VA Destroys Vets Medical Records To Eliminate Backlog

[Sun Devil 92]

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.

I remember this from way back them.

Funny.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Shame on `em...

Report: Wait Times Manipulated at Houston-area VA Clinics
Jun 22, 2016 — Staff at Houston-area Veterans Affairs facilities improperly manipulated wait times for Texas veterans wishing to make a medical appointment, according to a federal report released Monday.

The Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Inspector General said more than 200 appointments were incorrectly recorded for the year that ended in June 2015. Two former scheduling supervisors and a current director of two VA clinics instructed staff to incorrectly record cancellations as being canceled by the patient, the report shows. Veterans in many instances then encountered average wait times of nearly three months when the appointments were rescheduled. "These issues have continued despite the Veterans Health Administration ... having identified similar issues during a May and June 2014 system-wide review of access," according to the report. "These conditions persisted because of a lack of effective training and oversight."

Federal inspectors also determined that wait times for other veterans were understated by more than two months. As a result, wait times "did not reflect the actual wait experienced by the veterans and the wait time remained unreliable and understated." VA officials in the Houston area were directed to provide additional training for staff, improve scheduling audit procedures and take other steps to correct the lingering issue.

Similar problems have been found in other states. Scandal erupted in Phoenix nearly two years ago, following complaints that as many as 40 patients died while awaiting care at the city's VA hospital.

VA employees in Texas have previously reported to investigators that they sometimes engaged in misleading scheduling at the behest of their supervisors. But supervisors and administrators at many facilities denied there was a systematic effort to manipulate wait time data. Some told investigators that schedulers may have misunderstood directives, while others said employees had since been retrained to correct the practice.

Report: Wait Times Manipulated at Houston-area VA Clinics | Military.com

 

[saveliberty]

Purging Agent Orange contact from the records should prove helpful...

 

[waltky]

Network of Public-Private Care Providers suggested to reduce VA wait times...

Report on VA Calls for Network of Public-Private Care Providers
Jul 07, 2016 | A long-awaited report released Wednesday on the nation's troubled veterans' health care system recommends 18 "bold" changes, including creating a new network of public-private care providers, to address the crippling wait times and other problems at Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Commission on Care called its report a "foundation for far-reaching organizational transformation," yet two members of the task force issued their own scathing dissent, saying the recommendations don't go nearly far enough to fix a failed system that needs a sweeping overhaul. Debate over reform at the VA has been growing in the two years since the discovery of long appointment wait times revealed a pattern of data manipulation and poor access for veterans at VA medical centers across the country. Since then, promised reform has sparked volatile discussion. Controversial calls to close the VA and offer veterans privatized care, supported by the two dissenting commissioners, prompted unified opposition from major veterans organizations and sparked street protests by unionized VA workers.

The report submitted to VA Secretary Bob McDonald and President Barack Obama did not go that far, but it did identify a troubled system. The 15-member commission, created by Congress in the wake of the wait times scandal, found that despite billions of dollars spent to improve the sprawling health care system, the VA is still failing to provide adequate access to high-quality care. It suffers from flawed leadership, inadequate staffing, procurement problems and an antiquated IT system. In their recommendations, the majority of commissioners endorsed a public-private network of community-based care that would replace the flawed Choice Program meant to give veterans access to private care when needed. They also called for creating a governing board to oversee reforms and operations at the Veterans Health Administration.

Under the Choice Program, also set up in the wake of the scandal, veterans were supposed to be able to get medical attention outside the VA if their doctor wait was more than 30 days or they had to travel more than 40 miles. But veterans had trouble getting those visits approved and getting reimbursed for out of pocket expenses. Under the proposed plan, those requirements would be scrapped and veterans would have a choice of medical providers from a network in their community that includes VA, federal and private doctors and specialists. "The commissioners ... agree that America's veterans deserve much better, that many profound deficiencies in VHA require urgent reform and that America's veterans deserve a better organized, high-performing health care system," they wrote. "These recommendations are not small-scale fixes to finite problems. Instead they constitute a bold transformation of a complex system that will take years to fully realize."

Other reforms include cultural and leadership changes from creating an 11-member board of directors -- a move Congress would have to legislate -- to developing a leadership promotion pipeline. One recommendation suggests revising regulations to allow care for veterans with other than honorable discharges who are deemed eligible because of mitigating factors like combat trauma or injuries. "While the Commission on Care's nearly 300-page report will take time to completely review and digest, the document makes it abundantly clear that the problems plaguing Department of Veterans Affairs medical care are severe," said Congressman Jeff Miller, R-Florida, who chairs the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. He said the committee would review the report in detail in September when Congress reconvenes. Many of the recommendations could be implemented directly by Obama, though some reforms, like a governing board, would still require congressional action.

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See also:

Group Criticizes VA Commission for Failing to Vote on Recommendations
Jul 06, 2016 | A veterans group is criticizing as inadequate the work of a congressional commission that concluded the Veterans Affairs Department still has "profound deficiencies" in delivering health care.

The Concerned Veterans for America, an Arlington, Virginia-based organization that advocates for greater choice in veteran health care providers, described the panel -- of which it was a part -- as "broken," in part for failing to vote on its own recommendations. "Basically we … have a broken commission, and because of a broken commission we have a broken report," said Darin Selnick, senior veterans affairs adviser for organization, which hosted a teleconference on Wednesday after the release of the panel's report. Selnick, who served on the commission, participated in the teleconference with Stewart Hickey, a fellow commissioner and former executive director for AMVETS, and Dan Caldwell, vice president for political action at the Concerned Veterans for America.

