VA wants to close hospitals, raid Vet Choice funds
Something else that won’t surprise you; the VA wants to close some hospitals and raid Veterans Choice Program funds to close a $2.5 billion shortfall in the budget this year, well, unless Congress can send them some money-love, according to the Associated Press;
The VA said it wants authority to use up to $3 billion from the new Veterans Choice program to close the budget gap, with as much as $500 million going to treat hepatitis C. A single pill for the liver-wasting viral infection can cost up to $1,000.
The Choice program, the centerpiece of a VA overhaul approved last year, makes it easier for veterans to receive federally paid medical care from local doctors. Congress approved $10 billion over three years for the Choice program as it responded to a scandal over long waits for veterans seeking medical care and falsified records to cover up the delays.
Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson told Congress that VA health care sites experienced a 10.5 percent increase in workload for the one-year period since the scandal erupted in April 2014.
It’s kind of funny (funny queer, not funny ha-ha) how, no matter how much money Congress throws at the VA, they always seem to run out. Unless there’s a training conference in Hawaii – there’s always money for that. I’m sure there are some funds laying around that was supposed to tell vets about the Choice program that they never got around to spending, because I get to field questions about it nearly every day.
According to The Hill, they’re already saving money because a third of veterans on waiting lists are already dead, so they’ve got that going for them;
A review of veteran death records provided to the Huffington Post found that, as of April, 847,822 veterans were awaiting healthcare and that of those, 238,647 were already deceased.
The report was handed over by Scott Davis, a program specialist at the VA’s Health Eligibility Center in Atlanta
He also sent copies to the House and Senate VA panels and to the White House.
A VA spokeswoman told Huffington Post that the department can’t subtract dead applicants from the list and that some may never have completed an application but remain on the back log.
See? They’re saving money as fast as they can. If only veterans would die faster for them.
Thanks to Richard and Bobo for the links.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
So they cannot subtract dead veterans but those dead veterans still count against their numbers? Hello? Crazy town? Is that you??
$1000.00 for one hepatitis pill? My ass, no pill is worth that kind of money, time for congress to get off their ass, quit taking bribes from the pharmaceuticals letting them rip people and agencies off…THAT IS CRIMINAL!
When I had my heart attack at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport, Mississippi, the cardiologist at Keesler Air Force Base (which has the Department of Defense contract to treat Armed Forces Retirement Home residents)prescribed Prasugrel.
When I came to Vernal, Utah, I needed to get a new prescription, and it would be months before the VA would begin treating me, other than in emergency room visits.
Using Medicare, I was treated by a local doctor in a local hospital, who prescribed Prasugrel.
The pharmacist at Wal-Mart said my prescription would cost me a thousand dollars.
The VA doesn’t stock or prescribe Prasugrel.
Instead, now that I’m FINALLY in their system, and they’re treating me, they give me Metoprolol.
at least Metoprolol is a generic… $4 a month at Kroger or Walmart, $10 for a 90 day supply.
If families don’t let the VA know their family member is dead and give proof, the veteran remains in the system.
I like how the VA can’t subtract the dead from the list…are they planning on making the deceased attend the appointments? Or do they just need the dead men to miss the appointment so they can remove them for that reason?
I think the import of retaining the deceased on waiting lists is that employees will not be burdened with live patients. For instance, Employee X is to conduct follow-up on 50 patients in a given week. That’s too much, what with late starts and early home, long lunches, and Friday’s disappearing act. So, what to do? Easy! Assign deceased patients, in this example, say, oh, 25 to Employee X. Internal or supervisory audits will show that of the 50 assigned, 40 were cleared. That’s a clearance rate of 80%!
“The report was handed over by Scott Davis, a program specialist at the VA’s Health Eligibility Center in Atlanta”
So, because Scott Davis pointed out that 1/3 of their patients are already dead, will he be fired or does he have whistleblower protection?
“Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson told Congress that VA health care sites experienced a 10.5 percent increase in workload for the one-year period since the scandal erupted in April 2014.”
I’d like to see the breakdown on that 10.5%, living vs. dead.
With all respect to the veterans and the services they are due, the VA is a fucking joke. You’d think an executive from Proctor and Gamble would be able to figure out that dead patients = non work load and adjust numbers and efforts accordingly.
If a Veteran’s family does not let the VA know they are dead, the VA keeps them in the system.
With the facade in place to satisfy honoring the promises to those who served, they continue to take and take. ABSOLUTELY no wonder they fear us as a group which one day may tire of all the B. S. and ORGANIZE!!!!!! Don’t any of you ever forget the numbers we represent. THEY HAVE NOT!
