VA Destroys Vets Medical Records To Eliminate Backlog

[waltky]

Progress bein' made in breaking backlog...

Pentagon, VA Make Progress in Breaking Medical Records Logjam: Carter
Mar 04, 2016 | Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday that his efforts to bring in top talent from Silicon Valley were making progress in solving one of the Pentagon's long-standing problems -- the integration of military service records with the Veterans Administration.

Carter said that Chris Lynch, the new head of Defense Digital Services at the Defense Department, had "solved some important problems for us" by bringing coders and other experts with him "for what we call a tour of duty" on a temporary basis at the Pentagon. One of the problems Lynch, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and former Microsoft executive, has worked on was improving data sharing in the department "to make sure our veterans get access to their benefits," Carter said. "Chris turned the whole thing around in a couple of weeks." The records transfer issue has plagued both the VA and Defense Department for years. In 2013, the VA and the department gave up on their joint strategy to build a single, integrated record. The Pentagon later decided to purchase a commercial off-the-shelf system by awarding a $4.3 billion contract to a vendor team led by Leidos last year.

Carter spoke at a Microsoft breakfast in Seattle towards the end of a week-long West Coast trip, his third to Silicon Valley, to talk up partnerships between the department and the tech community. On Wednesday, Carter announced that he would be setting up a Defense Innovation Advisory Board whose chairman would be Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Alphabet, Google's parent company. The board will be similar in concept to the Defense Business Board, which advises the department on best business practices, but will instead "inform DoD culture, organization and processes with feedback from top tech innovators," according to a statement.

The board will not involve itself in strategy issues and military operations but will instead focus on "technology alternatives, streamlined project management processes and approaches -- all with the goal of identifying quick solutions to DoD problems," the statement said. Carter said Schmidt, the former chief executive of Google, would join with him in selecting 12 other members of the new board. The board members were expected to be individuals who had "excelled at identifying and adopting new technology concepts," the statement said. Essentially, Schmidt was being brought into the Pentagon "to advise me on how to remain innovative" in cybersecurity and stay ahead of potential adversaries, Carter said, and also to "build bridges" to the tech community.

Pentagon, VA Make Progress in Breaking Medical Records Logjam: Carter | Military.com

See also:

Ailing Blue Water Veterans Search for Agent Orange Evidence
Mar 05, 2016 | During the Vietnam War, hundreds of US Navy ships crossed into Vietnam's rivers or sent crew members ashore, possibly exposing their sailors to the toxic herbicide Agent Orange. But more than 40 years after the war's end, the US government doesn't have a full accounting of which ships traveled where, adding hurdles and delays for sick Navy veterans seeking compensation.

The Navy could find out where each of its ships operated during the war, but it hasn't. The US Department of Veteran's Affairs says it won't either, instead choosing to research ship locations on a case-by-case basis, an extra step that veterans say can add months -- even years -- to an already cumbersome claims process. Bills that would have forced the Navy to create a comprehensive list have failed in Congress.

As a result, many ailing vets, in a frustrating race against time as they battle cancer or other life-threatening diseases, have taken it upon themselves to prove their ships served in areas where Agent Orange was sprayed. That often means locating and sifting through stacks of deck logs, finding former shipmates who can attest to their movements, or tracking down a ship's command history from the Navy's historical archive. "It's hell," said Ed Marciniak, of Pensacola, Fla., who served aboard the USS Jamestown during the war. "The Navy should be going to the VA and telling them, 'This is how people got aboard the ship, this is where they got off, this is how they operated.' Instead, they put that burden on old, sick, dying veterans, or worse -- their widows."

The aircraft carrier USS Bennington is one of the Navy's "blue water" ships that have been added to VA's list of warships presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange​

Some 2.6 million Vietnam veterans are thought to have been exposed to -- and possibly harmed by -- Agent Orange, which the US military used to defoliate dense forests, making it easier to spot enemy troops. But vets are only eligible for VA compensation if they went on land -- earning a status called "boots on the ground" -- or if their ships entered Vietnam's rivers, however briefly. The VA says veterans aren't required to prove where their ships patrolled: "Veterans simply need to state approximately when and where they were in Vietnam waterways or went ashore, and the name of the vessel they were aboard, and VA will obtain the official Navy records necessary to substantiate the claimed service," VA spokesman Randal Noller wrote in an email.

Once the VA has that documentation, the vessel is added to a list of ships eligible for compensation, streamlining future claims from other crewmembers. But proactively searching thousands of naval records to build a comprehensive list of eligible ships -- as some veterans have demanded -- "would be an inefficient use of VA's resources," Noller said. But because the historical records are sometimes missing or incomplete, veterans groups say the fastest and surest way to obtain benefits is for vets to gather records themselves and submit them as part of their initial claims. More than 700 Navy ships deployed to Vietnam between 1962 and 1975. Veterans have produced records to get about half of them onto the VA's working list, with new ships being added every year. Still, veterans advocacy groups estimate about 90,000 Navy vets are not eligible to receive benefits related to Agent Orange exposure, either because their ships never entered inland waters, or because they have yet to prove they did.

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[waltky]

Heads rollin' at Phoenix VA hospital...

VA Firing Three Top Officials at Phoenix VA Hospital
Mar 15, 2016 | Three top officials at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, are being targeted for removal.

VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson on Tuesday identified the three as Associate Director Lance Robinson, Chief of Health Administration Service Brad Curry, and hospital Chief of Staff Dr. Darren Deering. The Phoenix VA became ground central to the wait-times scandal that eventually revealed that officials across the VA system were hiding their inability to meet appointment standards by keeping secret lists of veterans seeking care. "It is vitally important to veterans in Phoenix and across the nation to understand that we will take appropriate accountability action as warranted by the evidence," Gibson said in a statement. "Frankly, I am disappointed that it took as long as it did for proposed actions to be made, but I am satisfied that we carefully reviewed a massive amount of evidence to ensure the accountability actions are supported."

The VA did not detail the allegations against the three but The Arizona Republic reported last month that the executives were under investigation to determine their "knowledge, involvement and culpability" in the wait-times manipulation and retaliation against whistle-blowers who exposed the problem. Gibson said the cases against the three distracted from progress being made to improve veterans care, but removing them is an important step in getting past the past controversy and "refocusing solely on caring for our nation's veterans." Two months ago Gibson changed VA policy to allow him to place officials subject to an administrative investigation into non-patient care where they could carry out duties as assigned. Previously, VA policy was to put the officials on paid administrative leave.

Phoenix VA Hospital​

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he applauded Gibson and VA Secretary Bob McDonald's move to fire the three, saying it "is clearly the right thing" to do for the veterans depending on the hospital's care and employees working there. "But we cannot forget the fact that it took nearly two years of investigations just to get to this point, and this is just the beginning of the disciplinary process," said Miller, who has been the leading voice in Congress demanding accountability for the wait-time delays. "The truth is, because of arcane civil service protections that put the job security of corrupt bureaucrats before the safety of veterans, it will take many months and possibly years for VA to complete these proposed disciplinary actions."

But it should serve as a wake-up call -- including to the Senate -- to reform the system. Had the Senate passed legislation sent over from the House last summer, the three Phoenix employees could have been fired in weeks rather than continue collecting salaries while the process moves forward, Miller said.

MORE

 

[waltky]

More shenanigans at the VA...

VA Suspends Top Official in Relocation Scam
Mar 23, 2016 | WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs is suspending the head of the Veterans Benefits Administration for allowing two lower-ranking officials to manipulate the agency's hiring system for their own gain.

Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson says acting VBA chief Danny Pummill will be suspended without pay for 15 days for his role in a relocation scam that has roiled the agency for months. Pummill failed to exercise proper oversight as Kimberly Graves and Diana Rubens forced lower-ranking managers to accept job transfers and then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their senior-level pay while reducing their responsibilities, Gibson said Tuesday. Pummill is one of VA's five highest-ranking officials and leads VBA's employees across 56 regional offices nationwide that provide compensation and pension benefits, life insurance, home loans and other services to millions of veterans.

Under VA rules, Pummill can appeal his suspension to an independent arbiter. Pummill was the VBA's deputy chief when Rubens and Graves implemented the job relocations, which put both of them closer to their families. Pummill replaced former VBA chief Allison Hickey, who retired as allegations against Rubens and Graves were made public. Rubens earns $181,497 as director of the VBA's Philadelphia regional office, while Graves receives $173,949 as head of the St. Paul, Minnesota, benefits office. Graves and Rubens were reprimanded Tuesday and had their pay cut by 10 percent. The two women were reinstated to their positions last month after administrative judges overturned their demotions.

The judges based their rulings, in part, on the fact that more senior officials such as Pummill had not been disciplined in the case. In a related action, the VA said it has reprimanded Beth McCoy, director of field operations for the VBA. Gibson said McCoy did not exercise proper judgment in taking over for Rubens as heads of field operations. Gibson said the disciplinary actions were in the best interests of veterans and taxpayers. "Ultimately, that is what these decisions are about: getting back to the work of serving America's veterans," he said.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called the actions "a weak slap on the wrist." Accountability at the VA "is almost non-existent," Miller said. "One thing is clear: this dysfunctional status quo will never change until we eliminate arcane civil service rules that put the job security of VA bureaucrats ahead of the veterans they are charged with serving."

VA Suspends Top Official in Relocation Scam | Military.com

See also:

Lawmaker Questions Why VA Reinstated Employee Linked to Armed Robbery
Mar 23, 2016 | A House lawmaker is demanding answers from the Veterans Affairs Department over how an employee fired after being convicted of charges related to a 2015 armed robbery could win her job back.

Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican from Florida and chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, also wants to know if Elizabeth Rivera's termination from the VA hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was challenged "by the fact that the HR [Human Resources] manager responsible [for] imposing her discipline, Mr. Tito Santiago Martinez, is a convicted sex offender." In a March 22 letter to VA Secretary Bob McDonald, Miller said, "The union allegedly asserted that Ms. Rivera should be reinstated in her job since Mr. Santiago was also convicted of a crime and therefore cannot discipline other employees who have been convicted of crimes."

Miller sent the letter the same day The Daily Caller reported that Rivera was arrested in connection with an armed robbery last year. According to a June 16 online report on the San Juan news site Metro, Rivera was in a car with Rolando River Febus when Febus stepped out of the vehicle armed with a gun and attempted to rob a couple. Local police spotted the incident and Febus fled on foot, leaving Rivera in the car. Although initially charged with armed robbery, she ultimately pled guilty to two misdemeanor charges, according to the Caller report, which did not detail the charges.

Miller said he wants to know exactly why her firing was overturned, who made the call and what role Martinez played. He also wants to know if media reports are accurate in claiming Rivera wore a GPS ankle monitor when she first went back to work, if she was given back-pay for the time she missed while in jail or after she was fired; why she wasn't fired for missing work while in jail; and why someone awaiting trial for armed robbery was assigned to the office responsible for security at the hospital.

