Countdown Top Ten VA Scandals from 2008

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 22, 2014

This morning I have been thinking a lot about Casey Kasem and his top 40 hits. I wondered what he'd do with the VA scandals. How would he count them down? What would he do to tell the stories of the veterans instead of the groups? The man was fabulous and I still listen to his shows being replayed. Can't help it. I still love the music from the 70's and most of the 80's.

I was reading on USA Today about VA brass knowing about false data for 2 years and laughed. I even left a comment about how Robert Petzel was not "forced to resign" as VA undersecretary this year since it was already announced that he would be leaving last year.

I think Casey would start the year off with a reminder of the previous year. In this case, we have to go back to the year 2007 to get to where we are now since everything in the news this year, was in the news back then.

2007 ended with this hit against the VA.
House Veterans Affairs Committee slammed the VA over veterans suicides in 2007.

The hearing was prompted in part by a CBS news story in November on suicides in the veteran population that put last year’s number of veteran suicides at over 6,000. VA officials refuted that number, questioning its validity. But a VA Inspector General report released in May of 2007 found that as many as 5,000 veterans commit suicide a year—nearly 1,000 of whom are receiving VA care at the time.

2008 started with this one,
29 Patients at Marion VA died because of substandard and questionable care

The hospital in Marion, Ill., initially drew scrutiny over deaths connected to a single surgeon, but two federal reports found fault with five other doctors. The hospital undertook many surgeries that its staffing or lack of proper surgical expertise made it ill-equipped to handle, and hospital administrators were too slow to respond once problems surfaced, said Dr. Michael Kussman, U.S. veterans affairs undersecretary for health.

This one proves that Congress never really got serious about fixing anything when it came to our veterans.

Shalala: Veterans benefits system is broken
by Juliana Hanson
26 MAR 2008

Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars won't get proper health care until the U.S. government updates and simplifies the bureaucracy strangling benefits and outpatient care.

This is the conclusion of Donna Shalala, former secretary of the U.S. Department Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration. President George W. Bush commissioned Shalala, Bob Dole and several other experts to evaluate the care of wounded veterans after the Washington Post exposed dire conditions at Walter Reed Hospital: deteriorating, rat- and roach-infested housing for family members, neglectful staff, and a mind-numbing bureaucracy. Shalala spoke about their findings to an auditorium packed with students and military personnel Monday, March 10, at N.C. State University.

While deployed, U.S. soldiers have access to world-class health care. But as soon as they leave the hospital bed, Shalala said, "it falls apart ... in the coordination of outpatient care."

This new generation of veterans has different medical needs, yet the dated, convoluted veterans health care system fails many of them. More survivors are returning home with brain injuries and long-term mental health issues, conditions that tend to be more severe and complex. These patients suffer most as they and their families struggle to find continuity among lost records, shuffling caseworkers and miscommunication typical of the military health care system.

Go to the link and read the rest. I checked. It is still alive and well but too many of our veterans are not.

In 2008 appeals for claims were taking about 4 years.

Richardo (Rick) F. Randle, director of Alabama Department of Veteran Affairs, was the guest speaker at the April 19 meeting of the Lower Alabama Veterans Alliance Saturday at Ryan’s in Enterprise.

Randle told the filled-to- capacity crowd of LAVA members and guests that staffing is a critical issue with the department, and until more resources become available, staffing will remain a problem. “We are doing the best we can with the resources available to us,” said Randle. “Since 2006, the number of claims has grown 15 percent. The amount of time it takes to make decisions on disability claims is two to three year. On an average, it takes four years to get an appeals decision.”

The GAO found there was no accountability from VA claims processors. But why would what happened in 2008 not really matter much? It was an election year. The VA budget was projected to be $3.3 billion short but then Senators Obama and McCain, presidential hopefuls had much different views on most things.

Last month’s passage of a new GI Bill will add $100 billion in education benefits for veterans over the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and his Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama clashed over the bill last month.

