The IG is investigating 69 VA facilities for criminal, civil and administrative wrongdoing after revealing late last month that scheduling abuses implemented to mask long wait times for health care are systemic within the veteran health care system, Acting Inspector General Richard Griffin said during a hearing before House lawmakers. Earlier in the day, the scope of the crisis became more apparent when the VA released its own audit showing more than 57,000 veterans have been waiting more than three months for care appointments. The audit blamed a lack of providers and an overly complicated scheduling process for the breakdown in timely care at 731 hospitals and clinics nationwide. I think it comes down to accountability of senior leadership out in these facilities, Griffin said before the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Once somebody loses their job or is criminally charged, that will be the shot heard around the system.
The IG has discovered that in many cases, staff would game the system by giving veterans the first available appointment date up to six months in the future despite their requests for an earlier visit and then mark the appointment as the desired date, which would then appear in the VA computer system as no wait, Griffin said. Staff also would schedule patients for visits months into the future, then cancel the appointment two weeks before and reschedule for the same date so it appeared to fall within the VAs goal of 14-day wait times, he said. The IG and Department of Justice are now discussing whether such practices rise to the level of criminal activity, Griffin said. You have to work your way back up the supervisory chain to find out who put out that order, and thats what we are having to do, he said. Maybe if people do start getting charged, maybe somebody will say, I dont want to take the fall for somebody farther up the food chain who told me to do this.
The VA audit released Monday showed that about 70 percent of the 731 VA facilities reviewed used off-the-books patient waiting lists at least once, and management pressured staff in some cases to manipulate appointments to make waits appear shorter, the audit confirmed. The VA rushed out the audit under pressure from Congress and veteran groups. The findings provide the first detailed look at least from the departments own perspective at patient wait times at individual facilities since allegations in April that up to 40 patients died awaiting care at a Phoenix VA hospital. Philip Matkovsky, assistant deputy veterans affairs under secretary for health for administrative operations, apologized to the public and to veterans during testimony Monday night before House Veterans Affairs Committee and said the audit marked a turning point for the department. We saw this as the opportunity, the opportunity for us to do a reset, Matkovsky said.
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