Inspector General Report Says Va Conceals Vet's Long Wait Time For Health Care

[68mustang]

The news story of this IG report came out in the newspaper today.

68mustang

www.va.gov/oig/52/reports/2007/VAOIG-07-00616-199.pdf

[Wings]

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Thanks Mustang!

The PDF is 42 pages . . .

ASSOCIATED PRESS

September 10, 2007

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/militar...are-delays.html

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs repeatedly understated wait times for injured veterans seeking medical care and in many serious cases forced them to wait more than 30 days, counter to department policy, an internal investigation shows.

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In recent weeks, injured Iraq war veterans have filed a lawsuit against the VA alleging undue delays in health care. The department also is struggling to reduce a severe backlog of disability payments, with delays of up to 177 days to process an initial claim, and it awaits a new leader to make changes once outgoing VA secretary Jim Nicholson steps down Oct. 1.

Other findings:

The VA facilities with the worst record of scheduling appointments within 30 days were Columbia (64 percent), Chillicothe (64 percent) and San Antonio (67 percent). The best performance was seen in Detroit (84 percent), Temple (83 percent), Birmingham and Cincinnati (both 80 percent).

[john999]

If the VA can't handle the load now I wonder how they will do as the war in Iraq grinds on for another couple of years?