The report includes some recommendations that Selnick and Hickey said they could support, such as creating a board of directors to oversee the Veterans Health Administration, eliminating the 30-day and 40-mile restrictions on using the Choice Act for non-VA care, and adopting a BRAC-like system to shut down unneeded VA facilities. But they panned the overall package as continuing the status quo. They also criticized the commission for not putting each recommendation to a vote -- something that the chairmen of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees had wanted -- and for not publishing on the commission's website a letter dissenting from the recommendations.

Selnick specifically accused Nancy Schlichting, the panel's chairwoman, of preventing substantive changes, and commission member Phillip Longman, senior editor of The Washington Monthly, of using his magazine to smear members such as himself for pressing for reforms to give veterans greater private-sector choices. "[Schlichting] had her own agenda. She felt that veterans were broken, were old, felt veterans couldn't take care of themselves, so the VHA had to be the one to take care of it," he said, referring to the Veterans Health Administration. "She focused and derailed any efforts that went against her perceived support of the status quo and fixing of the existing choice program."

Caldwell, CVA's political action head, slammed "left-wing news outlets and the Washington-based leadership of certain veterans' organizations" for making false claims that some commission members would profit from reforms that would increase private health care options for veterans. He singled out Longman for a Washington Monthly report that the libertarian billionaires David and Charles Koch were funding his organization and using it to push for privatization of VA health care. The group's ties to the Koch brothers have long been known and reported on. Military.com was unable to reach Longman for comment, though Schlichting rejected the idea that she or anyone else on the commission steered its recommendations.

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[waltky]

VA Access Improves but there is still work to do, jobs needed for vets...

VA Access Improves, Work Still Needed: Report
Aug 05, 2016 | A new independent report on Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics found that although improvements have been made on issues such as access to care, there is still work to do.

The Joint Commission, which conducts organization health care audits, began unannounced surveys on hospitals in the VA system between September 2014 and August 2015 at the VA's request, VA officials said. Some of the surveyed hospitals were then visited again through April of this year as part of a separate, previously scheduled round of visits, and their progress on key issues was examined, they said. The program looked at problems such as access to care, leadership and staffing. "Phones were inconsistently answered when patients called to make appointments, even though insufficient staffing did not appear to be the reason," the investigation found. "Staff absenteeism also caused problems with access. There were often no plans for coverage. As a result, veterans would arrive with no one to see them and no process in place to assist them in rescheduling their appointment."

The initial review looked at 139 medical facilities and 47 community-based clinics nationwide, the VA said, while the follow-up surveys revisited 57 of those locations. More than 220 requirements for improvement were identified at those sites, according to the report. Seventy-one of those were related to care access, coordination or timeliness, some of which was caused by staff confusion about expectations, the report says. While some of the scheduling issues were improved by a clarification given to the clinics from top VA officials during the survey period, problems lingered, the report says. However, improvements were made at the 57 locations that received follow-up visits, the report says. Of those, only three received a repeat citation for access, coordination and timeliness issues.

To address those continued problems, the report recommends that officials continue to monitor appointment scheduling timeframes and have better patient engagement, among other suggestions. "Their analysis shows that VA as national health care leader is making progress in improving the care we provide to our Veterans," said Dr. David Shulkin, a VA under secretary for health, in a statement on the report. "This affirms our commitment to providing both excellent health care and an exceptional experience of care to all Veterans served."

VA Access Improves, Work Still Needed: Report | Military.com

See also:

Post-9/11 Veteran Unemployment Rate Ticks Upward
Aug 05, 2016 | Unemployment rates for all veterans and especially for post-9/11 veterans went up in July despite a rosy government jobs report Friday that showed the U.S. economy strengthening.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report for July put the national unemployment rate at 4.9 percent, the same as in June, while overall veterans' unemployment rates were at 4.7 percent, up from 4.2 percent in June, even as employers made far more hires than expected. The jobless rate for post-9/11 veterans, called Gulf War II-era veterans by the BLS, was pegged at 5.9 percent, up from 4.4 percent in June and 4.0 percent in May. Male post-9/11 vets had an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent in July, while female post-9/11 vets had an unemployment rate of 7.0 percent, the BLS said. Unemployment rates for post-9/11 veterans had hit double digits during the recession before steadily coming down since 2011, according to BLS statistics.

In 2011, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law a program giving employers tax credits for hiring unemployed veterans. Other programs also have encouraged companies and government agencies to hire veterans. Jackie Maffucci, research director for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, cautioned against drawing conclusions from the latest statistics on post-9/11 veterans jobless rates. "While seemingly a large jump in the post-9/11 generation, the smaller sample size of the population sometimes results in more dramatic changes in rates from month to month," Maffucci said. "While one month does not a trend make, it will be important in the next few months to monitor whether unemployment among the newest generations goes back down, as employment continues to be a primary concern among IAVA members," she said.

American Legion hiring fair.​

The rise in veterans' unemployment came despite what Jason Furman, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, called a BLS report that projected continued growth for the economy. "The economy added 255,000 jobs in July following robust job growth in June, as the unemployment rate held steady at 4.9 percent and labor force participation rose," Furman said in a statement. "U.S. businesses have now added 15.0 million jobs since private-sector job growth turned positive in early 2010, and the longest streak of total job growth on record continued in July," Furman said.