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[waltky]

Zeroing out wait times to cover backlog...

Inspector General: VA Schedulers ‘Zeroed Out’ Wait Times for Texas Veterans Seeking Health Care
March 23, 2016 | An investigation by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) “substantiated” reports that schedulers at the VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Houston, Texas “zeroed out” patient wait times between 2010 and 2014 in order to make it appear that veterans were being seen by healthcare professionals during the standard 14-day time period.

“Interviews of [25 current and former] schedulers in all three services disclosed that clerks had been trained to schedule by using the patients’ actual appointment date as their desired date,” a March 8 report by Quentin Aucoin, assistant inspector general (IG) for investigations at the VA, revealed. “If an appointment was not available on the patient’s desired date, then the clerks were instructed to use the actual appointment date as the desired date. The clerks did this by ‘going out of the system and going back in’, so as to reflect that the desired date and the appointment date was the same, thereby zeroing out the wait time,” the report stated.

A former Primary Care supervisor told inspectors that “if clerks were scheduling patients outside of the 14-day time frame, they could be ‘written up’, which he later defined as written counseling,” the IG report stated. Another VA employee said that “the desired date and the actual appointment day always had to be zero, and that if they failed to do this, their name would appear on ‘a list’.” One supervisor “denied that she ever instructed anyone to do this,” the IG reported. “She agreed that the guidance may have been misinterpreted by some clerks, but emphasized it was never her intention or direction that wait times should be zeroed out.”

Other VA officials also denied telling staff to “zero out” wait times. “The senior manager in Primary Care stated that…wait time measures were seen as goals, not as mandates… "He agreed that manipulating data in order to meet a performance measure is unacceptable, and he stated that had this practice come to his attention, he would have corrected his staff.”

A Mental Health Care manager admitted “in retrospect, the statistics did not seem realistic to her and the statistics were not representative of what was actually happening at the time with regard to the challenges they were facing in terms of access and patient wait times," according to the report. "However, she pointed out that the statistics were not generated by her, but were instead provided to her by her administrative staff.”

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[koshergrl]

CareOregon destroys their unworked backlog as well. This is a common practice with socialist medicine.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

CareOregon destroys their unworked backlog as well. This is a common practice with socialist medicine.

Can you supply a link.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - Now we know how dey been makin' progress onna backlog...

IG Report: VA Has Been Shredding Documents Needed for Veterans' Claims
Apr 16, 2016 | Department of Veterans Affairs investigators conducted spot checks at 10 veterans benefits offices around the country and came to a disturbing conclusion: The VA has been systemically shredding documents related to veterans' claims -- some potentially affecting their benefits. The VA Office of Inspector General conducted the surprise audit at 10 regional offices on July 20, 2015, after an investigation into inappropriate shredding in Los Angeles found that staff there was destroying veterans' mail related to claims, according to an OIG report released Thursday.

Investigators arrived unannounced at regional offices and sifted through 438,000 documents awaiting destruction as of 11 a.m. Of 155 claims-related documents, 69 were found to have been incorrectly placed in shred bins at six of the regional offices: Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Reno, Nev. There were none at Baltimore, Oakland, San Juan and St. Petersburg, Fla. Investigators determined that two of the 69 documents affected benefits directly, nine had the potential to affect benefits and the rest would not affect benefits but were required to be in the claims folders before destruction and were not there.

It was enough, the report said, to conclude that not only were the problems systemic, the impact could be serious. "The potential effect should not be minimized," the report concluded. "Considering that there are 56 [VA regional offices], and if weekly shredding is conducted, it is highly likely that claims-related documents at other VAROs are being improperly scheduled for destruction that could result in loss of claims and evidence, incorrect decisions and delays in claims processing."

The findings were the latest in a stream of mishandling of veterans care and benefits at the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA has been embroiled in scandal since the spring of 2014, when revelations emerged that the appointment wait list at the Phoenix VA Medical Center was so long that managers had manipulated the schedules to cover up delays. Patients had languished for months and in some cases years awaiting treatment. Some of them died before receiving care. In February, the inspector general's office, under pressure to publicize its findings, released dozens of investigations into wait times at various VA hospitals showing the problem persists across the system.

In Thursday's report, the inspector general's office determined that the errors in destroying claims documents in general stemmed from a lack of understanding of the Veteran's Benefits Administration policy on managing paper records. The VBA's policy was revised in 2011, three years after the policy was created. The report said management and staff found the policy "unclear and confusing." It also found that records management staff were often tasked with other duties that sometimes diverted them from their duties of reviewing documents scheduled for destruction. "VBA's policy is outdated, lacks standardized procedures for records management staff and increases the likelihood for VARO staff to destroy claims-related documents without supervisory-level review," the report said.

MORE

 

[Publius1787]

This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!

In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila! Much less backlog!

This is what we should expect as the ginormous snowball of ObamaCare Fake Coverage causes a big backlog of requests for care in networks that are too small to handle the demand.

Hopenchange!

mployees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) destroyed veterans’ medical files in a systematic attempt to eliminate backlogged veteran medical exam requests, a former VA employee told The Daily Caller.

Audio of an internal VA meeting obtained by TheDC confirms that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally canceled backlogged patient exam requests.

“The committee was called System Redesign and the purpose of the meeting was to figure out ways to correct the department’s efficiency. And one of the issues at the time was the backlog,” Oliver Mitchell, a Marine veteran and former patient services assistant in the VA Greater Los Angeles Medical Center, told TheDC.

