This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Veteran Health Care

  • Three More Phoenix VAMC Execs to Be Fired

    Fox News reports that 3 additional VA executives at the Phoenix VAMC are to be fired.  Those indivuals are Dr. Darren Deering, the hospital’s chief of staff; Lance Robinson, the hospital’s associate director; and Brad Curry, chief of health administration services.

    The three are being fired in due to the VA’s secret waiting list scandal that both Jonn and I have written about previously.

    This brings to four the number of VA senior executives who have been fired from the Phoenix VAMC.  The hospital’s former director, Sharon Helman, was previously fired.  Her firing was upheld on appeal.

    Those fired in this round of dismissals will have the right to appeal their dismissal.  Let’s hope the VA did a better job here
    “dotting the ‘Is’ and crossing the ‘Ts’ ” than they did with the two in Philly who unethically engineered their own transfers.

    IMO not nearly enough VA execs and administrative personnel have lost jobs over this scandal so far.  But it’s a start.

  • Camp Victory illnesses may be linked to dust

    Bobo sends us a link to the Stars & Stripes which reports that biopsies of six soldiers’ lungs has revealed titanium and other metals deposited there probably;y from dust;

    “It matched dust that we have collected from Camp Victory” in Iraq.

    The dust is different from dust found elsewhere in that human lungs are unable to dispel it through natural immune-system processes. The Iraq dust comes attached to iron and copper, and it forms polarizable crystals in the lungs, Szema said. The particles — each bit 1/30th the size of a human hair — have sharp edges.

    “They’ve inhaled metal,” Szema said. “It’s not a little; it’s a lot.”

    The shards of metal are 1/30th the size of a human hair and very pointy according to the article. It may have resulted from the burn pits, or from the first Gulf War “when Iraqi missiles and U.S. bombs melded dust to metal”.

    Titanium and iron are both associated with pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension in humans, Szema said.

    Last month, the Defense Department released its annual relative morbidity report. A USA TODAY analysis of reports dating from 2001 to 2013, as well as Defense Manpower Data, shows that the number of people reporting respiratory and chest symptoms increased from a rate of 406 per 10,000 in 2001 to 744 per 10,000 in 2013.

    So, tell me, how, exactly, the Defense Department can justify raising out-of-pocket costs for veterans’ health care? I guess it’s our fault for breathing so much.

  • And the Hits Just Keep on Comin’ . . .

    . . . for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    By now, we all have heard about the problems at the VA with respect to “secret waiting lists” and retaliation against whistleblowers.  And we all know that the VA’s OIG has “thoroughly” investigated the problem.

    These problems were so bad and so widespread that they claimed one VA Secretary – Shinseki.  They’ve also been an albatross around his successor’s neck.

    Well, it appears that the US Office of Special Counsel has also looked into the matters of secret waiting lists and whistleblower retaliation – and at how well the VA is doing at finding the underlying problems and “cleaning up it’s act.”  The OSC is an investigative agency outside of the VA, and it reports to the POTUS.

    What did it find?  Well, let’s just cut to the chase:

    “The OIG investigations that the VA submitted in response to both referrals are incomplete.  They do not respond to the issues that the whistleblowers raised,” Lerner wrote to President Obama.

    Fox News has an article today with more details.  The OSC letter and report can be found here.

    Yeah, I think the VA Secretary has “some ‘splainin’ to do.”  Yet again.

  • Speechless. Just . . . speechless.

    Title says it all.  Provided with only one comment: IMO someone desperately needs to lose their job over this – and maybe their certification(s).

  • Congress looking at a DoD/VA merger for veteran health care

    Chief Tango sends us link to the Daily Caller which discusses the prospect of a merger of VA and Department of Defense cooperative effort in the merger of resources to treat veterans. The Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago is exactly that kind of facility and it has been functioning since 2010.

    The DOD and VA have been authorized to share resources since the 1980s and there are nine smaller jointly operated facilities around the country, but none has ever been as large as Lovell. When a Navy hospital and VA medical center were both dilapidated, then-Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk urged the building of a combined facility. The DOD and VA agreed to the merger in 2002 and it opened in 2010 after a $130 million construction effort.

    Congress conceived of it as a pilot program that would report back after five years, with success meaning merging DOD and VA hospitals in other cities would be considered.

    Honestly, I don’t have any complaints about the way both the VA and the DoD have treated me. My only problems have come from the administrative aspect – bean counters suck no matter which agency. I’m sure the bureaucrats will only take this opportunity to blame each other for the failings of the system. They can’t even find a way to electronically share medical records, I’m sure sharing care won’t work much better.