The overall positive jobs trends in the latest BLS report were hailed by Michelle Meyer, head of United States economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "This was everything you could have asked for, maybe more," Meyer told The New York Times. "We're seeing new entrants into the labor market, which implies a longer runway for the business cycle." The July statistics were in contrast to numbers released last week showing disappointing economic growth in April, May and June. The April-June quarter was the third consecutive period in which the economy advanced at less than a 2 percent annual rate, the weakest stretch in four years.

Post-9/11 Veteran Unemployment Rate Ticks Upward | Military.com

 

[waltky]

VA system rigged for failure...

Union Bosses, VA Bosses Rigging System for Failure
Sep 05, 2016 | U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican from Chumuckla, Florida, is the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.

In an expletive-laden rant delivered earlier this year, a belligerent American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox threatened Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald with physical violence. Cox was "prepared to whoop Bob McDonald's a--," he said. "He's going to start treating us as the labor partner … or we will whoop his a--, I promise you," Cox continued. McDonald's response? Absolutely nothing.

The exchange perfectly encapsulates the corrosive influence government union bosses are having on efforts to reform a broken VA. It's a never-ending cycle in which pliant politicians and federal agency leaders bow to the bosses' demands to preserve the dysfunctional status quo of our federal personnel system, which almost guarantees employment for government bureaucrats no matter how egregious their behavior.

A visitor leaves the Sacramento Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Rancho Cordova, Calif.​

The problem with union bosses like Cox is that they are more interested in protecting misbehaving VA employees than the veterans the department was created to serve. The problem with VA leaders like McDonald is that, in their perpetual quest to placate big labor's powers that be, the taxpayers and veterans they are charged with serving are paying the price. It's no wonder McDonald was silent after Cox's violent threats. Cox's bellicose behavior is precisely the type of employee conduct VA leaders and union bosses routinely defend.

Take the case of a VA Caribbean Healthcare System employee who AFGE helped to keep her job after she participated in an armed robbery. Unwilling to admit the crucial role AFGE union bosses played in helping the criminal keep her job, VA has offered a series of outrageous excuses in order to explain her continued employment. "There was never any indication that the employee posed a risk to Veterans or VA property," VA Under Secretary for Health David Shulkin said, adding that the employee couldn't be terminated for her armed robbery participation because it occurred in her free time. Really?

The fact that AFGE routinely defends the indefensible among VA employees is not surprising. After all, the organization's first loyalty is to government workers above everyone else. What's disappointing, however, is VA leaders' refusal to challenge AFGE and its tactics. VA's silence is more proof that the bosses -- both VA and union -- are all part of the same system, which specializes in protecting its own. Consider how VA safeguarded two senior bureaucrats when the department's inspector general caught them orchestrating a scheme to rake in thousands in taxpayer-funded relocation benefits.

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[waltky]

Changes comin' `round to the VA...

House Passes Legislation to Reform VA, Change Appeals Process
Sep 15, 2016 | WASHINGTON -- The House passed Department of Veterans Affairs reform legislation Wednesday evening that would change the process veterans use to appeal benefits claims and make it easier for the agency to fire bad employees.

"This bill is about accountability," said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida, who introduced the legislation. "This bill is trying to give the [VA] secretary the tools he needs in order to hold employees accountable. We need to move forward." The VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act, with amendments, passed by a 310-116 vote. House Democrats, led by Rep. Mark Takano, D-California, ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, proposed some of the bill's amendments just before it was passed Wednesday. Many of the additions were aimed at different kinds of VA reform, including language seeking to improve the VA's ability to recruit physicians.

Before the vote, Takano, who ended up voting against the bill, thanked Miller for working to get some form of veterans legislation through the House. But Takano said he and Miller were "at odds on the underlying bill." Instead, Takano and other Democrats voiced support during debate for a competing bill stalled in the Senate, the Veterans First Act. The Senate bill contains dozens of VA reforms, some of which Democrats attempted to get added to Miller's bill.

One amendment passed Wednesday orders the VA to annually survey veterans about their experiences receiving agency health care. Another amendment requires the VA secretary to review whistleblower complaints on a quarterly basis. "Eighty amendments were offered on this legislation, 22 were accepted, and a vast number of Democratic amendments were accepted and allowed to be debated on the floor," Miller said. Sixty-nine Democrats voted to approve the legislation. Support was widespread to restructure the process used by veterans to appeal decisions on their benefits claims. But President Barack Obama's administration, the VA and a federal employee union have made known their concerns about language in the bill to fast-track discipline against VA employees, particularly executives, for misconduct or poor performance.

Miller introduced the bill in July in response to a federal appeals board reversing a series of disciplinary actions against VA executives in malfeasance cases. The legislation would set a time limit the appeals board has to decide a case, and it would remove the board from the process of disciplinary action against senior executives. The Obama administration issued a statement earlier this week, saying that part of the bill would strip VA employees of their rights, raising questions about its constitutionality. "The administration believes that the approach to accountability in the legislation -- focused primarily on firing or demoting employees without appropriate or meaningful procedural protections -- is misguided and burdensome," the statement reads.

