Va Sec On 60 Minutes Nov 9, 2014

[Berta]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/11/07/va-chief-considering-disciplinary-action-for-up-to-1000-employees/?tid=hpModule_14fd66a0-9199-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239&hpid=z20

This should be a VERY interesting interview.......

[Berta]

Robert.A.McDonald@va.gov

Notorious Kelly said :

"The veterans I meet who say, "The VA has always been great to me" are part of the problem; what they are essentially saying is, "To hell with everyone else, all these whiners, I like it the way things are and will fill out surveys declaring so.

If the VA were fulfilling its mission, these forums wouldn't exist."

I think MANY vets get very good VA health care and even have their claims breeze through the system without problems,,,,

but Many is not ALL.

Just as I was mentioning the very good changes at my local VAMC over the past decade, to someone I learned (from an employee who definitely knew this to be fact) that this VAMC just canned one of their doctors recently........

As the show mentioned, any fired VA employee will have an appeal process but I assume a "fired" employee will not longer receiving a VA pay check , during the appeal process, then again this is the Gov so I am not sure.

Somehow I feel good about tomorrow, Veterans Day, because too many times I have put my flags out, on Veterans Day , feeling heartbroken and angry at how so many vets get mistreated....either by VAMCs or by the ROs or by both.

I think the new Secretary is far from the previous status quo and has an impressive background that holds leadership and decisiveness.

BTW what did he mean about the 12 web sites? Did he mean the links at www.va.gov page?

[Tbird]

There is ebenefits, myhealthvet, caregiver.com that I know of besides the main Veterans Affairs site.

[asheth007]

Those are the sites I know of I was confused by this also. I don't think the network is confusing one for benefits, one for medical, one for care giver services.

My only issue with that was I didn't know benefits and medical don't really talk to each other except if evidence/records need to be looked at. Once I figured that out it was easier to know where to go.

Wonder if that type of web restructure is needed or wasting resources that could be used other places.

[johnjjr]

I read this morning that in an effort to recruit new Drs., McDonald has offered young Drs. student loan forgiveness in exchange for a set number of years working for VAMCs. Short term a great idea as the VAMCs could gain some really great Drs. But long term, I don't know. At the end of their service, most of the good ones would leave for the private sector. I do like the fact that he isn't afraid to shake the tree, so to speak, by preparing to fire about 1035 bad apples. I actually hold out some hope for Mr. McDonald.

Edited November 10, 2014 by johnjjr

[asheth007]

I wonder what the claims plan is. It is one of the biggest issues the 60 minutes segment just mentions getting benefits faster I wonder how they plan to tackle that part.

Despite how large the VA is staffing appears to be the biggest issue on the benefits and medical side.

[broncovet]

I will try to answer the question "What 12 (VA) websites"?:

1. VA.gov

2. Ebenefits

3. Myhealthyvet

4. VA home loans

5. VISN

6. VA National Cemetary

7. IRIS (for questions about VA benefits)

8. VA Life Insurance

9. VA job applications

10. Champva

11. VA education Assistance

12. HISA (Prosthetics and Sensory Aids Services)

I may have missed some or combined others. There is also VA Voc Rehab, VA Independent Living Program, BVA, CAVC, to mention a few. Notice I did not count "Veterans Service Organizations" either. I note that even a very, very experienced and well known blogger did not know about VA ILP program until I brought it to his attention. There are dozens and dozens of benefits Vets do not know about.

Example: I missed out on life insurance because I "did not know" you had to apply within 2 years of your VARO decision as that information is "buried" on the VA life insurance website.

Edited November 10, 2014 by broncovet