Category Archives: Veterans Affairs

Another Fine VA Mess

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And another reason to disband the thing and send its budget as health care vouchers to our veterans.

A VA employee tossed files containing the Social Security numbers and other personal information of 1,100 patients of a South Dakota VA hospital into a dumpster, where they sat for two days before they were discovered and recovered. This happened last May, but the VA chose not to tell anyone, like those patients, about it until the end of July.

Mistakes happen, even egregious things like this. What’s unacceptable is the decision by this VA hospital, condoned by the VA itself (if only through its own inaction and silence) to withhold information about this breach from the breach’s victims for so long.

That decision is part of a too-long standing pattern of VA malfeasance and VA decisions to do nothing about themselves.

Another VA Failure

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An ex-Army scout and Iraq War veteran tried at two separate Veterans Administration clinics to get treatment for his PTSD. Does he actually have PTSD? I’m spring-loaded to believe so, but I don’t know. And neither does this veteran, unless he’s been previously diagnosed. The problem is that he can’t get that treatment, or even a diagnosis and so effective treatment for what medical problem he might really have.

“The VA isn’t taking new patients.” He got that at both of the Georgia clinics he tried. If you follow the link to the video he recorded, the relevant action starts at around 6:45.

The VA isn’t taking new patients. How does that work? It doesn’t work.

VA spokesman James Hutton gave out the usual VA nonsense:

VA staff should have established a full understanding of Mr Dorsey’s medical situation and determined if an appointment was available for him at another location or if he was eligible for the Choice Program and could be seen outside of VA. The message Mr Dorsey was given, as seen on the video, is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Of course the message Dorsey was given is entirely acceptable and fully tolerated by the VA. It’s still going on. Years after the VA’s mistreatment of our veterans was first exposed. Dorsey has indicated that VA Chief of Staff Rob Nabors has “reached out to him and is trying to help resolve his issue.” Great. We’ll see if Nabors, or anyone at the VA delivers. But that’s small potatoes. This sort of thing is far too widespread to be effectively handled by onesies and twosies.

It’s time to disband the VA altogether and use the VA budget as vouchers to our veterans so they can go to the doctors, clinics, and hospitals of their choice—doctors, clinics, and hospitals that actually do, you know, medical work for, umm, patients.

Embarrassingly Dysfunctional

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To coin a phrase, this is embarrassing, a Department like this.

Ignored claims, manipulated records, cost overruns and even one facility infested with insects and rodents are among the latest issues uncovered by a blistering VA Inspector General’s report. The auditor’s probe found that more than 31,000 inquiries placed by veterans to the Philadelphia Regional VA office call center went ignored for more than 312 days, even though they were supposed to be answered in five. Perhaps even worse, claim dates were manipulated to hide delays, $2.2 million in improper payments were made because of duplicate records, 22,000 pieces of returned mail went ignored, and some 16,600 documents involving patient records and dating back to 2011 were never scanned into the system.

This is a year after the Veterans Administration promised, to Congress and to us, that they were cleaning up their act.

Disband the Veterans Administration; it’s an affront to our veterans and an embarrassment to our nation. Use the VA budget for vouchers for vets. No more delay. Our vets can’t wait.

Too Little, Too Late

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Responding to pressure from Congress and veterans groups, the Department of Veterans Affairs is relaxing a rule that makes it hard for some veterans in rural areas to prove they live at least 40 miles from a VA health site.

The relaxation consists of the VA using mapping facilities (vis., Google Maps) to measure actual driving miles rather than simply plotting straight line distances. Here’s Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald:

We’ve determined that changing the distance calculation will help ensure more veterans have access to care when and where they want it[.]

Well, NSS. Of course you’ve known that right along, but it’s good you’re finally acting on it.

The problem with this, though, is that what the Veterans Administration chooses to relax today it can choose to retighten tomorrow. In addition to that, this VA has in place most of the same bureaucratic leadership that’s been misbehaving right along, excepting only a couple of high profile resignations (not firings). They can’t be trusted.

Disband the VA, and use its erstwhile future budgets for vouchers with which our veterans can select their own doctors and medical facilities.

In the meantime, a suitable interim step would consist of Congress legislating the distance calculation while also legislating a shorter distance to travel—20 miles would be a better maximum. That would still be a 40-minute round trip on the open highway, and closer to 90 minutes’ time in ordinary city traffic. Most folks have other things to do with their time than sit in their cars for an hour and a half—or sit in someone else’s car if the veteran isn’t in a position to drive himself.

VA Obstruction

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…a program rolled out to give certain veterans the option of government-funded private care is experiencing serious bumps: according to reports, only 27,000 vets have taken advantage of the Choice Card program since it was launched in November.

Recall:

Technically, to be eligible to see a non-VA doctor, a veteran must be at least 40 miles away from the nearest VA hospital, or have waited at least 30 days for an appointment.

Which is bad enough, but it’s a clear rule, one that even bureaucrats can understand.

Air Force veteran Pat Baughman, for example, told Fox News he lives about 50 miles away from the nearest VA hospital in Bay Springs, MS—approximately a one-hour drive. But when Baughman called the Choice Card phone number last November, he was told to drive more than three hours away to a hospital in Natchez, MS.

“It didn’t make sense at all. I told them that’s longer than what I’m driving now. So they said they’d get back with me,” Baughman said, adding he received a call the next day and was told to drive to another location instead—two hours away.

And

One area of confusion is that according to the rules, a veteran must be 40 miles away from the nearest VA—”as the crow flies.”

Of course, the VA’s rules writers know that roads—especially rural ones—don’t follow straight paths.

And there’s Paul Walker, a veteran living in Minnesota and fighting cancer.

[H]e was turned down for private care for cancer treatment because there was a VA clinic within 20 miles of his home—but the closest VA hospital which offers the treatment he needs reportedly is more than 50 miles away.

“I tried using it and I got flatly turned down,” said Walker, who told the network that at the clinic, “all they do is dental work there and eye work and some basic kinds of different minor things…but I have cancer stage 4.”

And Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R, KS), with 63 counties and no VA hospital in his district:

I got an email by a veteran who drives 340 miles one way for cardiology.

These don’t appear to be isolated cases: that low number of signups, for instance. VA’s bureaucrats surely know these weaknesses in their rules and in their implementation of their rules; plainly these failures are the result of VA bureaucratic foot-dragging.

I’ve said it before: it’s time to disband the VA and convert what would have been its budget into vouchers for our veterans.