Inspector General Scolds VA VHA for Deceiving Congress & Veterans on Fact Sheet

More scandal added to VA's Year of Scandals. Here...a deliberate deception of the House Veterans Affairs Committee as confirmed by VA's own Inspector General today, and reported in USA Today and other journals. (note: see related C-123 post.) Secretary McDonald personally apologized, stating, "VA has a responsibility to communicate clearly and accurately to Congress, veterans and the American public."

OIG evaluated Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA’s) review of “unresolved” consults and the accuracy of VA’s summary, the National Consult Delay Review Fact Sheet (Fact Sheet), as requested by the Chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee (HVAC).

Unresolved consults are requests for consultations that are open or active in patients’ electronic health records. In September 2012, VHA initiated a multi-phased review of consults that were unresolved for more than 90 days. By May 2014, the number of unresolved consults had decreased considerably.

However, because VHA did not implement appropriate controls, we found it lacks reasonable assurance that facilities appropriately reviewed and resolved consults; closed consults only after ensuring veterans had received the requested services, when appropriate; and, where consult delays contributed to patient harm, notified patients as required by VHA policy. Our review of the Fact Sheet found several key statements related to the scope and results of VHA’s review of unresolved consults were misleading or incorrect.

These statements were repeated by VHA leaders at meetings with congressional staff and during media events. In July 2014, VHA issued a letter to the Chairman of the HVAC that included information intended to clarify statements in the Fact Sheet.

We recommended that the Interim Under Secretary for Health (1) conduct a systematic assessment of the processes each VA medical facility used to address unresolved consults during VHA's system-wide consult review; (2) ensure that if a medical facility's processes are found to have been inconsistent with VHA guidance on addressing unresolved consults, action is taken to confirm that patients have received appropriate care; and (3) after reviewing the circumstances of any inappropriate resolution of consults, confer with the Office of Human Resources and the Office of General Counsel or other relevant agency to determine the appropriate administrative action to take, if any.

VA Public Affairs – Easiest Job in the Department of Veterans Affairs?"

For the 54 folks staffing Washington DC's VA Public Affairs office, nothing could be easier, even during the 2014 Year of Scandals. Or as Queen Elizabeth put it in 1992 regarding her childrens' divorce troubles and her castle fire, Annus Horribilis.  A VA Annus Horribilis.

Still, just show up for work, write well, have a genuinely nice attitude and good attention to detail. And don't say much about anything worrying the public. or sharing with them the details needed for citizens to monitor and challenge their government's care of veterans.

We do see a better, more responsive attitude and outreach effort on the part of our regional and local public affairs representatives, especialy ours here in Cheyenne. But our problem is at the national level where VA has an information vacuum.  Public Affairs is determined to maintain that vacuum. Except for self-congratulatory press releases.

Job #1: protect the boss and protect the Department. Requirement to inform the public about the full conduct of government: Zero.

And pump out those very empty zero-content responses to nearly every inquiry from the national media, the legislative representatives and veterans themselves. Pick one, use several or use them all in a response...and they provide absolutely zero content. The reporter could have picked the line for the VA to use, fully expecting one of the vapid examples below.

The House Veterans Affairs Committee complained that such protective or non-responsive replies are “blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the executive branch of government,”

The Washington Examiner covered this no-value-added in March 2014, featuring the House Committee on Veterans Affairs "VA Honesty Project."

We've read them for years. Our eyes glaze over at their meaningless content-free blurbs:

• "We take these issues very seriously."

• "We want to ensure veterans receive all the benefits they're entitled to."

• "We will look into that and let you know."

• "We remain committed to quality veteran medical care."

• "VA is carefully reviewing the issue."

• "VA will continue to provide safe, effective, high-quality health care to the men and women we have the honor and privilege to serve every day."

• "No comment."

* Or simply, no response at all. Every senator or congressman has dozens of inquiries ignored by VA

From The Blaze: 

    “They tried to misdirect Congress and the American people away from the facts,” House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) told the Tampa Bay Times. “I think they got caught and now they are trying to modify their story…. The misdirection was, in fact, designed in Washington.”
    According to the Tampa Bay Times article, VA spokeswoman Gina Jackson said: “Is this really the most important question that you have that you want to address? Because it just seems to me it is a misunderstanding of the way the fact sheet is labeled. Am I missing something here?”
    But according to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, there are plenty more questions that need to be answered. According to its website, there are 117 outstanding requests for information from the VA – many predating even the revelations about the waiting list scandal. Of those, 66 information requests are since 2012."

Acting VA Secretary Seeks $18 Billion Extra to Solve Problems

Veterans Affairs Department officials want nearly $18 billion more in funding over the next three years to hire more clinicians, lease more space and cut down on wait times for medical appointments.

The money is also partly designed to serve as a down payment on rebuilding VA's reputation, proving to the public that with enough resources, the department can once again be a reliable asset for veterans seeking care.

In his first testimony on Capitol Hill, acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson acknowledged to the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee that VA today "has serious problems" that will take years to correct.

"We understand the problems we face. We own them. We are taking decisive action to begin to resolve them," Gibson said. "We can turn these challenges into the greatest opportunity for improvement in the history of the department."

Those challenges include nearly nonstop scandals over the past four months, including recent revelations about whistleblower retaliation and data manipulation in dozens of facilities.

But the overarching issue that forced the resignation of Gibson's predecessor — retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki, who stepped down in May — was system wait time problems, covered up by administrators trying to protect performance bonuses.

As of July 3, more than 636,000 veterans — about 10 percent of VA's total appointment caseload — faced a wait of a month or more for medical appointments,

To fix that, Gibson wants to hire 10,000 clinicians in coming years and find more space for medical appointments through leases, VA facility improvements and new construction — moves that he said would provide not only a short-term fix but also a longer-term solution to the underlying resource issues.

"I know it sounds like huge numbers," he told lawmakers. "But [VA] historically has not managed to veterans' requirements, we've managed to budget numbers."

Congress is already considering an emergency VA reform bill that would boost funding by about $30 billion over the next three years, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. But that measure would allot only $500 million to new hiring initiatives; the rest would be used to increase access to private care options for veterans having trouble accessing VA care.

The department already has seen dramatic jumps in funding over the last decade, adding about $100 billion to its base budget since fiscal 2004 and about $70 billion since fiscal 2008.

The additional funding request drew concerns from several senators, who questioned whether better management and use of existing resources would provide more results for veterans.

But Gibson insisted that addressing the fundamental problems behind the wait times will require more resources, and failing to back those plans "will mean that the wait times will get longer."

He also outlined a number of recent audits and policy updates to address the other scandals, and repeated his promise that VA whistleblowers will be protected — and those who retaliate against them will face punishment.