VA admits errors on statements but continues to misrepresent record

[maddezmom]

Source: McClatchy

WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs says it needs to be more careful in public comments about the superiority of its health care system, but it insists that it never made a quality-of-care claim that its top leader has made repeatedly.


Reacting to a McClatchy Newspapers story about exaggerations by its top officials, the VA sent veterans organizations a four-page memo on Friday responding to the story. McClatchy obtained a copy of the memo from a veterans group.


McClatchy "makes a valid case that we need to be more careful with our numbers and our public statements," the memo said.


On one key point - the VA's erroneous reporting of customer satisfaction surveys - the department said it "did not realize the error until (McClatchy) pointed it out. . . . We appreciate this being called to our attention. There was no intention to deliberately mislead anyone."


Beyond that, the VA sought to minimize the issues raised by McClatchy, which last week detailed officials' exaggerations about the system's access, satisfaction and quality in speeches or in statements to Congress.


The VA insisted that it never made one of the claims that McClatchy highlighted.



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