Investigators Say Impaired Clinician Recorded Wrong Diagnoses FAYETTEVILLE, AR – A physician employed by the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks here was indicted by a federal grand jury on a range of charges, including three counts of involuntary manslaughter...
GAO: VA Still Lags in Ability to Track Veteran Wait Times for Care
WASHINGTON—Five years after scandal rocked the VA, the agency still does not have a reliable way of tracking patient wait times according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. In 2014, whistleblowers at the Phoenix VAMC revealed that facility leadership...
Whisteblowers Report Ongoing Harassment for Revealing VA Malfeasance
WASHINGTON — In 2014, Katherine Mitchell, MD, was one of a handful of employees at the Phoenix VAMC who blew the whistle on hospital leadership for keeping a separate, secret list of veterans seeking healthcare—a numerical sleight-of-hand that allowed them to artificially decrease the facility’s wait times.
Ensuring Community Providers Meet Veteran Suicide Prevention Standards
WASHINGTON — As leaders from across multiple federal agencies begin work on a roadmap to combat veteran suicide, they are searching for ways to turn existing efforts in towns, cities, counties and neighborhoods across the country into a net that can help catch struggling veterans.
Tests Show No Lung Changes for Recent Veterans
SAN ANTONIO — Significant airborne hazards were reported during military conflicts in southwest Asia, including geologic dusts, burn pit emissions, chemical exposures, and increased rates of smoking.
VA Study Shows Benefit of PCSK9 Inhibitors After Maximizing Other Therapies
HOUSTON—Veterans who have experienced acute coronary syndrome within the past year face a substantial risk of a repeat event. Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors significantly reduce that risk, but determining who would benefit most and when they should be initiated has been challenging.
VA: Blue Water Veterans Must Wait Until 2020 for Claims to Be Processed
WASHINGTON—Blue Water Navy veterans who want to file disability claims related to Agent Orange exposure will have to wait until next year to have their claims processed, VA announced last month.
VA Manages Drug Costs Better than Medicare Part D
ST. LOUIS – Medicare Part D could save more than $14 billion annually if it paid the same prices for top medications as the VA, according to a new study. A research letter published earlier this year in JAMA Internal Medicine noted that some state and federal...
House Passes Bill to Create Education/Employment Arm of VA
WASHINGTON,—Legislators have reintroduced plans to create a fourth administration within the Department of Veterans Affairs—one dedicated to overseeing veterans’ education, transition and employment benefits. Currently these operations fall under the Veterans Benefits...
Administrative Confusions Results in Little Oversight of VA’s Police Force
Suicides, Violence at VMACs Put Spotlight on Security WASHINGTON—As the number of suicides and other violent incidents at VA facilities grows, a spotlight is being thrown on VA’s internal police force and its ability to protect staff and patients. A VA Office of the...
Veterans Using Dual Health Systems Have More Problems With Medications
CHARLESTON, SC—More than half of the patients treated by VA are also Medicare eligible, and that is increasing the risk for a range of prescription medication problems—from chronic disease medication nonadherence to opioid overdoses—among dual users. The issue has...
All VA Healthcare Facilities to Be Completely Smoke-Free by October
New Directive Abolishes Designated Smoking Zones WASHINGTON—Starting in October, all VA healthcare facilities will be official no-smoking zones. While VA now permits smoking in designated areas, the department has issued a new policy restricting smoking by patients,...
VA Isn’t Addressing Recommendations by Oversight Agencies
Too Many Leadership Vacancies Are Part of the Problem WASHINGTON—Deeply ingrained management problems are preventing VA from addressing priority recommendations from oversight agencies, leaving the department with long-standing weaknesses in its healthcare and...
VA MRSA Prevention Program Successfully Reduced Cases 43%
CDC, VA Authors Reject Calls to Lessen Interventions SALT LAKE CITY—Concerned about methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, one of the most common causes of healthcare-associated infections, the VA piloted a MRSA prevention program in 18 VAMCs beginning in 2005....
VA Study Raises Questions About Value of Readmission Metrics
SAN FRANCISCO—While the VA performs well overall on key 30-day readmission rates, a study by researchers at the San Francisco VAMC questioned the utility of the measures for most of the health system’s hospitals. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began...
