Tag Archives: veterans

Auditor ‘concerned of financial stewardship’ after review suggests $85 million improperly paid for VA disability


By SB Anderson

An inspector general’s followup review of 100% disability cases approved by the Veterans Benefits Administration found nearly 2 in 5 cases in which “veterans received almost $85 million in improper benefit payments since January 2012 because these claims lacked adequate medical evidence.”

Without further action, the audit (PDF version) said, the VBA “could continue making unsupported payments to veterans totaling about $371 million over the next 5 years.”

“We remain concerned of VBA’s financial stewardship of these claims,” Linda A. Halliday,
assistant inspector general for audits and evaluations wrote.

The VBA in a response to the audit said it disagreed with the estimate of improper payments, calling it “significantly overstated” and based on a too-small sample.

The report is embedded below.



Local veteran survey shows sharply different views, experience than what VA says


By SB Anderson

As the nation’s veterans medical care coverage issues rapidly become more and more of a local focus, you may want to consider ways to canvass as many of your local/regional veterans as possible.

One option, albeit a potentially expensive one: an online and phone survey with a sound methodology that will yield scientifically confident results.

That is what one congressman’s office in El Paso did, and the results released this week challenge in some cases the party line from the Veterans Administration. As USA Today recounted on Wednesday:

More than a third of veterans surveyed in the district of Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, said they were unable to get mental health care appointments at the VA. Forty-three percent said they put off therapy because of trouble seeing a counselor, and veterans said it took more than three months to be seen on average.

This differed sharply from what the VA reported for El Paso, O’Rourke said. The agency told him that 85% to 100% of veterans were provided mental health appointments within 14 days.

“The best way to determine how the VA is doing is to ask the veterans themselves,” O’Rourke said in a release about the survey his office undertook in May. That’s a light-bulb moment for journalists, as well.

The survey used as its base a list of 19,000 names of veterans within the district. (On the Beat is trying to track down whether those names were obtained as public records, and from whom, or were from a proprietary vendor database. Haven’t heard back from O’Rourke’s office yet). Those names were matched against a vendor’s phone and e-mail list.

The bulk of the surveys were completed online (503) after e-mail contact; a smaller number (189) were taken by telephone. The margin of error for all respondents is believed to be just under four percentage points in either direction.

Highlights of the findings, taken from O’Rourke’s summary report:

  • Nearly 2 in 5 who attempted to schedule a mental healthcare appointment were unable to obtain one.
  • An average of 71 days elapsed between a request for an appointment and seeing a mental health care provider.
  • About 3 in 4 veterans requesting an appointment with a mental health care provider waited more than 14 days to see one.
  • An average of 85 days elapsed between a veteran’s request for a routine care (non-mental health) appointment and seeing a health care provider.
  • About 7 in 10 requesting a non-mental health care appointment waited more than 14 days to see a provider.
  • About 1 in 3 were either very unsatisfied or unsatisfied with quality of non-mental health care at the El Paso VA.

Scheduling schemes to avoid Department of Veterans Affairs’ ‘Bad Boy’s List’


By SB Anderson

The document below outlines 17 schemes the Department of Veterans Affairs declared should be avoided when scheduling patients. That was four years before the current eruption over use of these schemes to delay treating sick (and some, dying) veterans in an effort remain off of the VA’s “Bad Boy List.”

(Memo via Washington Post).


Monthly VA disability claims backlog snapshot — through April 2014


By SB Anderson

The backlog in Veterans Benefits Administration disability application processing continued to shrink in April, with the number of claims pending over 125 days reduced by 23,000 55,000 and the average days pending down by just under two days.

April  was the fourth consecutive month of progress after stalls in November and December of 2013.

Chart and table below detail changes month-to-month, week-to-week and year-over-year.

Data is take from the VBA’s weekly “Monday Morning Workload Reports” that track claims processing progress. We think monthly tracking is a better barometer of actual progress because it flattens out some of the temporary ups and downs the weekly reports reflect.

Weekly updates on claim processing. Image updates over time with fresh data.

 

  CLAIMS PENDING OVER 125 DAYS % OVER 125 DAYS AVG. DAYS PENDING
End Apr. 563,379 310,180 55.10% 165.4
End Mar. 581,527 333,147 57.30% 167.3
Change -18,148 -22,967 -2.20 -1.90
YTD Change -54,747 -55,031 -3.70 -6.5
Mar. 2013 807,818 574,799 71.20% N/A

View earlier progress  summaries.

VA wrongful death payments hit $200 million in decade after 9/11


By SB Anderson

The Veteran’s Administration has paid out some $200 million in wrongful death penalties since 9/11, The Center for Public Integrity reported today. Records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request showed about 1,000 payments over 10 years.

Deaths ranged from “decorated Iraq War veterans who shot or hanged themselves after being turned away from mental health treatment, to Vietnam veterans whose cancerous tumors were identified but allowed to grow, to missed diagnoses, botched surgeries and fatal neglect of elderly veterans,” CIR’s story said.

Below is a CIR’s interactive map that shows payouts and case details by local VA facility. Zoom out a bit to see Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Monthly VA disability claims backlog snapshot — through March 2014


By SB Anderson

Veterans Benefits Administration workers put a dent in the backlog of veterans disability claims in March, processing 32,000 claims and cutting the percentage pending more than 125 days by nearly two percentage points. March was the third consecutive month of progress after stalls in November and December of 2013.

Chart and table below detail changes month-to-month, week-to-week and year-over-year.

Data is take from the VBA’s weekly “Monday Morning Workload Reports” that track claims processing progress. We think monthly tracking is a better barometer of actual progress because it flattens out some of the temporary ups and downs the weekly reports reflect.

Weekly updates on claim processing. Image updates over time with fresh data.

 

CLAIMS PENDING OVER 125 DAYS % OVER 125 DAYS AVG. DAYS PENDING
End Mar. 581,527 333,147 57.30% 167.3
End Feb. 613,550 362,028 59% 171.4
Change -32,023 -28,881 -1.7% -4.1
YTD Change -54,747 -55,031 -3.70% -6.5
Mar. 2013 804,427 569,547 70.80% N/A

 

View earlier progress  summaries.