The day is coming when organizing is going to be more than a fantasy.
“I’m sure there are some funds laying around that was supposed to tell vets about the Choice program that they never got around to spending” – well, we know $43 million was parked at a printer’s unspent. You wrote about it.
I just hope when it comes to closing hospitals, they have enough sense to close the ones closest to sea level. Global warming and all that.
More bonus money for their General Counsel.
All this goes on while the rest of our Federal Government hands out all it can as fast as it can to welfare flunkies and illegal aliens.
What is it about Hep-C at the VA? Seems like it might be an obsession.
I went to get my foot checked out last month, “confessed” to having a tattoo on my shoulder during the interview and the next thing you know I have to take half a day off to go the VA Hospital for blood work. Looking at the vial, the only thing I am bleeding for is a Hep-C test…
“Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson told Congress that VA health care sites experienced a 10.5 percent increase in workload for the one-year period since the scandal erupted in April 2014.”
Cause you actually had to SEE the patients instead of shuffling them around. Ass.
The VA just issued me a LOGIC MARK GUARDIAN ALERT 911 emergency two wall calling device to wear on a lanyard around my neck, or on a clip fastened to my belt or a pocket. The URL for that device is: https://www.guardianalert-911.com/ In addition, the VA issued me a Medic Alert bracelet with my sister’s name, address, and telephone number inscribed. But, I can’t figure out how to put the Medic Alert bracelet on my wrist, because my numb and clumsy fingers can’t manipulate the tiny clasp. Also, the VA is sending me a brand new pair of bifocals mounted in stylish large aviator frames. The VA gave me a chair to put in my shower. You should see the tons of medication the VA currently doses me with, day in and day out! The VA has approved my $10,000.00 life insurance policy (a government administered program reserved disabled veterans). My monthly premium, which will be automatically deducted from my Service Connected compensation, is a little over $81.00, due to my being 69 years old, with a history of a heart attack and major surgery on my cervical spine. Knowing that, when the time comes, there’s money to pay for my burial, takes a HUGE load off of my mind. Next week, the VA will begin administering injections into my lumbar spine. Because I have a Service Connected disability, and because of the great distance I must travel whenever I have a scheduled appointment in Salt Lake City, if I drive myself, the VA reimburses me for mileage there and back, plus giving me a room at the Ramada Inn with meals in the mess hall, and transport between the VA Medical Center and the Ramada Inn. Here in Vernal, Utah, local volunteers from the Tri-County Health Department (i.e., Uintah, Duchesne, and Daggett counties) drive patients to and from medical appointments in Salt Lake City, which makes the trip a whole lot easier. When I first came to Utah from Mississippi, I had to wait several months before the VA could officially enter my data into their system and begin… Read more »
OOPS!
That first line should say, “two way”, NOT, “two wall”!
If ONLY this forum provided an editing option!
Vet’s Choice does not work!
The VA must upload all appointments … on an regular basis.
On 2O Mar I made a neuro appoint for 20 May.
So I called Vet’s Choice.
They told me my file had not been updated since DEC 2014 (date of new entitlement).
They told me to call back in a week.
I called back in a week.
They told me my file had not been updated since Dec 2014.
I asked to speak to a supervisor and the operator almost broke down in tears, she apologized, she told me that they were all contractors, that she was from a Mil family and wish she could do more … I feel bad for the operator who expressed her total displeasure having to field calls like mine.
The Vet’s Choice program does not work and is nothing more than a bait and switch, govt contract phone bank.
PS: I was able to seek, consult, receive medical treatment through other sources more efficiently than using the VA. The VA is broken hard!
Oh, forgot!
But what do I know …
The VA sent me a temporary VETS CHOICE card, but I can’t use it, because my files haven’t been updated.
Telephoned inquiries have not been returned.
I too have a “temp” Vets Choice card but its so far been worthless and I have to make a 3 hour trip to get any work done. The VA in Missouri has been great but the Choice program seems like a placebo.
I was in the VA System for over 20 (Twenty years, and I am about ready to tell the VA to “STICK IT WHERE THE SUN DON’T SHINE”. I spent over 30 minutes on the phone with one of the Vet’s Choice Reps to sign up for my membership’s card so I could go to my own doctor being I live 79 miles from the VA, now all of this was done over 1(one) month ago, and still no Vet’s Choice card, so I think this Vet’s Choice crap that the VA has on file is nothing more then a bunch of Bull Shit, and if and when I need any Bull Shit I have all I need or want on the farm next to me.
Sam, Where the tall corn grows
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