Three VAMC Campus Suicides in a Week Heighten Concerns About Prevention
WASHINGTON—Concern over the rate of veteran suicides reached a fever pitch last month after three veterans took their lives at VA facilities over a span of five days. Two of the deaths occurred in Georgia—one in a parking garage at the Carl Vinson VAMC in Dublin and...
VA Reverses Stance, Won’t Challenge ‘Blue Water’ Veteran Court Ruling
WASHINGTON—In an about-face, the VA will recommend that the federal government not challenge a recent court decision ruling that the department cannot deny benefits to Vietnam-era Blue Water Navy veterans claiming Agent Orange exposure. The news came from VA Secretary...
VA Continues Efforts to Reduce Drug Diversion; Focuses on Opiates
WASHINGTON—In the past two years, the VA has implemented a nine-step process to minimize drug diversion, but cases continue to slip through. In December 2018, the VA’s Office of the Inspector General reported two instances of healthcare workers diverting drugs for...
VA Struggles to Overcome Women’s Healthcare Disparities
WASHINGTON—VA is straining its capacity and struggling against a culture that can sometimes be hostile to women as it responds to what VA officials consider a “tsunami wave of women veterans” over the last decade. Today, women make up more than 16% of active-duty...
VA Researcher Seeks to Include Veterans’ Voices in Healthcare Decisions
SEATTLE—It’s a big job to ensure that VA’s healthcare system is equipped to provide the best possible care to veterans. It might be an even bigger job to make sure that veterans across the country have access to that care. As VA looks into new ways of getting veterans...
House Committee Looks at Influence Trump Friends Have Had on VA
WASHINGTON—Three months into the new Democrat-led Congress, legislators are continuing to press VA on possible misconduct by high-level VA employees and consultants. That includes expanding the investigation into VA’s relationship with civilian advisers conducting...
VA Announces Proposed Standards for Access to Mission Act Outside Care
WASHINGTON—VA has released its proposed new access standards, defining new eligibility criteria for veterans seeking care by non-VA providers. The standards are part of the VA MISSION Act signed into law in June 2018, and their release has added fuel to concerns that...
VA Announces New Partnerships to Expand Telehealth Services
WASHINGTON.—VA Secretary Robert Wilkie announced new partnerships with several prominent companies and veterans’ organizations to make access to health services easier for veterans, regardless of their location. Collaborators announced at the recent Anywhere to...
VA Fails to Use All Outreach Resources to Combat Veteran Suicide
Despite declaring veteran suicide as its No. 1 clinical priority, VA’s suicide prevention outreach efforts dropped off in 2017 and 2018, and a lack of clear goals and inconsistent leadership has impacted its success, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
Disabled Veteran Helps Others Like Her Get Back Into the Workforce
Ten years ago, Coniece Washington was walking through the Washington, DC, VA Medical Center when she saw a job notice tacked to a board: certified rehabilitation counselor.
Senate Blocks Agent Orange Exposure Extension to Blue Water Veterans
Blue Water Navy veterans who claim to be impacted by toxic exposure while serving off the coast of Vietnam were forced to grapple with disappointment once again as the 115th Congress ended without passing legislation addressing their VA benefits.
VA: Oversight Improving for Questionable Contracted Disability Exams
A recent audit by the Government Accountability Office has lawmakers and veterans service organizations frustrated with the Veterans Benefits Administration’s inability to track the quality of work done by outside contractors and concerned that veterans have not been receiving accurate disability ratings.
VA ‘On Track’ for Appeals Reform; GAO Questions Timetable
VA is “on track” to implement a law designed to give veterans more options to have their claims appeals reviewed, as well as speed up the process, agency officials assured lawmakers last month.
Senate VA Committee Chair Vows to Pass ‘Blue Water’ Navy Benefits
Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) vowed that addressing benefits for Blue Water Navy Veterans “is no longer going to be a question,” but that “how we do it is the only question.”
VHA Makes Progress in Improving Safety of Opioid Prescribing
VHA medical facilities should ensure that its providers are following three key opioid risk mitigation strategies, including conducting urine drug screening, a recent report recommended.
