Documents Show the VA Debacle Began Under George W. Bush

[RockaFowler]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/veterans-affairs-backlogs-waiting-lists-george-bush

President Barack Obama and his administration have come under fire following a string of revelations about the huge backlogs of patients at Department of Veterans Affairs clinics and the underhanded tactics many of them used to hide the long wait times for medical care. As of Thursday evening, more than 100 lawmakers were calling on Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki to step down. But according to VA inspector general reports and other documents that have gone overlooked in the current firestorm, federal officials knew about the scheme at the heart of the scandal—falsifying VA records to cover up treatment delays—years before Obama became president. VA officials first learned of the problems in 2005, when George W. Bush was entering his second term, and the problems went unfixed for the duration of his presidency.

The underlying issues date back even further. In 1995, as part of a broader overhaul, the VA began pressing clinics to cut wait times for new patient appointments to 30 days. But there was no system for tracking which facilities were meeting this target until 2002, when the VA introduced electronic waiting lists to keep tabs on patients who couldn't be seen within a month. Managers who slashed wait times were given bonuses and other perks. This created an incentive to game the system, especially after veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars began flooding into VA clinics and straining their already stretched resources.

[JayhawkSD]

1. This is great news.

This is an election year. We can blame Bush for yet another problem and paint Obama as the guy who solved the problem that Bush created. Awesome.

Oh, wait... He not only didn't solve the problem, he didn't even know about it until he read about it in the papers at the same time we did.

But cheer up. Solving problems is pretty much irrelevant. As long as you can blame them on someone else, you can ein the election, so we're all good. The VA Hospital problem was caused by George Bush, so we're home free.

[bpj62]

2. VA Record keeping

My mother worked for the GAO and back in the 90s she led an investigation into the death of 2 VA patients at a VA hospital in Roanoke Virginia. One had Alzheimer's and he had wandered out in the woods and died of exposure. The other veteran had committed suicide in the same set of woods. Her investigation found out that the VA did not keep track of the Veterans as they checked in or in some cases simply left the hospital without checking out. They determined that there were over 10,000.00 patients who has been admitted but were never formally discharged from the system. They also found out that the VA system did a horrible job of listening to the veterans complaints to non medical employees. The man who committed suicide had told the driver of the van that took him to the VA on a weekly basis that he was depressed and wanted to kill himself. There was no system in place at the time for the driver to pass this information on to someone else. Underfunded and overworked and then given incentives to rig the system and you get the problems that you currently have.

[JayhawkSD]

3. What you want the VA to do sounds really repressive

Checking in and out, not leaving unless you sign out, making sure someone knows where you are, non-medical employees reporting what you say...

If receiving medical care means living in a locked ward and being eavesdropped on by the guy mopping the floor, then no thanks. I'll pass.

[bpj62]

4. not the point

The VA did not know where their patients were. Plain and simple. If that was your dad who wondered into the woods and froze to death wouldn't want to know how and why the VA Hospital lost track of him. Only mental institutions can lock you in. You can leave a hospital anytime you want to but the doctor may advise against it and they will have you sign a consent order saying that you were advised of your medical condition and you chose not to heed that advice. I haven't a clue how you leapt to that conclusion.