New Scandal at VA: Workers Hid and Shredded Benefits Claims

[IDemo]

Source: The Fiscal Times

Leaderless, and still reeling from revelations about mismanagement at its hospitals, the Veterans Administration is now being rocked by another congressional investigation. There are fresh allegations that tens of thousands of benefits claims, some from injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, were shredded, hidden or “lost” to create the illusion of an efficiently operating bureaucracy.

The news comes less than two months after former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki was forced to resign when it was revealed that VA hospitals across the country were systematically covering up excessively long wait times that left veterans languishing for months without needed care.

A White House-led review of the agency identified a “corrosive culture” within the VA that encouraged managers to cover up problems. The president has nominated former Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald to fill Shinseki’s place, but he has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.

In a Monday night hearing on Capitol Hill, a trio of whistleblowers told the House Veterans Affairs Committee that in a push to clear up a backlog of hundreds of thousands of benefits claims, the Veterans Benefits Administration hid records, destroyed files, and changed the dates on claims to make them appear more recent than they really were.


Read more: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/07/15/New-Scandal-VA-Workers-Hid-and-Shredded-Benefits-Claims

[Dustlawyer]

1. Let's this be a teachable moment for when (not if) we get Single Payor.

It must be properly funded and staffed or this is what you get. The Republicans will sabotage it by trying to starve it like they have the VA. It is not like they didn't know all of these injured soldiers were coming, they just didn't care!

[freshwest]

5. Yes, we do! But can we overcome the fear of those who are not suffering right now?

That is the voting block that defeats us in our argument.

This is the group that talk of the social security cap being lifted above $118K sparked a fierce push back. Those in that bracket didn't want lifted in the same proportion as those with less income pay in.

Any additional 'tax burden' interfered with their plans for more independence when they retired. And they had the money to be heard.

I'm thinking the success of the ACA, plus its provision for single payer that was slipped in without much fanfare, was the first step. Most DUers don't know of that provision.

The GOP saw it and still does see the ACA as the Trojan horse to overcome the businesses their donors pay them to protect. There is a clear intent in the law to end their businesse models

From promises to hire office workers from the private insurance firms at similar wages and benefits to become government workers.

It was to dismiss the charges of job loss. There would have been none, they'd switch to working to administer Medicare and Mediaid, so the GOP cut the budget for SS to operate, so that couldn't occur.

They also saw and their media sold even some DUers, that the cut in pay to insurers and that would hurt patients but that was another lie, as the cut was to take advertising, CEO pay, etc. out of the accounting of the cost of care. The law stated they could only take the same share of their admistration costs, that is profits, etc., as Medicare has.

It was demagogued very heavily, just as the first item I wrote was and there was a big campaign telling seniors that Obama was denying them health care. I think that is where the Romney voters of that demographic came from.

The ACA was sold as a compromise, but it had several swords. They hate Obama because they know the incremental tactics built in end up with UHC. PBO knew he wasn't going to get that passed he's said he only devotes his time to what he thinks will work. This disappoints a lot of people who want to see their ideals reflected, but it's the results that Obama is going for.

He has tried many times to make the moral case for UHC, or healthcare being universal which the Medicaid expansion would be, but it's drowned out by paid media shilling for the corporations.

Anyway, UHC for soldiers at whatever stage of deployment, returning home or disabled, should be their right along with the rest of us.

[Dustlawyer]

10. Thanks for the info and continuing the fight

I think that the fight/plan I have to get the money out of the electoral process would make UHC much easier to do and achieve it faster. Take a look at my journal for what I am talking about and see if you are willing to spread the word. Not feeling well enough right now to explain here and it is off topic. People here know and respect you and your words carry weight!

[jwirr]

2. The VA has had a lot of practice losing documents stretching clear back to the Vietnam war when vets

had a hard time qualifying for war related disability because they files had mysteriously disappeared.

I had been warned about this practice by a vet and when my son in law got hurt I told him to get copies of all records. He did better than that - when doc walked out of the room for a minute he took the file and left. Years later when filing for disability he produced the file to the local VA rep. The rep smiled and said, "We are going to win this one." And they did.

This year he needed those records again but did not keep them. Guess what - they are lost again.

[freshwest]

3. Conveniently came up missing. Just like convenient deaths, uh. Glad you were there for him.

[samsingh]

4. keeps getting more disgusting all the time

[yeoman6987]

6. I know I sound crazy,

But we are in crazy times. I think there are problems at the VA, but I think this is being purposefully overblown to insure we never have single payer. This is a scare tactic being done by the Republicans to say, see we can't have a single payer program. Look at the "mess" in a micro sample. I just have a gut feeling about this.

[RufusTFirefly]

8. You are 100 percent correct!

It is essential to undermine all public programs that work. Look at the systematic destruction of the postal service, for example. It should be the envy of the world; instead it's being destroyed. Look at how taking away the needing funding for public schools has been a win-win for privatizers. They've dismantled a great public system, while simultaneously undermining unions.

I'm reminded of a complaint by a former president of Amtrak who was testifying before Congress.

"First you starve us," he said. "Then you yell at us for being too skinny."

[LittleGirl]

7. Who are these people that would do this??? n/t

[valerief]

9. Yet another reason to not have wars. nt

[7962]

11. STILL waiting for SOMEONE to be fired. Or better yet, arrested.

Shinseki resigning doesnt count; HE didnt do any of this.