More Claims Problems

[Berta]

"Jul 20, 2014.

By James McGinnis Staff writer

"Congressmen Mike Fitzpatrick and Patrick Meehan are calling on federal agencies to investigate allegations of data manipulation and the destruction of mail at a Veterans Administration regional office in Philadelphia."


"A letter sent to the FBI, U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office urges those agencies to investigate whistleblower testimony presented during a July 14 hearing of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs."

"During that hearing, Kristen Ruell, an authorization quality review specialist at the VA’s Philadelphia office, testified of 96 boxes of mail that may have been destroyed."




http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/news/local/fitzpatrick-meehan-demand-va-claims-investigation/article_fcbea0d4-07bd-5eee-9570-758bbafd123f.html


"Inspectors surveying Philadelphia's VA benefits center in June found mail bins brimming with claims and associated evidence dating to 2011 that had not been electronically scanned, she said.

Inspectors also found evidence that staffers at the Philadelphia regional office were manipulating dates to make old claims appear newer. The findings are similar to problems that have plagued VA health centers nationwide. Investigators have found long waits for appointments at VA hospitals and clinics, and falsified records to cover up the delays.

In Baltimore, investigators discovered that an employee had inappropriately stored thousands of documents, including some that contained Social Security data, in his office "for an extensive period of time." About 8,000 documents, including 80 claims folders, unprocessed mail and Social Security information of dead or incarcerated veterans, were stored in the employee's office, Halliday said."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/07/15/va-is-making-disability-payment-errors-in-rush-to-cut-backlog-watchdog-says/

[Navy04]

Berta, Great info as usual. I just hope that will all this bad publicity that the VA will get there electronic processes going and higher a lot more folks to increase their ability to get these claims done in a timely manner, especially the claims that have been sitting at the Appeals level for years.

[NavyWife]

Berta--

Do you think there will be any ACTUAL changes to VA from the whistleblowers coming forward with these wrongdoings in the healthcare and the claims?

Or do you think they will just order a study and report be done but then nothing really gets improved?

[Navy04]

I too would like to know as you guys truly are the experts, if soon to come, the VA will actually get this claims not only going, but completed to the fullest.

[Berta]

"Berta--
Do you think there will be any ACTUAL changes to VA from the whistleblowers coming forward with these wrongdoings in the healthcare and the claims?"

I definitely think change will come ,but only if more veterans start to step forward and contact the House VAC, the Senate VAC, and even the IG and FBI ,if they have evidence of possible wrongdoing in the VA health care system or have very valid issues with mishandling of their claims.

It isnt that difficult to prepare a letter to any of the above entities.

I handled my letters almost as if they were claims.

I stated my specific concerns and attached documented personal evidence I received from the VA ,as well as from valid internet excerpts ,proving my point.

I contacted all of above with serious concerns as to the VA health care system and also the claims process.

Unlike many past VA broo-hahas (the Perez Memo, the suicide stats, the "October incident" , etc etc) with the VA over the past 20 years, the FBI was never called in on any of those scandals. This one is different.

I have contacted the IG years ago but that was solely a claims problem and they emailed me back right away that specific claims problems were not their jurisdiction. This time I have not heard back from them at all. That is good news in my opinion.

I also have sent FOIAs out to various departments of the VA, as well, for information they have never made public. but I am aware that it exists. I feel it will become a smoking gun issue.

I stated,in the FOIA , that if the copy fee cannot be waived, how much I was willing to pay for the information, and told them where it can be found. and I also added:

'I also request expedited handling of this FOIA request due to the public's right to know this information, in light of the recent House Veterans Affairs Committee hearings that have been prompted by the Phoenix VA death incidents.'

FOIA is powerful. I haven't used it in many years. I not only got some very interesting info from the VA 20 years ago, but also from the Department of Labor.
The DOL info helped me succeed in getting my husband to win the very first ADA EEOC case here in NY.

I think the VA info helped with that too.

H VAC postponed tonight's hearing:


"Jul 22, 2014 | Hearing
VA’s Longstanding Information Security Weaknesses are Increasing Patient Wait Times and Allowing Extensive Data Manipulation - POSTPONED-

"Jul 24, 2014 | Hearing
Restoring Trust: The View of the Acting Secretary and the Veterans Community"

Edited July 22, 2014 by Berta

[Notorious Kelly]

I would really like to know which of these employees involved in wrongdoing are union and who is non-union.

The union is the elephant in the room on this and no one even mentions them; they should be in the forefront and also held accountable.