McCain opposed it, saying its increased education benefits might encourage troops to leave the military.

President Bush wasn't happy about spending the money. Veterans Groups Appalled at White House Veto Threats What followed was this,

It’s estimated there are 600,000 to 800,000 unresolved claims and appeals with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, according to veterans’ advocates. “We have claims that have been pending for a decade, two decades and some that date back more than 50 years. We have appeals from World War II,” said David E. Autry, a spokesman for the Disabled American Veterans in Washington D.C., which represents veterans and advocates and helps them obtain their benefits.

Then yet another deja vu replay of VA claims scandal we have this flashback from the top ten 2007-2008 horror stories.

VA Claims destroyed

The VA's Office of Inspector General (VAOIG) has been conducting audits, or investigations, of a number of VA Regional Offices (VAROs). There are over 50 VAROs around the country, each set up to handle the claims of veterans in a particular geographical area.

The latest series of VAOIG investigations centers on charges that VARO administrators and employees deliberately falsified "timeliness" statistics sent to the VA's Central Office (VACO). This would be information that shows when a claim was received and how, with a documented timeline including date/time stamps, it moved through the process.

The first heads have begun to roll in this investigation. During the week of October 6, 2008, four employees at the New York VARO, including the Director, were placed on administrative leave. More accurately, they were removed from their positions awaiting the outcome of the investigation. Sources close to this investigation say that those removed, and others, were found to have been fudging the "timeliness" figures. And, there are allegations that documents, including paperwork essential to the claim process had been destroyed.

The investigation revealed that someone in the regional office intentionally entered claim documents from veterans with incorrect dates — called "backdating" — into an internal database, VA spokeswoman Alison Aikele said Wednesday.

"They would make it look like they were processing claims faster than they really were," said Aikele, who works in Washington, D.C. Changing the dates made it appear that the management was not "severely underperforming," according to Aikele.

She said the leadership of the office in Manhattan was replaced and the individuals who left would not be returning. She maintained that no veterans were affected by the backdating.

In recent weeks, 41 of 57 regional VA offices across the country have come under scrutiny over the possible shredding of supporting evidence in claims filed by veterans.

All of these reports caused the Center for Public Integrity to investigate. They were shocked by what they found.

For example, the country might want to do something about its massive backlogs in various essential government functions -- including 730,000 backlogged patent applications, 760,000 Social Security disability claims, and 806,000 Veterans Affairs disability claims.

The nation might also resolve to avoid a recurrence of the recent losses of hundreds of laptops containing sensitive law enforcement information, or to rethink the decision to keep plowing $12.5 billion into a joint civilian-military weather satellite system that is still incomplete and may leave gaps in crucial climate monitoring as older satellites fail.

2009 began with another thing being forgotten about with the remake of "hey congress cares" and the release of the new hit in the latest veterans bill.

Special VA Funding for Rural Health
(By VISN number and VISN Headquarters)
#1. Bedford, Mass., $1 million
#2. Rochester, N.Y., $1 million
#3. New York, N.Y., $250,000
#4. Wilmington, Del., $1 million
#5. Baltimore, Md., $250,000
#6. Durham, N.C., $1.5 million
#7. Atlanta, Ga., $1.5 million
#8. Bay Pines, Fla., $1 million
#9. Nashville, Tenn., $1.5 million
#10. Cincinnati, Ohio, $1 million
#11. Ann Arbor, Mich., $1 million
#12. Chicago, Ill., $1 million
#15. Kansas City, Mo., $1.5 million
#16. Jackson, Miss., $1.5 million
#17. Arlington, Texas, $1 million
#18. Mesa, Ariz., $1 million
#19. Denver, Colo., $1 million
#20. Vancouver, Wash., $1 million
#21. Palo Alto, Calif., $1 million
#22. Long Beach, Calif., $250,000
#23. Lincoln, Neb., $1.5 million