Category: Veterans’ Affairs Department

Last year Congress and the White House made a big deal about passing a huge overhaul bill for the Veterans’ Affairs Department after the department suffered from some of the worst healthcare shortfalls in their history. A key part of that bill was the Veterans’ Choice Program which allowed covered veterans to seek private treatment when the VA system was clogged. Now, a few months later, the White House wants to take money out of the program because of the non-participation of Veterans in the program, according to the Associated Press;

Only 27,000 veterans have made appointments for private medical care since the VA started mailing out “Choice Cards” in November, the VA said in a report to Congress this month. The number is so small, compared to the 8.6 million cards that have been mailed out, that VA Secretary Robert McDonald wants authority to redirect some of the $10 billion Congress allocated for the program to boost care for veterans at the VA’s 970 hospitals and clinics.

Republicans and Democrats insist the problem is the department and that it needs to do a better job promoting the choice program. They also want to change a quirk in the law that makes it hard for some veterans in rural areas to prove they live at least 40 miles from a VA health site.

The government measures the distance as the crow flies, rather than by driving miles, leaving thousands of veterans ineligible.

Well, here’s another thing. I got my Choice card just two weeks ago, now I don’t need it, I’m about 15 miles from a VA clinic. I know at least one another of you guys got it at about the same time, because she emailed me some questions about the card on the same day that I got mine, and she lives across the country from me. How can they suddenly withdraw money from a program because of non-participation when some of us only found out about it a few days ago?

And, oh, by the way, when Obamacare launched and registration for that program was anemic, I don’t remember the White House asking Congress to withdraw funds from the program – just a few months after it became law.

The Washington Post‘s Michelle Ye Hee Lee is quickly becoming my favorite fact checker at the Post. Yesterday, she checked Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald claim that he’s been busy firing incompetent leaders at the VA since he took over the job. It turns out that he’s not being completely honest to Congress and to veterans;

In his “Meet the Press” interview, McDonald also said 100 senior leaders are under investigation by the inspector general and the Department of Justice.

Yet McDonald is incorrect saying 60 employees who manipulated wait times were fired.

Disciplinary actions for 75 employees have been proposed since June 3, 2014, according to the VA’s most recent weekly briefing to the House and Senate committees on veterans affairs. These actions were related to patient scheduling, record manipulation, appointment delays and/or patient deaths. The proposed actions included removals, admonishment (a written letter of censure), reprimand (a stronger letter of censure), suspension of less than two weeks and probationary termination. Admonishment or reprimand letters can be removed from employees’ personnel files after two or three years. (Definitions for disciplinary actions are here.)

Of the 75 employees, only eight employees have actually been removed, as of Feb. 13, 2015. Twenty-three cases were pending. Five employees resigned before a decision was made on their case. Others were demoted, were on probationary termination, had some other disciplinary action, or had no action taken at all.

McDonald used his new personnel authority to propose removals of five executives — in Phoenix, Georgia, central Alabama, Pittsburgh and the VA central area office in Washington. Two retired before they could be removed, and three were actually fired. But of those three terminations, only one was officially related to the VA scandal — James Talton, director of Central Alabama’s VA.

Ms. Lee continues that of the 900 employees that the VA says that they’ve fired, were fired for reasons that a lot of people get fired; absenteeism and poor performance, not usually related to the scandal that cost their Secretary, Shinseki, his job last year. Ms. Lee writes that in 2013, the year before the scandal, 2,247 VA employees were fired, more than double the number fired last year, after the scandal. Lee gives McDonald four Pinocchios for providing this information to the public without any real context.

So, nothing has really changed at the VA. The Secretary is giving answers that make it look like he’s doing what the President hired him to do, but those answers aren’t based in any sort of reality. But, who is surprised.

There is a culture of lying about the internal workings of the Department that goes back years and that culture isn’t going to change as long as the same people are working there.

