to me (i.e. I don’t own them, they are issued to me like a rifle)and promised to keep those batteries coming as they wore out. They didn’t. Further, they dropped me from the system (as far as I can tell) because I didn’t let them lay hands on my body often enough.
I’d be glad to get my prescriptions thru the VA (but I don’t) but they will never be allowed to touch my body in any way as long as I have a say in it.
They’ve got a long way to go to gain my confidence in their quality of treatment above a skinned knuckle. I’ll stick with what I’ve got as far as medical care is concerned — at least when one of my Docs screw up, I can fire him!! Can’t do that with the VA..
MA
My father is a retired USAF vet who got his start just before Vietnam to avoid becoming a frontline grunt. He refuses to go to the VA for any health concerns because as he puts it, they don’t have a vested interest in his continued good health. He did go to have his hearing evaluated though (jet noise makes you deaf) because they reduce his tax liability by a certain percentage because of his hearing loss.
I’ve watched two friends die in our local VA hospital. One was a WWII vet and the other a vet of Korea and the care they both received was outstanding right up to their last breath. I know several other, younger vets locally and they have nothing good to say about the VA hospital.
What a disgrace. The U.S. should be hanging their head in shame. The so-called President of the U.S. should have done something about this while he was in office. Too late for those who have died over the years. 14 years waiting to get seen???? We must be the laughing stock of the whole world. Our men and women are the first to volunteer to be in the service and to serve our country….to death do us part comes to mind, but that’s only said when you marry. Little did these people know that when they signed up to serve our country, they were not going to get the care they needed if required afterwards What would happen if no one from now going forward, never signed up leaving the military with a huge gap to fill. Those serving in the military around the world get better treatment than our people do.