{"id":38400,"date":"2013-11-13T10:13:10","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T15:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=38400"},"modified":"2013-11-13T10:13:52","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T15:13:52","slug":"vas-malpractice-tab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=38400","title":{"rendered":"VA’s malpractice tab"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tequila Volare and Ohio send us links to the revelation that the Veterans’ Affairs Department has paid out over $800 million in malpractice settlements over the last 10 years. From WHIO<\/a>;<\/p>\n

The payouts reached a high point in 2012, a Cox Media Group nationwide investigation found, leaving government watchdogs and members of Congress wondering if the VA is learning from its mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe VA likes to say they\u2019re accountable. I don\u2019 t believe the word even exists in the VA dictionary,\u201d said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From WSBTV<\/a>;<\/p>\n

Despite Channel 2\u2019s repeated requests to interview any of the agency’s top leaders about all this, the VA only responded with a short statement that it takes these issues serious, and is “Committed to continuous improvement; providing training, counseling, and other resources to ensure we continue to provide the high-quality, safe, and effective care our veterans have earned and deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

“It’s not just harming the taxpayers, they’re harming public health,” said Daniel Epstein, from the D.C. based watchdog group “Cause of Action.” He called for an Inspector General’s audit when Channel 2 showed him VA malpractice costs soared to a 10-year high in 2012 to nearly $100 million.<\/p>\n

The highest payout in 2012 went to Marine Vet Christopher Ellison. He was awarded a $17 million judgment. He had a stroke following a dental procedure. He is now paralyzed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If anyone wants the VA to admit to their own culpability for substandard care, they haven’t been paying attention. VA leadership won’t accept responsibility for those lavish training sessions or for the backlog of disability claims, why would they start accepting blame for this. All of this points at a leadership failure, and we know where that buck stops – the Beret Master.<\/p>\n

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Tequila Volare and Ohio send us links to the revelation that the Veterans’ Affairs Department has … VA’s malpractice tab<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-veterans-affairs-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}