“We just didn’t have the resources to conduct all of those exams. Basically we would get about 3,000 requests a month for [medical] exams, but in a 30-day period we only had the resources to do about 800. That rolls over to the next month and creates a backlog,” Mitchell said. ”It’s a numbers thing. The waiting list counts against the hospitals efficiency. The longer the veteran waits for an exam that counts against the hospital as far as productivity is concerned.”

By 2008, some patients were “waiting six to nine months for an exam” and VA “didn’t know how to address the issue,” Mitchell said.

VA Greater Los Angeles Radiology department chief Dr. Suzie El-Saden initiated an “ongoing discussion in the department” to cancel exam requests and destroy veterans’ medical files so that no record of the exam requests would exist, thus reducing the backlog, Mitchell said.

Audio from a November 2008 meeting obtained by TheDC depicts VA Greater Los Angeles officials plotting to cancel backlogged exam requests.

“I’m still canceling orders from 2001,” said a male official in the meeting.

“Anything over a year old should be canceled,” replied a female official.

“Canceled or scheduled?” asked the male official.

“Canceled. …

Read more: VA destroyed veteran medical records to delete exam requests | The Daily Caller

Take heed all of you who want government sponsored universal healthcare in the Canadian/British stripe. You'll end up getting getting the quality of care they get at the VA; a place so filled with mediocrity that the only doctors who work there are the ones who can't gain employment anywhere else.

 

[The Great Goose]

This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!

In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila! Much less backlog!

This is what we should expect as the ginormous snowball of ObamaCare Fake Coverage causes a big backlog of requests for care in networks that are too small to handle the demand.

Hopenchange!

mployees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) destroyed veterans’ medical files in a systematic attempt to eliminate backlogged veteran medical exam requests, a former VA employee told The Daily Caller.

Audio of an internal VA meeting obtained by TheDC confirms that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally canceled backlogged patient exam requests.

“The committee was called System Redesign and the purpose of the meeting was to figure out ways to correct the department’s efficiency. And one of the issues at the time was the backlog,” Oliver Mitchell, a Marine veteran and former patient services assistant in the VA Greater Los Angeles Medical Center, told TheDC.

“We just didn’t have the resources to conduct all of those exams. Basically we would get about 3,000 requests a month for [medical] exams, but in a 30-day period we only had the resources to do about 800. That rolls over to the next month and creates a backlog,” Mitchell said. ”It’s a numbers thing. The waiting list counts against the hospitals efficiency. The longer the veteran waits for an exam that counts against the hospital as far as productivity is concerned.”

By 2008, some patients were “waiting six to nine months for an exam” and VA “didn’t know how to address the issue,” Mitchell said.

VA Greater Los Angeles Radiology department chief Dr. Suzie El-Saden initiated an “ongoing discussion in the department” to cancel exam requests and destroy veterans’ medical files so that no record of the exam requests would exist, thus reducing the backlog, Mitchell said.

Audio from a November 2008 meeting obtained by TheDC depicts VA Greater Los Angeles officials plotting to cancel backlogged exam requests.

“I’m still canceling orders from 2001,” said a male official in the meeting.

“Anything over a year old should be canceled,” replied a female official.

“Canceled or scheduled?” asked the male official.

“Canceled. …

Read more: VA destroyed veteran medical records to delete exam requests | The Daily Caller

Take heed all of you who want government sponsored universal healthcare in the Canadian/British stripe. You'll end up getting getting the quality of care they get at the VA; a place so filled with mediocrity that the only doctors who work there are the ones who can't gain employment anywhere else.

The nurses I know say that they would rather go into public if they needed it. They've worked in private and they say its understaffed and the doctors are worse.

 

[Publius1787]

This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!

In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila! Much less backlog!

This is what we should expect as the ginormous snowball of ObamaCare Fake Coverage causes a big backlog of requests for care in networks that are too small to handle the demand.

Hopenchange!

mployees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) destroyed veterans’ medical files in a systematic attempt to eliminate backlogged veteran medical exam requests, a former VA employee told The Daily Caller.

Audio of an internal VA meeting obtained by TheDC confirms that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally canceled backlogged patient exam requests.

“The committee was called System Redesign and the purpose of the meeting was to figure out ways to correct the department’s efficiency. And one of the issues at the time was the backlog,” Oliver Mitchell, a Marine veteran and former patient services assistant in the VA Greater Los Angeles Medical Center, told TheDC.

“We just didn’t have the resources to conduct all of those exams. Basically we would get about 3,000 requests a month for [medical] exams, but in a 30-day period we only had the resources to do about 800. That rolls over to the next month and creates a backlog,” Mitchell said. ”It’s a numbers thing. The waiting list counts against the hospitals efficiency. The longer the veteran waits for an exam that counts against the hospital as far as productivity is concerned.”

By 2008, some patients were “waiting six to nine months for an exam” and VA “didn’t know how to address the issue,” Mitchell said.

VA Greater Los Angeles Radiology department chief Dr. Suzie El-Saden initiated an “ongoing discussion in the department” to cancel exam requests and destroy veterans’ medical files so that no record of the exam requests would exist, thus reducing the backlog, Mitchell said.

Audio from a November 2008 meeting obtained by TheDC depicts VA Greater Los Angeles officials plotting to cancel backlogged exam requests.

“I’m still canceling orders from 2001,” said a male official in the meeting.

“Anything over a year old should be canceled,” replied a female official.

“Canceled or scheduled?” asked the male official.

“Canceled. …

Read more: VA destroyed veteran medical records to delete exam requests | The Daily Caller

Take heed all of you who want government sponsored universal healthcare in the Canadian/British stripe. You'll end up getting getting the quality of care they get at the VA; a place so filled with mediocrity that the only doctors who work there are the ones who can't gain employment anywhere else.

