Witness Testimony Shows Depth of VA Cover-Ups While Veterans Are Dying

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Over the last few years, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has come under fire for failing to take care of veterans. From 2007 to 2013 the VA's patient load increased by 46%. Patient wait times increased dramatically, and the VA began to draw fire from many members of Congress. Patient care also decreased as staff was not able to keep up with demands. Funding had increased by only 16% which did not keep up with the need to hire and train new staff. This led to delay or impromper care of veterans.

The worst problems appeared at the Phoenix VA, where many soldiers died of improper care. One tragic example of the failure of the Phoenix VA is the case of 71-year-old Navy veteran Thomas Breen. Breen visited the Phoenix VA in September of 2013 after discovering blood in his urine. Having a history of cancer, and proud of his military service, he would go nowhere but the VA. The VA marked his chart as urgent, and stated that he could see a primary care physician in one week's time.

He was sent home without being seen. His family contacted the VA hospital several times over the following weeks trying to get an appointment, but was unable to schedule an appointment. Thomas Breen died on November 30, more than two months after visiting the VA. The death certificate shows that he died from Stage 4 bladder cancer.

A new report from the Inspector General shows that more than 300,000 American veterans likely died while waiting for health care services from the VA and nearly twice as many are still waiting to receive help. It also shows that VA workers marked thousands of unprocessed healthcare applications as completed and may have deleted as many as 10,000 or more electronic records over the past five years.

This report also shows that VA facilities cost twice the normal amount for public facilities, a claim that is likely to reignite a debate about moving toward the privatization of some VA services. The findings also contradict the department’s claim that most patients are satisfied with the care they receive.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is responsible for both providing care to returning disabled veterans as well as determining their status. As you may be aware because of this increased number this has also meant there has been an increased demand for nursing home beds, injury rehabilitation, and mental health care. The VA processes healthcare claims for service-connected disabilities.

Rather than focus on fixing the issue, the VA has gone on the offensive attacking whistle-blowers. Chris Kirkpatrick, a former psychologist at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center, was reprimanded by his supervisor in April 2009 after raising questions about the medications being prescribed for veterans. When he was fired three months later, according to Senate testimony, he returned home and committed suicide.

On Tuesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on the VA’s treatment of whistle-blowers. Kirkpatrick's brother asked for more help protecting federal whistle-blowers.VA whistle-blowers from across the country told the Senate committee that the department has continually failed to hold supervisors accountable for chronic delays processing claims of veterans seeking medical care and for falsified records covering up the waits.

Witnesses spoke of improperly trained nurses in the Phoenix VA who improperly triaged patients leading to dangerous delays. Others outlined how some patients were over medicated to the point of causing harm which could have proved to be fatal. The workers stated that the supervisors were more interested in keeping their jobs than assisting veterans. Even when these supervisors are caught reprimanding whistle-blowers, the VA rarely fires them. Of 40 supervisors who have had action taken against them for this cause, only one has been terminated.

Senator Ron Johnson, (R-Wis.), who led Tuesday’s hearing, said: “The VA has a cultural problem with regards to whistleblower retaliation.”

Solutions to the systemic problems with the VA are slow coming. Earlier this month the new healthcare undersecretary of the VA spoke of his plans moving forward. “We are working hard with Congress to make sure we have the resources we need to care for them, and I am very optimistic about what this year will bring.”

The VA will need more than optimism though, to solve the problems facing the department. Criticism from veterans and Congress on slow moving reforms is unlikely to go away as long as veterans face month long waits to receive care. Desperate reforms are needed now to stem this crisis of dying and neglected veterans.

What do you think of the VA scandal? What should be done to solve the problems with the VA? Let us know in the comments.

VA Backlog Taking Care of Our Wounded

By Tim Newton

Since the beginning of the War on Terror, we have had a higher rate of returning vets who have a high amount of disability. The Department of Veterans Affairs(VA) is responsible for both providing care to returning disabled veterans as well as determining their status.  As you may be aware because of this increased number this has also meant there has been an increased demand for nursing home beds, injury rehabilitation, and mental health care. The VA categorizes veterans into eight priority groups and several additional subgroups, based on factors such as service-connected disabilities, and the individuals income and assets .

Veterans with a fifty percent or higher service-connected disability as determined by a VA regional office board are provided comprehensive care and medication at no charge. Veterans with lesser qualifying disabilities who exceed a pre-defined income threshold have to make co-payments for care.

The VA’s budget has been increasingly stretched to the limit in recent years by the War on Terrorism. In December 2004, it was widely reported that VA’s funding crisis had become so severe that it could no longer provide disability ratings to veterans in a timely fashion. This has become a problem because until veterans are fully transitioned from the active-duty TRICARE healthcare system to the VA, they are on their own with regard to many of their healthcare costs.

The VA has worked to cut down screening times for these returning combat vets, and they receive first priority for patient appointments with the VA. VA’s backlog of pending disability claims under review peaked in march of 2013 at 600,000 is currently up to 560,000.

The VA seems to increasingly believe that the backlog can be fixed by automation, but the concern continues that if claims increase, people will continue to fall through the cracks. 

"You should not have to stand in line for more than a year if you have a disability (claim) pending with the Veterans Administration," Mikulski told reporters this week.

“Over the past five years, I’ve consistently asked them, what do you need. What do you need? Do you need more individuals, resources, bodies — what is it going to take to fix this backlog?” Sen. Dean Heller said in a Senate hearing last week. “And they’ve consistently told me, we’re going to solve this without additional resources.”

 We need to take care of our veterans and we owe them the duty to take care of those who have made sacrifices to protect our liberty. Hopefully the changes due to automation will be able to help in this backlog and our veterans will get the help they deserve.