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See also:

House Approves Bill to Make It Easier to Fire at VA
Sep 15, 2016 | WASHINGTON -- The House approved a bill Wednesday aimed at making it easier for the Department of Veterans Affairs to fire employees for misconduct or poor performance -- a source of ongoing tension with the Obama administration.

The Republican-sponsored bill was approved, 310-116. Sixty-nine Democrats and 241 Republicans voted for the bill. It would shorten the time employees are given to respond to proposed discipline or firing and would eliminate a provision that allows senior executives to appeal disciplinary actions to an independent review board. GOP lawmakers have been urging the VA to fire more workers as a key step to improving the scandal-plagued agency. House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller said a "pervasive lack of accountability among employees at all levels" is "the biggest obstacle standing in the way of VA reform."

The House bill is the latest in a series of efforts by lawmakers to respond to a two-year-old scandal over chronic delays for veterans seeking medical care, and falsified records covering up the long waits. Veterans on secret waiting lists faced scheduling delays of up to a year, and as many as 40 veterans died while awaiting care at the Phoenix VA hospital in Arizona, according to an investigation by the VA's inspector general. Similar problems were soon discovered at VA medical centers nationwide, affecting thousands of veterans and prompting an outcry in Congress.

Miller, R-Florida, said reform efforts "are doomed to fail" until the problem of employee accountability is fixed. "For too long, union bosses, administration officials and their enablers have used every trick in the book to help VA bureaucrats who can't or won't do their jobs remain firmly entrenched in the agency's bureaucracy," he said. The accountability bill he sponsored "gets rid of loopholes" that have "protected deadwood employees for years," Miller said. "Union bosses and defenders of the broken status quo will oppose this bill, and that is exactly why it must become law."

The American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents 230,000 VA employees, said the bill would undermine veterans' health care and other services by gutting employees' due process rights to challenge wrongful firing or retaliation against whistleblowers. "If Congress passes this bill, frontline employees who dare to speak up against mismanagement and patient harm will face retaliation, harassment and the loss of their jobs," said union president J. David Cox Sr. Cox called the bill "a partisan effort to allow favoritism and cronyism" by turning VA workers into "at-will" employees who can be fired at any time with little to no recourse.

The Obama administration opposes the bill, saying it could "undermine VA's workforce" and ultimately hinder services to veterans. In a statement Monday, the White House said the bill's focus on firing or demoting employees without procedural protections "is misguided and burdensome. ... This approach significantly alters and diminishes important rights and protections that are available to the vast majority of other employees across the government and which are essential to safeguarding employees' rights and the merit system."

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[waltky]

VA withholding millions in benefits from housebound veterans...

Veterans Denied Millions in Benefits by VA
Oct 01, 2016 | WASHINGTON -- Roughly $110 million in payments to thousands of housebound veterans was withheld from them by the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a new report from VA inspector general's office.

The IG report found approximately 186,000 veterans as of March 2015 were designated as housebound because of illness or injury with errors in payments to about 33,400 of them. Others did receive payments, but they were delayed anywhere from five days to six years. The report also found some veterans who were not designated as housebound received $44.3 million in money meant for housebound veterans. "Staff did not accurately address housebound benefits," the report concluded. "As a result, some veterans did not receive benefits to which they were entitled, while taxpayer funds were wasted paying other veterans who did not meet the eligibility criteria."

The IG report blamed the errors on a faulty electronic system, poor training and management allowing VA staff to "arbitrarily decide these claims." This is not the first time that VA's technology has been criticized. In its final report released in the summer, the Commission on Care -- a board established to propose recommendations for VA reform -- called the VA's technology "antiquated" and "disjointed." The commission called for a new system that would, in part, better allow the health care side of VA to communicate with staffers making benefits decisions.

In response to the IG report, the VA's office of the undersecretary for benefits said it was working on technology changes. The office also said it would start an annual review of benefits going to housebound veterans. The first review is scheduled for October. Meanwhile, Michael Missal, the VA's new inspector general, told a House committee earlier this week that he's working to expand inspections into the VA's benefits programs. The committee met about another IG report that found veterans in prison had received $104 million in overpayments between 2008 and 2015. The IG now has three teams dedicated to reviewing the Veterans Benefits Administration, Missal told the committee.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - dey need to hire more doctors so dey can see more veterans...

VA Slow to Implement Reform after Wait-time Scandal
Oct 29, 2016 | A GAO report states that, without a process in place, there’s “little assurance” the delivery of VA health care will improve.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has been slow to make changes - or hasn't made changes at all - after numerous reviews into the agency after the 2014 wait-time scandal, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office. Since it was discovered that employees at VA hospitals falsified data about veterans wait times, and veterans died while waiting for care, the agency has undergone internal and external reviews and inspections into its management practices, business processes, staffing levels and veterans' access to care. The reviews, one of which cost the VA $68 million, concluded the agency needed to undertake a large-scale reorganization. But the VA doesn't have a process to follow through with those recommendations or effectively make changes, according to the report, which was released Thursday.