  • VA proposes private healthcare plan

    VA proposes private healthcare plan

    Stars & Stripes reports that Veterans’ Affairs officials proposed to House lawmakers a plan to relieve the bottleneck at the VA healthcare facilities which includes widespread access to private facilities outside of the VA with an initial price tag of $421 million next year;

    Much of the shift still must be decided and funded. The VA will start with creating a new referral system and efforts to improve its customer service, said Baligh Yehia, the VA assistant deputy undersecretary for health for community care.

    Republicans on the House Veterans Affairs Committee called the move crucial and said they support the VA.

    Debates over privatizing the VA have raised concerns recently. But Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the committee, said the integrated private care system would “supplement, not supplant” the health care now provided by the department.

    This administration and Democrats have long-resisted any move to privatize VA healthcare, in spite of the failures of the old system. In fact, when several Republican presidential candidates endorsed privatizing the system, they were widely criticized in the media and by Democrat lawmakers. When Congress authorized the VA Choice system last year, the VA and the White House raided those funds to pay for the same-old-same-old at the VA.

  • Phony service dog will get you jail time in Florida

    According to News 13, Florida has made it a crime to identify your animal as a service animal when that’s not true;

    For guide dog owners like Richard Darrington, this new law could help discourage imposters.

    “I think it will cause people who are on the fence to think before moving forward with the decision,” Darrington explained.

    He said that’s important because he is constantly asked whether his dog, Malcolm, is certified and trained.

    Darrington is legally blind and needs Malcolm, who was trained for two years to be a guide dog to help him get around.

    “I’m questioned all the time, ‘Is this a real guide dog?’” Darrington said. “I know part of that is because there are others out there that are masquerading and that hampers my ability to do what I need to do.”

    If the dog is found to be wearing false identifiers, and isn’t properly trained then the owner will go to jail.

    The bill “Requires public accommodation to permit use of service animal by individual with disability; provides conditions for public accommodation to exclude or remove service animal; revises penalties for certain persons or entities who interfere with use of service animal; provides penalty for knowing & willful misrepresentation with respect to use or training of service animal.”

    The punishment really isn’t “jail time” as the article title suggests – it’s 30 hours of community service that has to be performed within six months – the same punishment for interfering with a person who requires a service dog. As the article states, the Americans with Disabilities Act makes it difficult to protect real service dog users and business owners from the phonies.

    Of course, the law has to be tested by the courts, and I know just the person to test it in Florida.

  • And In the “YGBSM!” Department . . .

    . . . it looks like the “best and brightest” working for the VA were at it again.

    It seems that some VA medical facilities recently distributed a flyer indicating prohibited items.  Bring them to an exam, and you would not be seen.

    The fliers were apparently mailed to some vets with appointment letters. The VA also posted similar signs at some medical facilities depicting those prohibited items.

    Here are some pictures of the flier and signs:


    No, you’re eyes aren’t playing tricks on you.  For a while, in part of the US the VA actually was telling people that if they brought a smartphone or backpack to an appointment, they would not be seen.  (The flier and signs actually depicted an iPhone, but presumably any smartphone – and probably, any cell phone – would have been similarly banned.)

    The VA has since backpedaled, and has announced the policy was “ill advised” .  The VA has also apparently cancelled the policy – though they did not explain why the policy was ever instituted in the first place.

    Now, why might the VA do something like this?  Well, it seems that at least one vet has used a recording device at a VA appointment – likely a cell or smart phone – to obtain a personal record of what was actually said at that appointment.  They did so in Minnesota, which is a “one party” consent state regarding the recording of conversations (Federal law and 38 states require one-party-consent regarding the recording of conversations).

    One plausible explanation is that the VA doesn’t want anyone else to have a separate record of what’s actually said in their appointments, so they tried to prevent that by banning cell phones. If so, that was indeed “ill advised”.

    Now, I’m sure there are other plausible explanations.  I just wish I could think of what one of those other plausible explanations might be.

    The really sad part about all this?  This whole idea was obviously utter and complete idiocy.  Any one with enough common sense to p!ss in the toilet vice the bathroom’s wastebasket would have seen that immediately.

    But coming from VA administrators? This doesn’t surprise me one bit.

    I’m seriously beginning to wonder if the VA is salvageable.

     

    AUTHOR’S NOTES (IMPORTANT):

    1.  If you’re thinking about taking a smartphone/MP3 player/other recording device to your next VA appointment and recording it, please CHECK YOUR LOCAL LAWS FIRST.  A number of states (11) appear to require the consent of ALL parties to a conversation before it may be legally recorded.  If you live in one of those states, you cannot legally record your appointment unless you get the permission of all present to record.

    2.  While I believe the last link to the PDF document listing state recording laws (last link above) to be accurate, the document appears to be from 2013 – and laws change from time to time.  I strongly recommend that you double check it against Lexis or another up-to-date source of state and local laws if you’re thinking about recording an appointment based on assumed one-party consent law in your state.  It’s possible your state’s law has changed since that document was prepared in 2013.