Congressman calls for resignations at the VA
Today, House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-FL called for the resignations of top officials at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for their “utter failure” at overcoming backlogs and incompetence, says the Stars & Stripes;
“There are many people losing patience as we continue to hear the same excuses from VA about increased workload and increased complexity of claims,” Miller said at a hearing Wednesday. “Without better workload or surge capacity planning, I fear that VA is simply one national mission away from complete collapse and utter failure.”
Nearly 900,000 veterans compensation and disability claims are currently pending with the department, and about 630,000 of those have been in the system for more than four months.
That backlog has steadily worsened over the last few years, despite VA promises last summer that the numbers would improve by now and the department’s stated goal of erasing the overdue claims in 2015.
The official who was addressing was Allison Hickey the VA’s top benefit advisor and her response was that 2013 is the year the whole system is going to turn around – you know, like 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 were the years the whole system was going to turn around. This fish rotted from the head down. There are enough Chinese-made black berets that will fix this problem, so Shinseki has been out of his depth from the beginning. If there are any resignations due to veterans, it has to start with Shinseki.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
I’m coming up on 3 years of waiting for my rating and have been hearing the same bullshit from the VA since I got out of the Army. I’m the donkey, and the VA is holding the carrot, because what else can I do but wait and walk along hoping I might catch it some day.
Agreed. Shinseki and all the other leadership at VA needs to be replaced – yesterday.
Far be it from me to defend VA leadership, but to be fair they do have a difficult problem on their hands. The VA is getting a helluva lot more claims proportionally than they did a decade or two ago. A continuous decade+ of shooting war does that; ditto some of the diagnoses that were quite uncommon 20+ years ago but are common today (e.g, PTSD). Evaluating cases takes time if they’re going to screen out the posers and fakers – which they are charged to do to protect the government’s interests. But taking the time to do that slows the process for all. It’s a no-win situation. And having 2/3 of claims over 4 months old sounds bad, but doesn’t really say too much. I’m pretty sure the average was quite a bit over that in the late 1980s. I know of at least one case that took 10 months between submission and initial rating, and I think that was pretty much the norm. Having said all of that: the VA is not doing well at all. Too many apparently obvious phonies are getting through (see Cryer, Joseph), and too many deserving guys and gals are getting screwed either by having valid claims denied or by waiting way too long for a decision. I’ve read elsewhere they want to get the average processing time for claims down to 90 days. Based on what I’ve seen from the VA in the last 25 years, that’s a pipe dream. With today’s VA, I just don’t see how that’s possible. IMO it just ain’t gonna happen. I’m seriously wondering if it isn’t time to “blow it up” (figuratively speaking) and start over again from scratch. But that almost certainly ain’t gonna happen either. Hell, I’m just frustrated and venting. The VA IMO is badly BD, and IMO the issues go well beyond a group of bad leaders at the top. They’ve got some great folks and facilities, and some top-notch doctors. But some of the offices and facilities are legendarily bad, and many of their processes seem broken as well – some… Read more »
Afghanistan started in 2001, Iraq in 2003. And they did NOTHING to prepare for the amount of Veterans that would eventually be entering their system. It falls completely on the VA and the lack of preparation. All they do now is make excuses about why it takes so long (the backlog, the new computer system, the evaluations, etc.) and yet you rarely ever see them mention the fact that they did nothing to get ready for those issues when they should have seen them coming a mile away.
Shinseki has failed to put a boot in anyone’s ass. I agree with FADES in that there are too many excuses. Buddy of mine said he was told by a VA rep that they had 7 years to decide on his case. When you are about to get out, the VA assigns the doc that will evaluate you. Then they take those evaluations and turn it into another process where they have to trust or not trust the doc they hired? Easy process for me: Have a list and the percent of what the disability is, write it down, move to the next case.