A Veterans Health Administration map, showing the realigned Veteran Integrated Service Networks. (Government Accountability Office)​

The report also states without a process, there's "little assurance" the delivery of VA health care will improve. "Although [Veterans Health Administration] has spent considerable resources--staff time and funds-- on reviews and task forces that recommended improvements in its organizational structure, VHA lacks the processes needed to ensure that officials can evaluate those recommendations, document decisions, monitor and evaluate implementation, and hold staff accountable," the report states. The Government Accountability Office placed the VA on its "high risk" list in 2015, and has since released about two dozen reports about the agency. It started this latest review in September 2015, at the request of several congressmen, including Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Miller has been critical in the past of how long it's taken the VA to follow through with reform efforts. He's blamed delays in reform on the length of time it takes the agency to demote and fire employees. In September, the House passed a bill sponsored by Miller that would, in part, do away with a lengthy appeals process, allowing the VA to fire employees more quickly. But the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing about 230,000 VA employees, said the bill does away with their due process rights. "The biggest obstacle standing in the way of VA reform is the department's pervasive lack of accountability among employees at all levels," Miller said at the time.[ The GAO report backs up that claim, saying the VA "cannot ensure" that it's holding officials accountable "for taking actions that resolve deficiencies." The GAO sent a copy of its report to Miller and others on Sept. 27.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Hey! Dem whistleblowers is s'posed to be protected...

Veterans Affairs Whistleblower Resigns, Citing Retaliation
Nov 17, 2016 — A Department of Veterans Affairs employee who told Congress the agency was using unauthorized wait lists for mental health care in Colorado has resigned, saying he was subjected to retaliation for speaking out.

Brian Smothers told The Associated Press Wednesday the VA had opened two separate inquiries into his actions and tried to get him to sign a statement saying he had broken VA rules. He said he refused. Smothers also said the VA reassigned him to an office with no computer access, no significant duties and no social contact. He called the VA's actions punitive and his working conditions intolerable. He said he resigned as of Tuesday. VA officials had no immediate comment on Smothers' claim that he was punished for speaking up but said the agency does not tolerate retaliation. They said previously they take any allegation about unauthorized wait lists seriously and were cooperating with an inquiry.

Smothers alleges that Colorado VA facilities in Denver and suburban Golden used unauthorized wait lists for mental health services from 2012 until last September. He said the lists hid how long it takes for veterans to get treatment and made the demand for mental health care appear lower than it really was. He said the longer that veterans have to wait for mental health care, the less likely they are to use it when it becomes available. "It was totally unacceptable to me," Smothers said. He added: "It's my hope that the incoming administration (of president-elect Donald Trump) goes and fires people."

Department of Veterans Affairs​

Smothers estimated the lists contained 3,500 entries but did not know how many individual veterans were on them because some names appeared multiple times. It was not immediately clear how long veterans on the lists had to wait for care. Unofficial wait lists have been used by VA health care facilities elsewhere. The discovery of the lists created a nationwide scandal in 2014 when 40 veterans died while waiting for appointments at a Phoenix VA hospital. Smothers was a peer support specialist on the VA's post-traumatic stress disorder clinical support team in Denver. He said he started the job in April 2015.

Smothers went to Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cory Gardner of Colorado in September, saying he had uncovered the unauthorized lists on spreadsheets in the VA computer system. He also said a veteran had taken his own life while waiting for PTSD treatment at a Colorado Springs VA clinic. At Johnson and Gardner's request, the VA inspector general's office — the agency's internal watchdog — opened an inquiry into Smothers' claims. A spokesman for the inspector general did not immediately respond Wednesday to a telephone message seeking comment. Gardner said in a written statement that he was troubled by the circumstances of Smothers' resignation.

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Congress Backs Bill Requiring Timely Answers at VA Hotline
Nov 17, 2016 | WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs would have to ensure that all telephone calls and messages received by a crisis hotline are answered in a timely manner under a bill on its way to the president.

The Senate on Wednesday gave final legislative approval to the measure. It comes after a report that more than one-third of calls to a hotline for troubled veterans are not being answered by front-line staffers because of poor work habits and other problems.

Department of Veterans Affairs​

The hotline's former director says calls frequently roll over to back-up centers where workers have less training to deal with veterans' problems.

Republican Rep. David Young of Iowa sponsored the bill, saying "a veteran in need cannot wait for help." The toll-free hotline number is 800-273-8255.

Congress Backs Bill Requiring Timely Answers at VA Hotline | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Say what?!!!

Report: VA Hospital Left Body in Shower Room for 9 Hours
Dec 12, 2016 — Staff at a Veterans Affairs hospital in the Tampa Bay, Florida area left a body in a shower for nine hours after a veteran died.

Staff at a Veterans Affairs hospital in the Tampa Bay, Florida area left a body in a shower for nine hours after a veteran died and proper pickup procedures to the morgue weren't followed. The Tampa Bay Times on Sunday reported that an internal investigation concluded that staff at the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System failed to provide appropriate post-mortem care to the veteran's body. The investigative report said that leaving the body unattended for so long increased the chance of decomposition. The unnamed veteran died in February after spending time in hospice care. The hospital's Administrative Investigation Board ordered retraining for staff.

Hospital spokesman Jason Dangel said hospital officials view what happened as unacceptable but have implemented changes to make sure it doesn't happen again. "We feel that we have taken strong, appropriate and expeditious steps to strengthen and improve our existing systems and processes within the unit," Dangel said. "It is our expectation that each veteran is transported to their final resting place in the timely, respectful and honorable manner. America's heroes deserve nothing less." The investigation found that once the veteran died, hospice staff members requested a staffer known as a "transporter" to get the body moved to the morgue.