That’s why I’m not surprised that last week, the VA and the White House want to defund the Veterans Choice program saying that veterans aren’t using the system that the White House and Congress crowed about six short months ago. They say the reason is that veterans aren’t taking advantage of the program – based on their numbers. You know, like the numbers above.

The Washington Times reports that the Philadelphia branch of the Veterans’ Affairs Department is paying incentives to claims processors for meeting goals on veterans’ disability claims;

The new Philadelphia program is designed to push employees to clear a backlog in disability claims. The team that has processed the most claims at the end of every other week will receive a breakfast, luncheon or snack as a reward, according to an incentive fact sheet obtained by The Washington Times. Each team that hits its target of claims processed before Feb. 28 will receive a $15,000 bonus to be divided among team members.

Funny how when I work, the pay check I get is always incentive enough to do my job in a timely manner, but then, I didn’t work for the VA. Some VA employees see similarities with other VA incentive programs;

An employee at the Philadelphia VA facility said the program could lead to the same kind of cooked books that landed the Phoenix VA in trouble and ignited the nationwide scandal that cost the former VA secretary his job and led to vows that the department would put veterans’ needs ahead of the bureaucracy.

“This is more of the same failed and lethal methods,” said the employee, who said it often takes months to properly process a claim but almost no time to deny it. The incentive plan could encourage employees to deny claims in order to clear cases quickly.

I know there are VA employees in our audience ot there who have thoughts on this. I’d love to hear them,

The Washington Times reports that some veterans are getting letters from the VA offering free gun locks if the veterans will tell them how many guns they have in their home;

“As your partner in healthcare, we are committed to keeping you and your family safe,” states the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times. “Gun locks have been shown to greatly reduce death and injury caused by firearms in the home. If you own a gun, we hope you will request and use a gun lock.”

The letter said agency officials “hope to reach all our veterans with this offer.” The VA said it will mail the locks to the address provided by a veteran.

One veteran who received the letter said it raises concerns about “a gun registry in disguise.”

I haven’t received any of these letters so I’m thinking that it’s a regional thing, if it exists at all. A few months ago someone started a rumor about VA doctors taking guns from vets. I did everything I could do to get my doctors to ask me about my own guns to see if it was true, none of them took the bait, so I have some doubts that this is a national occurrence.

But, thanks to reader Ohio for the link.

The Las Vegas Review Journal tells the story of Steve Lowery on March 5, 1969 when he earned the Navy Cross atop Hill 1308, three team mates were killed. Lowery and six others were wounded. One received the Medal of Honor, posthumously the others Silver and Bronze Stars. Lowery, however, earned the Navy Cross. But, according to Lowery, that’s not good enough for the Department of Veterans Affairs;

Yet in the eyes of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the bullet from an AK-47 that ripped through his thighs and shrapnel from a “Chi-Com” — Chinese Communist — grenade that pierced his right knee were not related to his military service.

Nor was the neck injury he suffered near the end of his career when a moving van rear-ended his car when he was stopped at a light while on active duty in Hawaii.

That’s what the letter says from the VA Benefits Regional Office in Reno that rejected his claim for service-connected compensation.

“We determined that the following condition is not related to your military service,” reads the Aug. 1, 2011, letter from “A. Bittler,” veterans service center manager. “Gunshot wound to left thigh; neck condition; shrapnel, right knee; gunshot wound, right thigh.”

Apparently, Mr Lowery has been playing these games since 1994 when he retired.

That time, his war wounds were deemed not related to his military service because the VA had requested his medical file from Department of Defense archives but never received it. Without the file, there was no evidence of his wounds and thus no reason to schedule a physical examination, he was told.

“They explained to me they had reached their decision with no health record in front of them. I asked how that happened, and he (the claims processor) said, ‘Well, when we sent off a request to the archive to produce your medical records,’ the only thing they had was my pre-induction physical and one visit to the Nellis Air Force Base hospital after I retired,” Lowery said.

He noted that VA officials made no further effort to resolve the two-decade gap in his medical file.

Yeah, so this is a lesson to all of you guys who are still serving, make copies of all of your records.