The nurses I know say that they would rather go into public if they needed it. They've worked in private and they say its understaffed and the doctors are worse.

Nah, private holds them to a higher standard where they actually need to work and can be fired easily. Public guarantees them a job where they can get away with mediocrity, a pension, and gain job security via a firing process whereas the only way you could lay someone off is that they happen to commit suicide while on the job. And even then they would need to go through the normal 10 year layoff procedure. Just to think that the VA has screwed thousands of vets (many of the died) and hardly anyone one gets fired. My God the horror stories I could tell you about the VA.

 

[The Great Goose]

This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!

In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila! Much less backlog!

This is what we should expect as the ginormous snowball of ObamaCare Fake Coverage causes a big backlog of requests for care in networks that are too small to handle the demand.

Hopenchange!

mployees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) destroyed veterans’ medical files in a systematic attempt to eliminate backlogged veteran medical exam requests, a former VA employee told The Daily Caller.

Audio of an internal VA meeting obtained by TheDC confirms that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally canceled backlogged patient exam requests.

“The committee was called System Redesign and the purpose of the meeting was to figure out ways to correct the department’s efficiency. And one of the issues at the time was the backlog,” Oliver Mitchell, a Marine veteran and former patient services assistant in the VA Greater Los Angeles Medical Center, told TheDC.

“We just didn’t have the resources to conduct all of those exams. Basically we would get about 3,000 requests a month for [medical] exams, but in a 30-day period we only had the resources to do about 800. That rolls over to the next month and creates a backlog,” Mitchell said. ”It’s a numbers thing. The waiting list counts against the hospitals efficiency. The longer the veteran waits for an exam that counts against the hospital as far as productivity is concerned.”

By 2008, some patients were “waiting six to nine months for an exam” and VA “didn’t know how to address the issue,” Mitchell said.

VA Greater Los Angeles Radiology department chief Dr. Suzie El-Saden initiated an “ongoing discussion in the department” to cancel exam requests and destroy veterans’ medical files so that no record of the exam requests would exist, thus reducing the backlog, Mitchell said.

Audio from a November 2008 meeting obtained by TheDC depicts VA Greater Los Angeles officials plotting to cancel backlogged exam requests.

“I’m still canceling orders from 2001,” said a male official in the meeting.

“Anything over a year old should be canceled,” replied a female official.

“Canceled or scheduled?” asked the male official.

“Canceled. …

Read more: VA destroyed veteran medical records to delete exam requests | The Daily Caller

Take heed all of you who want government sponsored universal healthcare in the Canadian/British stripe. You'll end up getting getting the quality of care they get at the VA; a place so filled with mediocrity that the only doctors who work there are the ones who can't gain employment anywhere else.

The nurses I know say that they would rather go into public if they needed it. They've worked in private and they say its understaffed and the doctors are worse.

Nah, private holds them to a higher standard where they actually need to work and can be fired easily. Public guarantees them a job where they can get away with mediocrity, a pension, and gain job security via a firing process whereas the only way you could lay someone off is that they happen to commit suicide while on the job. And even then they would need to go through the normal 10 year layoff procedure. Just to think that the VA has screwed thousands of vets (many of the died) and hardly anyone one gets fired. My God the horror stories I could tell you about the VA.

No it doesn't.

 

[Publius1787]

This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!

In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila! Much less backlog!

This is what we should expect as the ginormous snowball of ObamaCare Fake Coverage causes a big backlog of requests for care in networks that are too small to handle the demand.

Hopenchange!

mployees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) destroyed veterans’ medical files in a systematic attempt to eliminate backlogged veteran medical exam requests, a former VA employee told The Daily Caller.

Audio of an internal VA meeting obtained by TheDC confirms that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally canceled backlogged patient exam requests.

“The committee was called System Redesign and the purpose of the meeting was to figure out ways to correct the department’s efficiency. And one of the issues at the time was the backlog,” Oliver Mitchell, a Marine veteran and former patient services assistant in the VA Greater Los Angeles Medical Center, told TheDC.

“We just didn’t have the resources to conduct all of those exams. Basically we would get about 3,000 requests a month for [medical] exams, but in a 30-day period we only had the resources to do about 800. That rolls over to the next month and creates a backlog,” Mitchell said. ”It’s a numbers thing. The waiting list counts against the hospitals efficiency. The longer the veteran waits for an exam that counts against the hospital as far as productivity is concerned.”

By 2008, some patients were “waiting six to nine months for an exam” and VA “didn’t know how to address the issue,” Mitchell said.

VA Greater Los Angeles Radiology department chief Dr. Suzie El-Saden initiated an “ongoing discussion in the department” to cancel exam requests and destroy veterans’ medical files so that no record of the exam requests would exist, thus reducing the backlog, Mitchell said.

Audio from a November 2008 meeting obtained by TheDC depicts VA Greater Los Angeles officials plotting to cancel backlogged exam requests.

“I’m still canceling orders from 2001,” said a male official in the meeting.

“Anything over a year old should be canceled,” replied a female official.

“Canceled or scheduled?” asked the male official.

“Canceled. …

Read more: VA destroyed veteran medical records to delete exam requests | The Daily Caller

Take heed all of you who want government sponsored universal healthcare in the Canadian/British stripe. You'll end up getting getting the quality of care they get at the VA; a place so filled with mediocrity that the only doctors who work there are the ones who can't gain employment anywhere else.