The transporter told them to follow proper procedures and notify dispatchers, but that request was never made, so nobody showed up to take the body away. Instead, it was moved to a hallway in the hospice and then to the shower room where it was unattended for more than nine hours. Some hospice staff "demonstrated a lack of concern, attention and respect" for the veteran, according to the investigative report. The investigation also found that staff failed to check a 24-hour nursing report that would indicate whether the death was reported properly, and staff failed to update a nursing organizational chart that hampered efforts to determine who was in charge.

Report: VA Hospital Left Body in Shower Room for 9 Hours | Military.com

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Sound Off: Should the U.S. Privatize the VA?
December 8, 2016 - Everyone knows that Department of Veterans Affairs medical care needs a lot of improvement. Thousands of veterans can’t get care as quickly as they need it and then there are the really disheartening administrative disasters at VA hospitals like the recent one at the Tomah VA Hospital in Wisconsin or the 2014 scandal at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Phoenix.

There are claims that the Concerned Veterans of America (CVA), a group funded by the Koch Brothers, wants to disband the VA, requiring all veterans to get private healthcare. The CVA disagrees with those claims, but its proposals would allow for a panel appointed by the president to review and possibly close some VA medical centers while using the money saved to open up more veteran health care to the private market.

During the election, Democrats suggested that President-elect Trump supports that position. That’s not really the case, but Trump did call the VA “almost a corrupt enterprise” and suggested that veterans should have more private care options than they currently do.

Still, questions about privatization of the VA led dozens of veterans groups to unite and tell the incoming president’s transition team during a meeting at American Legion headquarters that they strongly oppose any such move. Veterans groups support a strong VA with private care to fill in the gaps and help vets who live in remote locations receive care when a VA hospital isn’t close by.

Obviously, many veterans have service-related injuries and psychological issues that fall outside of the business models used by private insurance companies. A poorly-run VA is no help to anyone, but a reformed Veterans Administration that’s focused on veteran needs might be the best way to go. What do you think? Should the VA be privatized? Or do veterans deserve a dedicated medical system that’s devoted to their unique needs? Sound off!

Sound Off: Should the U.S. Privatize the VA? - Under the Radar

 

[waltky]

The more things change, the more they remain the same...

VA Discloses Ratings of Its 146 Medical Centers
Dec 23, 2016 | Several facilities racked by scandal continue to struggle, the ratings show.

Most medical centers serving veterans across the country are improving, according to a once-withheld rating system just released by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Yet, the ratings show several facilities racked by scandal continue to struggle. Of the 146 medical centers rated, 120 of them, or 82 percent, improved in the past year, according to the VA. But the Phoenix hospital, the epicenter of the 2014 wait-time scandal, was one of the worst rated, and the hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin – another one that has recently come under fire – saw a drop in performance this year. The performance ratings were released to the public under pressure following an investigation by USA Today earlier this month that revealed the ratings were being held, undisclosed, within the VA.

The VA gave a one- to five-star rating to 146 VA medical centers across the country indicating their quality-of-care at the end of 2016. The information posted online also shows whether each hospital improved since the end of 2015. The report prompted several lawmakers – including Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Tim Walberg, R-Mich. -- to call for the information to be publicly released. The John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit -- named for Debbie Dingell’s husband, former Rep. John Dingell -- was given the lowest rating, one star, for 2015 and 2016. "Veterans, just like every other patient, deserve to know how their hospitals are performing and what services need to be improved," Dingell and Walberg wrote last week in a letter to VA Secretary Bob McDonald. "Having a secret rating system only serves to increase distrust of the VA and may give the appearance that the department has something to hide."

Since early 2015, the VA has posted sets of data to its website called Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning. VA leaders used the data, which tracks issues such as death rates, patient satisfaction and efficiency, to create the newly released ratings previously kept internal. To justify keeping the ratings from public view, the VA said it did so because the information "would likely confuse our veterans and the general public." VA leaders called USA Today irresponsible for posting the 2015 ratings, and said it released new 2016 ratings "in an effort to set the record straight." Because the star ratings are relative and compare VA hospitals to one another, "somebody is always going to be on the bottom," McDonald said last week at a public forum. "It is a disservice to veterans to lead them to believe that a one-star facility means they won’t get care they need," said David Shulkin, the VA’s under secretary for health.

Seventeen of the 146 medical centers earned 5-star ratings, the highest given, and 10 received one-star ratings. Some of the best included the Boston VA medical center and hospitals in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The worst-performing included Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and all three Tennessee hospitals in Memphis, Nashville and Murfreesboro. Five medical centers -- El Paso, Texas; Fargo, North Dakota; Hot Springs, South Dakota; Tomah, and San Diego -- had a "large decline" in quality. The Tomah VA came under fire last year for overprescribing opioids. Earlier this month, the VA alerted nearly 600 patients in Tomah that they could be at risk for hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV because a dentist did not correctly disinfect his equipment.

On Wednesday, conservative-leaning Concerned Veterans for America issued a statement about the ratings, calling for more transparency from the VA. The veterans group has become more prominent recently after several people linked to the CVA were appointed to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team. "The VA has an obligation to care for and honor the men and women who have served their country, and that includes being completely honest about the quality of care being provided," CVA director Mark Lucas said in a written statement. "The VA should not have to come under pressure by the media to disclose what should already be public information."

VA Discloses Ratings of Its 146 Medical Centers | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Congress needs to approve more VA medical facility leases...

