After a great deal of covering up, retaliation against and intimidation of whistleblowers, media reporting, Congressional hearing and inquiries, and VA delays, denial, and more covering up, finally this week it appears as though the first elements of truth are creeping out in the healthcare access scandal that has consumed VA.
A great deal more needs to be done in holding VA healthcare officials accountable. A great deal more needs to be done to hold VA benefits officials accountable, including for inappropriate VA denial of service-disabled veterans’ disability claims, efforts to roll back the clock on Gulf War veterans’ and possibly other “presumptive” access to disability benefits, inappropriate VA benefits official’s meddling in healthcare and medical research matters, and shifting the claims wait lines from one excessively long waiting line (initial claims) to another even longer waiting line (appeals).
And, a great deal more needs to be done in holding VA’s research officials to account for confirmed whistleblower accounts that VA research officials routinely cover-up research finding that might show links between deployment health exposures and negative health consequences of those exposures, inappropriately shape VA research projects so as not to uncover links between deployment and negative health outcomes, misappropriation of funds, lying to Congress and top VA officials, and an utter inability to focus research efforts on tangible research outcomes such as improved prosthetic limbs or to develop effective treatments for post-deployment health conditions.
However, the following articles represent a new breakthrough in the armor in which VA bureaucrats have surrounded themselves. As one Arizona Republic editorial notes below, it is the beginning of finally some truth about the VA.
Read on… and help hold VA managers and executives accountable for VA’s failures and cooking the books in nearly every aspect of VA operations.
-Team VCS
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Associated Press: Ex-VA Doctor: Phoenix Report a ‘Whitewash’
Arizona Republic: Auditor ties VA waits to deaths
Arizona Republic Editorial: Finally, some truth about the VA. Our View: Lengthy delays didn’t do veterans any good. Why didn’t the inspector general recognize that?
CNN: VA inspector general admits wait times contributed to vets’ deaths
New York Times: V.A. Official Acknowledges Link Between Delays and Patient Deaths
Washington Examiner: Veterans Affairs IG couldn’t see records that didn’t exist for dead vets
Washington Examiner: Delays contributed to patient deaths at veterans’ hospital, IG concedes
Washington Times: VA official admits not every wait-list death reviewed by investigators