The nurses I know say that they would rather go into public if they needed it. They've worked in private and they say its understaffed and the doctors are worse.

Nah, private holds them to a higher standard where they actually need to work and can be fired easily. Public guarantees them a job where they can get away with mediocrity, a pension, and gain job security via a firing process whereas the only way you could lay someone off is that they happen to commit suicide while on the job. And even then they would need to go through the normal 10 year layoff procedure. Just to think that the VA has screwed thousands of vets (many of the died) and hardly anyone one gets fired. My God the horror stories I could tell you about the VA.

No it doesn't.

Ladies and gentlemen, I've found another one.

 

[Publius1787]

In this case, the destruction of records involved complete deletion so that no record of the request for an exam remained. I can see closing out obsolete requests, but outright eliminating that an exam request every existed is rather beyond the pale.

I think there is more top the story. Having worked in the VA, I know how their computer documentation system works. Clerks cannot delete appointments, only cancel and state the appointment was canceled by patient or by clinic. When I took a sick day, it said 'canceled by clinic.' If the patient called and canceled it said 'canceled by patient.' Psych hospital discharges had to be seen 4 times in 30 days. That meant overbooking for me, but it had to get done. New patients had to be scheduled within 2 weeks of their request. Many in primary care were waiting longer than that for their routine physicals, though, and they kept a running list so they could plug them into cancellation spots. Anyone with an emergent condition was evaluated and sent to the ER. Walk ins were seen that day. No clinician can delete a record, nor does one have the authority to call up IT and tell them to delete a patient record. I know some clinics are more efficient than others, but this story just doesn't add up.

Yeah, my "friend" had a number of cancellations on him the VA claimed was "cancelled by the patient." It was a falsehood of course. This happened 4 times without his knowledge. He'd go in to get care and they'd turn him away telling him that his primary care doctor wasn't in.

 

[Publius1787]

I get my healthcare from the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center. If a Vet has an urgent care issue they can visit the emergency care section and they will be examined by a physician that day. But you can end up waiting several hours if you are not in pain . The facility also has a Patient Advocate whom you can take complaints to. I had a problem getting to see my Primary Care physician, so I contacted the Patient Advocate and she got me an appointment with my physician the same day that I had complained.

The patient advocate is a sham. I tried to file a complaint on a family members behalf and the advocate kept rescheduling on me. I eventually visited and waited for hours. I finally caught up with her as she was leaving and she told me she was off the clock. It was 3:30 pm. It was the last time I made the 2 hour drive to meet with her.

 

[The Great Goose]

This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!

In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila! Much less backlog!

This is what we should expect as the ginormous snowball of ObamaCare Fake Coverage causes a big backlog of requests for care in networks that are too small to handle the demand.

Hopenchange!

mployees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) destroyed veterans’ medical files in a systematic attempt to eliminate backlogged veteran medical exam requests, a former VA employee told The Daily Caller.

Audio of an internal VA meeting obtained by TheDC confirms that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally canceled backlogged patient exam requests.

“The committee was called System Redesign and the purpose of the meeting was to figure out ways to correct the department’s efficiency. And one of the issues at the time was the backlog,” Oliver Mitchell, a Marine veteran and former patient services assistant in the VA Greater Los Angeles Medical Center, told TheDC.

“We just didn’t have the resources to conduct all of those exams. Basically we would get about 3,000 requests a month for [medical] exams, but in a 30-day period we only had the resources to do about 800. That rolls over to the next month and creates a backlog,” Mitchell said. ”It’s a numbers thing. The waiting list counts against the hospitals efficiency. The longer the veteran waits for an exam that counts against the hospital as far as productivity is concerned.”

By 2008, some patients were “waiting six to nine months for an exam” and VA “didn’t know how to address the issue,” Mitchell said.

VA Greater Los Angeles Radiology department chief Dr. Suzie El-Saden initiated an “ongoing discussion in the department” to cancel exam requests and destroy veterans’ medical files so that no record of the exam requests would exist, thus reducing the backlog, Mitchell said.

Audio from a November 2008 meeting obtained by TheDC depicts VA Greater Los Angeles officials plotting to cancel backlogged exam requests.

“I’m still canceling orders from 2001,” said a male official in the meeting.

“Anything over a year old should be canceled,” replied a female official.

“Canceled or scheduled?” asked the male official.

“Canceled. …

Read more: VA destroyed veteran medical records to delete exam requests | The Daily Caller

Take heed all of you who want government sponsored universal healthcare in the Canadian/British stripe. You'll end up getting getting the quality of care they get at the VA; a place so filled with mediocrity that the only doctors who work there are the ones who can't gain employment anywhere else.

The nurses I know say that they would rather go into public if they needed it. They've worked in private and they say its understaffed and the doctors are worse.

Nah, private holds them to a higher standard where they actually need to work and can be fired easily. Public guarantees them a job where they can get away with mediocrity, a pension, and gain job security via a firing process whereas the only way you could lay someone off is that they happen to commit suicide while on the job. And even then they would need to go through the normal 10 year layoff procedure. Just to think that the VA has screwed thousands of vets (many of the died) and hardly anyone one gets fired. My God the horror stories I could tell you about the VA.

No it doesn't.

Ladies and gentlemen, I've found another one.

you have not.

 

[Publius1787]

The VA is trying to practice using the primary care model and isn't really equipped for it. Every veteran is supposed to get a physical every year, and letters go out to that effect. I doubt that any complete record was destroyed, but likely just request for physicals. In specialty clinics, if a person hasn't been seen in a year, they cannot get their meds refilled. You have to use some common sense. I would refill meds for people who had net been seen in a year but with a big notice on the bottle that said, 'no more refills until seen in clinic.' That usually did the trick.