Lawmakers Attempt Action on 24 VA Facilities in Limbo
Feb 11, 2017 | The VA must receive congressional approval to lease medical facilities with annual rent payments totaling more than $1 million

A handful of lawmakers are again making attempts to open 24 new Department of Veterans Affairs facilities across the country, some of which have been held up by Congress for two years. The VA must receive congressional approval to lease medical facilities with annual rent payments totaling more than $1 million, according to federal law. Combined, the 24 facilities -- most of them outpatient clinics -- would cost about $228 million during the lease periods, which in some cases can last 20 years. Congress has not approved a medical facility lease for the VA since 2014, said the office of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. Warner and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, reintroduced legislation that would give the VA the go-ahead to open the clinics. Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., reintroduced a similar measure in the House.

One of the pending leases is for a new outpatient clinic in Hampton Roads, Va., totaling more than $18 million. In 2014, veterans at the Hampton VA Medical Center suffered the longest average wait times in the country for primary care, the Hampton Roads Daily Press reported. The wait times resulted from an increase in the number of patients, along with space and staff shortages. Warner, who represents Virginia in the Senate, said health care providers at the hospital need the clinic to better manage their workload. "Veterans deserve convenient access to the high-quality health care they have earned through their service," Collins said in a written statement. "These facilities... will allow veterans to receive outpatient care without the stress and difficulty of traveling to larger VA medical centers, which may be located far away from their homes."

One of the pending leases is an expanded outpatient clinic for Collins' constituency in Portland, Maine, totaling about $6.9 million. A $6.3 million clinic is planned for Oxnard, California, in Brownley's district. The facilities span 12 other states. Last May, 15 senators wrote to Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., -- chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee -- and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the committee, asking that they act to approve the 18 leases pending at the time.

The VA has also been struggling to work with Congress to gain the approvals. James Sullivan, director of the VA's Office of Asset Enterprise Management, told a House committee in September that many of the VA's 10- to 15-year leases are coming to an end. Without authorization for the new leases, some facilities might be forced to close and new ones might not open immediately, he said. "Without authorization from Congress, VA cannot begin work to secure needed leased space to meet the needs of veterans seeking VA health care," Sullivan testified. "Failure to receive authorization will have a growing and worsening effect on veteran access to care nationwide."

MORE

 

[waltky]

House Committee OKs Bill on VA Accountability...

House Committee OKs Bills on VA Choice Program, Accountability
8 Mar 2017 | The House Veterans Affairs Committee approved bills Wednesday to extend and expand the Department of Veterans Affairs' Choice Program and provide for more accountability of VA managers.

"Whether it's creating a culture of accountability at VA, expanding access to quality care or protecting the rights entrusted to our nation's heroes, these bills will improve the lives of America's veterans and build a better VA," said Rep. Phil Roe, a Tennessee Republican and the committee's chairman. The proposed legislation now goes to the full House for passage. Similar bills are working their way through the Senate. "I am proud to support these important bills and look forward to moving them through the legislative process," Roe said.

Sen. John McCain, part of a bipartisan Senate group backing expansion of the Choice Program, said in a statement, "We simply cannot afford to send our veterans back to the pre-scandal days of unending wait-times for appointments, and I will be working closely with our leaders in the House and Senate to ensure our legislation makes it over the goal line." Another bill passed by the House Committee, the VA Accountability First Act, would give VA Secretary Dr. David Shulkin "increased flexibility to remove, demote, or suspend any VA employee, including Senior Executive Service employees, for performance or misconduct."

In testimony to a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday night, Shulkin said he welcomed efforts to give him more authority to remove poorly performing or corrupt employees, and he pressed Congress to extend the Choice Program, which will sunset in August. By then, Shulkin said, the VA expects to have a new "Choice 2.0" program ready to streamline procedures allowing vets to choose private care. Shulkin also said that the VA is looking at ways to begin offering treatment for post-traumatic stress to vets with so-called "bad paper" discharges while awaiting authorization from Congress. "We have some authorities to do that," Shulkin said. "So many veterans are just disconnected from our system. We're going to do whatever we can. We're going to work with you. This is unacceptable, and we shouldn't have to wait for Congress to force the issue."

Veterans advocacy groups have argued for years that vets are cut off from treatment at the VA for the mental health problems that contributed to their less-than-honorable discharges. In his Senate confirmation hearing, Shulkin said the VA must overhaul the Choice Program to allow vets more and better access to community care, but he also pledged that full privatization of the VA would not happen "under my watch." He acknowledged that "we faced challenges" in implementing the Choice Program in 2014 but urged its extension while the VA seeks to correct deficiencies. There is no time to waste," Shulkin said. "Many veterans are using the Choice Program today, and it is important to continue to care for and support those veterans."

House Committee OKs Bills on VA Choice Program, Accountability | Military.com

See also:

VA to Provide Mental Health Care to Vets with 'Bad Paper' Discharges
8 Mar 2017 | WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs will begin making mental health care services available to veterans with less-than-honorable discharges who urgently need it, VA Secretary David Shulkin told lawmakers Tuesday night.

"We are going to go and start providing mental health care to those with other-than-honorable discharges," Shulkin testified to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. "I don't want to wait. We want to start doing that. Discharges that are other-than-honorable, including a "general" discharge, are known as "bad paper" and can prevent veterans from receiving federal benefits, such as health care, disability payments, education and housing assistance. Lawmakers and veterans advocates have said service members with bad paper were, in many cases, unjustly released from the military because of mental health issues. They estimate 22,000 veterans with mental illnesses have received other-than-honorable discharges since 2009.