ItAllFades: yes, that’s part of the problem too. And it’s part of what’s impacting you personally. But so is the public outcry and Congressional pressure regarding Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, PTSD, and a raft of other things that started in the 80s and that impacted the VA. The VA gets a huge amount of external pressure to chase the latest “bright shiny object”. Ditto the aging of the World War II/Korea/Vietnam Vet populations in the 1980s and 1990s. All of that contributed to putting the VA behind the 8-ball. And yes, some of that external pressure was needed, and piss-poor VA planning contributed. But budgets in the 1990s for VA/Defense related issues weren’t exactly great in terms of letting them ramp up, either. Ditto those for the last 4-5 years. And while fighting a war, top priority of $$$ tends to go to current operations – not aftercare. That was the case IMO from 2001 to about 2008. And if you think the outcry is great when a DoD installation closes, just try to close a VA medical facility or clinic because it’s no longer cost-effective. The push recently has been to open “more more more more” to “better service our veterans”. At some point, that’s counterproductive – because you start using resources to pay for those additional facilities that are needed to pay for treatment. Here are a couple of examples: Wyoming, vet population 55,850 (2010) – 2 VAMC, 13 clinics, 2 vet centers, 1 intake site Alabama, vet population 405,624 (2010 – 2 VAMC + 2 satellite VAMC campuses, 14 clinics, 4 vet centers, 3 intake sites I’m not singling out Wyoming, and yeah – Wyoming is bigger geographically. But close to the same number of facilities to service less than 1/7 the number of vets just can’t make economic sense. And that not even considering the rating process, which is even more BD than the treatment side. As you’ve found out – often deserving vets wait forever for a rating, while obvious fakers and phonies are “in like Flynn” and drawing their benefits. My point is… Read more »
JBS: that works in a world where everyone is honest and no one ever tries to game the system.
If you ever find that world, let me know. I don’t live there. I suspect you don’t either.
We’ve seen too many assholes who’ve defrauded the VA, many for years. A fair number are identified on this site.
That’s the VA’s conundrum: if they rubber-stamp claims without critically examining them, you get folks like the Chippendale Seal and numerous others collecting bennies they don’t deserve – and the US taxpayer gets royally screwed. If they examine all claims critically, it’s a slow process – and deserving vets get screwed. But I don’t know a good way to tell which claims are legit and which aren’t without examining each critically.
No, that’s not fair. But as JFK said: “Life is not fair.”
And I’ll be damned if I know how to fix it.
Give/contract the insurance & accounting part to USAA and run it like medicare (or an HSA) based off of confirmed disability; fold the hospital part in with base military hospitals; let the VA focus, and improve, on psych and social services for vets.
Here’s an idea which I guarantee (kinda, sorta) will streamline the system and speed everything up.
Keep every injured military member on active duty (obviously some special duty status would have to be created for those who can no longer be assigned actual duty) until their records are transferred to a VA hospital and the vet has been seen for the first time by a VA doc. Only then would the injured vet be released from active duty – after the follow on care has been planned.
For non-injured vets something similar could be created. It is simply too easy to forward electronic info between agencies for hard copy files to be sitting around in offices across the country.
Indeed, heads need to roll. Bring in someone like Lee Ioccoca to straighten the mess out – give him or her a deadline and put them in jail if it doesn’t get done.
Sure, a bunch of folks would have their feelings hurt, but they simply don’t matter.
I understand the need to weed out fakers, but these very pages are showing that they get in with their grandiose stories. However, poor chumps like me (E-5, REMF with a campaign medal and normal bells and whistles) are left waiting while the 20 star generals who were Navy SEALs attached to a Marine Ranger squadron as a Space Shuttle Door Gunner get accepted.
You know, I’m all for jumping through hoops, but when someone is given 30 days to send a piece of paperwork to a location that takes 60 days for processing from one floor below where it should be sent… that’s just getting ridiculous.
@6, Hondo, I think it’s WAY past SNAFU and TARFU, more like half past FUBAR, and anytime one of their “Grand High Exalted Schmucks” or a politician speaks about it, the only thought going through my mind is “BOHICA!”.