One thing I learned working in state and federal facilities was to always look your bet and always dot your 'Is' and cross your 'Ts'. Any day you walked out to go to your care the press could be standing there waiting for you.

Yes you can get your meds filled.
My primary team doc left for another position(late 2012), the replacements have been temporary, now that we have gotten a permanent one I get to go to the VA for my annual checkup. My scripts for narcs have expired but I call in every month and they are re-filled.I've been doing it this way for a little over a year.

I hear people taking script testosterone are getting strokes. I was going to request that on my next visit,but now, I am not so sure since strokes are in my family history..

Once a clinician gets to know a patient, you can do things that need to be done. Bottom line on those 'rules' is that a clinician's practice is not regulated by the silly rule maker upper. We are regulated by the medical and nursing boards. If the VA makes a rule that you can't give a medicine until the patient comes in, they can't enforce it. You are under your own license and let's say someone is late for their visit and a clinician refuses to renew he patient's oxygen. In life and death situations you have to go ahead and renew or send them to the ER. You can't withhold life saving meds because they are late for their physical.

I can't tell you how many times I played the bouncing between the ER and primary care clinic game.

ER: "That's the responsibility of your primary are provider."
PC: "My GOD WHY ARENT YOU IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM!!!"
ER: "I don't care what your PC doc says, we aren't authorized to do that for you, and we can't run those tests."
PC: "How'd it go? WHAT!!! Lemme make a phone call for you!"
ER: "We cant do that. Huh? Call this number? Do I look like your secretary!!??"
(Finally get the PC to call ER. ER Admits patient and releases with problem unresolved and undiagnosed but with a great amount of pain. Told to follow up with PC. Bed ridden for 5 months of excruciating pain, finally get a consultation for surgery when results come in from many follow on visits, consultation scheduled in 3 additional months, lost 80lbs.)

The VA is garbage!!! Of course they call and ask you to come in. They give yo a time and you tell them you need to consult with a friend because you're in excruciating pain, you cannot drive, and you need to ensure that the chosen time is good for your friend who will drive you. They tell you that they'll refuse to wait for you to call your friend on an additional phone and tell you that they'll just mark you down as a patient cancellation for failure to come up with an appointment time and/or adhere to the time they chose for you. Of course, in order to call them back you got to call the standard VA number again, make the request, and wait 48 hours for them to call you back.

If you need to get in touch with your primary care doc/facility do you think you can simply call or e-mail them? Nope, place a call in the 1800 line, tell them who you want to speak to, they'll tell you to wait to be contacted, and then they wait 48 hours to contact you if they contact you at all. Sometimes they never contact you back. The VA is garbage!!!

I'm a combat veteran and many members of my family are combat veterans. I have a ton of friends I served with who were combat veterans. All of them have VA horror stories. Some of them simply bite the bullet and go through private insurance because it is so much easier and the care is so much better.

This is just a small taste of the VA horrors, I have soooo many more examples!!! But the good news is that if you're a homeless vet who served out Vietnam in an office and managed to scam your way into the VA you have a one stop shop for your drug addiction. And when they schedule your PTSD social group/get to gather and you find that you happen to be the only combat veteran among a group of 15, don't be surprised because 90% of PTSD cases are fraudulent and simply used to increase benefits. Oh I could go on forever!!!! What is the topic discussed by these non-combat veterans who supposedly have PTSD you may ask? How to increase their disability, bitching about the disability they have, and teaching others how to scam the system for more disability and further scam the taxpayer. But don't they discuss their war time experiences in order to treat their PTSD? HELL NO!! FEW OF THEM HAVE ANY WAR TIME EXPERIENCE, AND THE ONES THAT DID RARELY SERVED IN COMBAT AND DID NOT HAVE A COMBAT JOB!! Oddly enough, the infantry are the least likely to get treatment for PTSD. But the guy who served in the ADMIN office is proud to tell you about his made up war experiences.


Soooo, I see I'm rambling now. Summary: THE VA IS GARBAGE!

 

[Publius1787]

Take heed all of you who want government sponsored universal healthcare in the Canadian/British stripe. You'll end up getting getting the quality of care they get at the VA; a place so filled with mediocrity that the only doctors who work there are the ones who can't gain employment anywhere else.

The nurses I know say that they would rather go into public if they needed it. They've worked in private and they say its understaffed and the doctors are worse.

Nah, private holds them to a higher standard where they actually need to work and can be fired easily. Public guarantees them a job where they can get away with mediocrity, a pension, and gain job security via a firing process whereas the only way you could lay someone off is that they happen to commit suicide while on the job. And even then they would need to go through the normal 10 year layoff procedure. Just to think that the VA has screwed thousands of vets (many of the died) and hardly anyone one gets fired. My God the horror stories I could tell you about the VA.

No it doesn't.

Ladies and gentlemen, I've found another one.

you have not.

 

[waltky]

Three years to adjudicate a claim is w-a-y too long...

Advocate: VA Must Reform Appeals Process 'Sooner Rather Than Later'
Jun 10, 2016 | A director at the Veterans of Foreign Wars doesn't know if Congress will pass legislation aimed at fixing the VA appeals claims backlog before or after the November presidential election.