Shulkin's announcement Tuesday follows a recent push from Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., to force the VA to provide emergency mental health care to veterans with other-than-honorable discharges. Coffman introduced a bill last month requiring the VA to do so. Shulkin credited Coffman for "changing my whole view of this." The plan was announced in response to a question during the hearing about how Shulkin would attempt to prevent veteran suicides. In addition to providing care to veterans with bad paper, the VA secretary also told lawmakers that he wanted to hire approximately 1,000 more mental health care providers. "Our concern is those are some of the people that right now aren't getting the services and contributing to this unbelievably unacceptable number of veterans suicides," Shulkin said.

He said he's notifying medical centers about the change and that he'd like to implement a program sometime in the next few months. The announcement garnered applause from some congressmen and advocates present at Tuesday's hearing. "So many veterans we see are disconnected from our system, and that's the frustration," Shulkin said. "We want to do as much as we can." A measure that Coffman championed last year, the Fairness for Veterans Act, made it into the National Defense Authorization Act. It requires Defense Department panels that review discharges to consider medical evidence from a veteran's health care provider. Panels would have to review each case presuming that post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, sexual assault trauma or another service-related condition led to the discharge.

It also aims to give the benefit of the doubt to veterans who seek to correct their military records. Kristofer Goldsmith, president of High Ground Veterans Advocacy, has fought for years for discharge upgrades for veterans with bad paper. After hearing from officials with military review boards during a congressional hearing last week, Goldsmith said the Defense Department "isn't doing anything proactive to help." Goldsmith, along with Vietnam Veterans of America – where he also works, has asked President Donald Trump to pardon all post-9/11 veterans who were administratively separated from the military and did not face a court-martial.

VA to Provide Mental Health Care to Vets with 'Bad Paper' Discharges | Military.com

 

[Political Junky]

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

That it comes from the Daily Caller makes it totally unreliable.

 

[boedicca]

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

That it comes from the Daily Caller makes it totally unreliable.

^^^ Blithering no-nothing windbag ^^^

 

[waltky]

Veterans dying before they can be seen by a VA doctor...

Veteran Found Dead in Car at Parking Lot of DC VA Hospital
2 Jun 2017 | WASHINGTON -- A congressional committee and the VA opened an investigation into a veteran found dead in his vehicle parked at a medical center in Washington, D.C..

The veteran's sister found her brother inside his vehicle at the Washington, D.C., Veterans Affairs Medical Center about 8:30 p.m. May 16. He was reported missing May 15 when he didn't return from an appointment at the facility, The Associated Press reported. The veteran was "slumped over and unconscious," according to a report by the Metropolitan Police Department. The VA chief of police and a VA investigator arrived at the scene and a medic pronounced the veteran dead before police arrived at the hospital, according to the report. A medical examiner is determining the cause of death. The name of the veteran has not been released yet. The hospital director, retired Army Col. Lawrence Connell, told NBC Washington that he is investigating why the veteran wasn't discovered sooner after he was reported missing. The VA central office in Washington did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.

The VA medical center in Washington, D.C., is under investigation after a veteran was found dead in his vehicle parked at the facility[/center]

The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs is conducting its own investigation, said Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., chairman of the committee. "The [committee] is conducting an independent, thorough and ongoing investigation to look at a number of issues at the DC VA Medical Center, including this death, and will continue to demand answers," Roe said. The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., said the hospital "did not do enough to locate this veteran and inform his family."

The hospital had already been under investigation by the VA inspector general since March. In an unprecedented move, Inspector General Michael Missal released an interim report in April revealing supply shortages and dirty conditions that posed a risk to patient safety, as well as cultural problems within the facility.

Missal plans to release a full report on the investigation in the next several months. In response to Missal's findings, VA Secretary David Shulkin removed the former medical director from his position and sent teams to establish a new inventory system at the hospital. Connell, the new medical director, said weeks ago that many of the problems had been fixed. Walz asked that Missal incorporate the veteran's death into the ongoing investigation.

http://images02.military.com/media/global/newscred/dc-va-medical-center-1200-02-jun-2017-ts600.jpeg[/quote]​

 

[badger2]

Archives or no archives, we won't forget over-prescription of opiates at VA and the Tammy Baldwin scandal, nor the tainted yellow fever vaccine story.

 

[badger2]

No, what we're saying is the (theft [italics]) of the actual document for a prescription taken away from the patient inside the medical facility. This is in line with the modus operandi prompting this thread: the victim cannot prove what is happening to them. The patient did not produce a video proving that the document for a prescription passed hands, which would of course, identify at least one of the perpetrators., this disappearance is the nazi book-burning being spoken of in this thread, which also links to medical journals disappearing in three dimensions from medical libraries in the Western Hemisphere. The pretext, the excuse, is to save space, whereas the beneficial part of the pretext automatically sets up a state-sponsored surveillance system. Fasciem, lknowledge envy and 666 kuklos exothen, are the concepts.

 

[badger2]

You instantly (if not sooner) go back to the Brian Rossell story to begin a file entitled "Veteran Sisters." This will link PTSD and refusal of treatment for PTSD. What psychopath (or group of psychopaths) decided to not treat Rossell?