Flagwaver: I understand your frustrations – on both counts.
Frankly, personally I’m more pissed about the fakes than I am about the waiting time for legit vets (though that’s also way too damn long). I’m pissed for three reasons. First, because they’re getting over on the system; that’s simply wrong. Second, because they’re clogging the system and using resources (admin, clinical, $$$ for compensation) that should be going to legit vets instead. And third, because I’m a taxpayer – and I’m paying for their fraud.
Get rid of the frauds and fakes, and there would be substantially more resources available to care for vets with legitimate claims; to hire more folks to evaluate claims; and to pay compensation to vets who are actually disabled.
Here’s some numbers to put things in perspective. If I recall correctly there are approx 332,000 vets rated at 100% disabled. Compensation for a 100% disabled vet with a spouse is over $35,600 annually – tax free. If 1 in 100 is a fraud (not saying that’s the case; the number is hypothetical), that’s over $118 million annually in stolen VA compensation alone. And that doesn’t count the cost of their medical care, or any other additional or special compensation they might be receiving. Hell, even 1 in 1000 fraudulent is bad enough – that’s nearly $12 million.
There are 2.9 million disabled veterans; the VA currently pays approx $29 billion annually in compensation. If even 5% of that compensation total is fraudulent (either due to outright false claims or due to exaggeration) then that’s over $1.5 billion that’s being stolen from other vets by liars.
OWB: in theory, that’s sounds good. But I don’t think it’s workable in practice.
One problem I see is that it would absolutely hammer the DoD budget with excess and unprogrammed (and very difficult to forecast) personnel costs. And without changes to end-strength caps set by law, it could also seriously affect readiness.
The budget hammer would be due to the fact that DoD would need to keep paying these individuals for an indeterminate amount of time past their normal ETS in many cases. Good luck in getting Congress to pony up any extra $$$ for that. It would thus be another chunk out of the DoD budget at the expense of something else.
The readiness hit would be that DoD would have to carve out some “slack” in its personnel authorizations to allow for some projected number (5000? 10000? 25000? dunno) of additional people to be counted against active-duty end-strength who are non-deployable. How many ships/brigades/squadrons would we have to cut to do that?
Yes, Congress could change the law to allow DoD to do that without end-strength impact. But I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that, either. Congress also seems very reluctant to raise military end-strength.
I’d also foresee major pushback from troops who simply want to ETS and start a civilian career. In my case, what you propose would have almost certainly cost me the civilian job I was hired into the first time I left active duty. I know I’d have been kinda pissed about that.
Easy enough for a politician to say. I’m sure Miller would love to sort through hundreds of pages of paperwork a day on a federal employee salary. VA Committee Chairman? Empty criticism is what Congressional committees do best. Any solutions you’d like to bring up, Chairman? Yes, I’m sure a career politician is the best type of person to care about Vet issues. I doubt those were even his words, sounds like something his staffers would write.
You know what’s also a failure? The Senate not being able to pass a budget in the last three years. Only a fool can expect greatness from a bureaucracy. VA is welfare anyway, argue about its merit all you want you can’t deny the fundamental reason it’s failing under pressure.
that’s a good start, now if we can get the rest of the nutmonkeys in DC to resign and start over again…
To keep it short and sweet; The ONLY way to deal with the VA is to NEVER deal with the VA.
17 months and counting …
Maybe, the fact, that up to 45% of OIF and OEF veterans are applying for benefits has contributed to the backlog? In previous conflicts only 11-16% have applied. I’m no fan of the VA, but I think 45% is a ridiculous amount. It seems to me that we are possibly creating a “welfare” mentality in the military. Yes, I have served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
my records are”LOST IN TRANSIT” i have fought them since 1996 good luck gittin anything out of the lieing theiving basterds and i have sent off four younguns to fight these last two yankee wars.when will southerners learn we fight the battles the spoils go to new york!