But given the problem has been growing for several years -- and a roughly 18-month implementation window, Gerald Manar is comfortable saying his organization "certainly supports addressing this problem and getting it done sooner rather than later." In an interview Thursday with Military.com, the national services director for the VFW added, "but the problem is, this is a major election year." With all 435 members of the House and 34 senators -- about a third of the Senate -- seeking re-election in the fall, there is little time to get a proposed appeals reform bill through the two congressional veterans' affairs committees and out to the two chambers for votes. "The VA is pushing very hard to get both committees to do something this year," he said. "Whether it happens before July [when Congress goes into recess] or in the lame duck session, they understand that if it doesn't get done this year, it'll be another year before it gets done."

Manar also noted even if the bill is approved by Congress, about a year and a half will pass before the Department of Veterans Affairs can actually begin implementing it. "I think 18 months is a realistic amount of time to gear up to take on the new claims processing initiative," he said. There will be changes required to VA information technology systems and a host of other modifications to the process, he said. "We saw with the Choice Act that if you rush it, you don't do a good job," Manar said. He was referring to legislation intended to give veterans greater choice and more opportunities to go outside the the department for care. But the bill translated into different types of agreements for different providers, and thus problems for veterans trying to get treatment. "The VA got burned on that once; they don't want to rush [this]." Manar said.

A key sticking point with the reform package the VA proposed to Congress is that it would not grandfather the 450,000 veterans with pending appeals. Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia and chairman of the the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee who sponsored a related bipartisan bill along with ranking member Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, said Congress still needs to know "what we do with the 450,000 [veterans] that are waiting." The bipartisan Veterans First Act already includes a pilot program for fast-tracking new appeals using a “fully developed claim” system. Here, veterans would submit all pertinent medical and health records at the time of their claim, certifying they have no further evidence to include. This would allow for a speedier disposition of the claim, they say.

But those who filed under the existing system cannot simply be moved into a new system. The VFW and other veterans' service organizations, including The American Legion, have been meeting regularly with VA officials and lawmakers to come up with the reform package. The initiative before Congress would modify the current appeals system by establishing three options for veterans dissatisfied with a claims decision. Currently, a veteran may file an appeal that must wait with 450,000 others in the system. The advantage is the veteran may continue to add evidence to the claim along the way. The disadvantage is the time required for processing. VA officials have testified that, on average, a claim adjudicated by the appeals board in 2015 had been in the system for three years, though at least one appeals claim has been in the system for 25 years.

MORE

 

[regent]

The VA is trying to practice using the primary care model and isn't really equipped for it. Every veteran is supposed to get a physical every year, and letters go out to that effect. I doubt that any complete record was destroyed, but likely just request for physicals. In specialty clinics, if a person hasn't been seen in a year, they cannot get their meds refilled. You have to use some common sense. I would refill meds for people who had net been seen in a year but with a big notice on the bottle that said, 'no more refills until seen in clinic.' That usually did the trick.

One thing I learned working in state and federal facilities was to always look your bet and always dot your 'Is' and cross your 'Ts'. Any day you walked out to go to your care the press could be standing there waiting for you.

Where is it written that every vet is supposed to get a yearly physical? There is a priority list for veterans and certain vets are treated for service connected disabilities, the rest, as room is available.

 

[waltky]

VA abandoned 'Fast-track' Firing Authority...

Lawmakers Blast VA for Abandoning 'Fast-track' Firing Authority
Jun 17, 2016 | Lawmakers are furious that Veterans Affairs Department will no longer use the fast-track system for firing employees that Congress gave it more than a year ago.

Department officials on Friday notified lawmakers they were passing on the expanded firing authority included in the VA Accountability Act of 2014. Officials haven't yet explained the move, and the department's record of disciplining employees under the law is unclear. Lawmakers have repeatedly criticized VA Secretary Bob McDonald for what they say is an inability to fire problem employees, including one who returned to work after being arrested in connection with an armed robbery in Puerto Rico. For example, Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia and chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said the decision to not use the expedited authority of accountability act is "outrageous and unconscionable. "Two years ago, veterans were forced to wait far too long for care because of incompetent executives," he said. "Since then, we've seen scandal after scandal emerge at the department. While some progress has been made to hold those responsible accountable, there is still a long way to go and choosing to ignore these key reforms is a slap in the face to our veterans."

Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican from Florida who heads the counterpart panel in the House, said the the department "isn't very good at disciplining employees, but this decision calls into question whether department leaders are even interested in doing so. "After all, VA is a place where egregious employee behavior, such as armed robbery participation and wait-time manipulation, is routinely tolerated," he said. "This decision underscores the urgent need for civil-service reform across the federal government that enables leaders to swiftly and efficiently discipline those who can't or won't do their jobs -- an ability that is presently almost nonexistent."

Among the most widely known firings was that of Sharon Helman, former director of the VA Medical Center in Phoenix in connection with the wait-times scandal and department's findings that at least six veterans died before they could get an appointment at the facility. Helman appealed to the Merit System Protection Board, whichsupported the firing but only because VA officials also found she had accepted some $50,000 in gifts from a vendor wanting to do business with the medical center.

Several months ago, however, prompted by other MSPB judges' rulings -- overturning VA disciplinary actions against two senior executives --McDonald met with lawmakers to discuss changes he wants to see at the department. McDonald wants hospital directors and other senior executives placed under Title 38 -- the same job category as doctors and nurses. This would allow the VA secretary to demote or terminate employees for cause, without them having the ability to appeal to the MSPB. "[This] gives us more flexibility to pay them more competitively," McDonald said at the time, "but it also gives us more flexibility in disciplinary matters without all the things that happened with the SES employees."

Lawmakers Blast VA for Abandoning 'Fast-track' Firing Authority | Military.com