Gulf War Advisory Committee Letter Expresses Grave Concerns to New VA Secretary | Veterans for Common Sense

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Team VCS

The following is reposted from 91outcomes.com with permission.

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“I ask you to please post … this letter RAC members sent to Secretary McDonald after the RAC meeting this week.  VA staff now controls what is posted to the RAC website, so this may never see the light of day otherwise.  The new Secretary should be cleaning house with the staff, not the committee.   So much for promises to fix VA’s lack of integrity.  — Joel Graves, Gulf War veteran member of the Research Advisory Committee, being replaced.”

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SOURCE:  Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (RAC), September 23, 2014http://www.scribd.com/doc/241187447/RAC-Recommendation-Letter-Sep-23-2014

LETTER TEXT:

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MEDIA REPORTS: The Beginning of Finally Some Truth about the VA | Veterans for Common Sense

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Team VCS

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

 

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The Top 10 Reasons to Hire a Quality Personal Injury Lawyer

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Charles Miles

If you’re injured in some sort of accident, you likely have tons of questions – and really few answers. do you have to take action against anyone as a results of your injuries? How would you set about that process? Without the proper guidance, it’ll be difficult to form good decisions, and you’ll simply finish up taking no action in the least . For this reason, it’s important to figure with a top quality personal injury lawyer.

You don’t got to be committed to taking action just to speak to a private injury lawyer. Whether you finish up filing a suit or not, speaking with an experienced Munley Law Allentown attorney may be a smart thanks to determine your best course of action.

Personal Injury Attorneys Broward County know what rights you have under the law and can simply explain them to you. But in the case of personal injury, time is not always on your side. Even the best case imaginable has a time limit attached to it and even easy cases need documentation from the start. If you have suffered an injury because of the negligence of another person, you need to consult with a personal injury attorney as he is the only one who can help you in this regard. But, finding a right personal injury attorney is not an easy thing to do especially when there are several firms offering their services to help you deal with your case.

A personal injury lawyers Lipcon & Lipcon, P.A. serving clients in Miami, FL may help you right away after an accident has taken place on an emergency basis. Generally, the attorney may charge almost 40{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of what is recovered from the claim or you can pay the attorney a fee that is been decided between the two of you, beforehand. There is a situation where you can seek for the professional help of an attorney but as a public service which is not meant to be charged at all but still the attorney charges, a much lesser amount from the people who come for help.

In the event you or a family member has been severely injured in a vehicle accident or some other accident that was not your fault, it is important to think about choosing a Gould Injury Law to handle your case. In case you are hurting and maybe even still in the hospital, which really can be a difficult task. An automobile accident victim may attempt to put the burden of proof on the insurance carrier; however, the expenses will pile up while the dispute stays on. In case an accident victim will give the insurance company the proof they need to pay the bills, he should. In the event the issue leads to litigation, the evidence will be required and often the evidence alone will influence an insurance company to negotiate the claim. You can check Official site for more information about the personal injury attorney.

Like every profession, the law has its less-than-perfect members, and you might also think of a injury attorney normally as “ambulance-chasers.” But you will find outstanding personal injury attorneys who will help you enormously if you’re hurt through no fault of your own. There are lots of ways to start picking a personal injury attorney to help you get the payment and justice you are worthy of. click site if you want to know more about the Hamilton Personal Injury Lawyer.

Ask your friends, neighbors, and relatives. They might know of a good injury lawyer and be able to tell how they happen to be helpful and just how they behaved through the entire claim process. Look online and check for a personal injury lawyer. You will get many pages of final results and may check around at the internet sites. Read the lawyers’ biography pages to determine what qualifications and practical experience they have. Look at the site pages that relate to your particular injury.

The following are the highest ten reasons you ought to consider retaining the services of a private injury lawyer.

#1 – No Risk

Generally speaking, personal injury lawyers will only get paid once you win your case. As long as that’s the case, you do not need to worry about mounting legal bills only to lose your case within the end. before signing on with a selected attorney, confirm they’re willing to figure on a fee basis.

#2 – Experience

If you are not a lawyer, you merely can’t have the experience that’s possessed by a private injury lawyer. it’s tempting to represent yourself in an injury case so as to save lots of money, but that method is never effective. Utilize the experience of knowledgeable to greatly improve your odds of success.

#3 – an outdoor View

It is basically impossible for you to require an impartial check out your own case. you’ll still be in pain, and you would possibly be holding some negative feelings toward the people whom you are feeling are responsible. A lawyer won’t be constrained by these emotions, so you’ll calculate them to offer you an objective opinion on the case.

#4 – just in case of Trial

Should your case finish up during a trial, you’ll need a good lawyer on your side. The courtroom is not any place for the inexperienced, so confirm a top quality personal injury lawyer is on your team as you walk into court.

#5 – Settlement Options

Injury lawyers are wont to negotiating settlements, and that they are going to be happy to try to to so in your case (if a settlement may be a possibility). Everyone involved will likely want to avoid an attempt , so your lawyer could also be ready to negotiate a settlement that’s satisfactory to all or any parties.

#6 – Support Staff

Lawyers don’t work alone – generally, they need a team of staff behind them to try to to research, conduct interviews, and more. If you would like to offer your suit the simplest possible chance at success, having a lawyer with a talented support team fighting for you may be a great advantage.

#7 – Legal Speak

Reading a legal instrument are often highly confusing to those without an education in law. Your personal injury lawyer are going to be ready to add up of the court documents.

#8 – Experience within the System

Determining whether or not a lawsuit is warranted is that the initiative within the process, and your lawyer are going to be ready to provide you with a professional opinion supported their experience within the field. there’s no sense taking over a lawsuit that has no chance of success, so invite an honest opinion before proceeding.

#9 – handling Insurance Companies

Do you want to possess to affect insurance companies as they settle claims in your case? Probably not. Turn that job over to your personal injury lawyer, who will have experience therein area.

#10 – Peace of Mind

A serious injury may be a life-changing event, and your head has probably been spinning since the instant it happened . Working with a top quality personal injury lawyer will help to settle your nerves as you’ll know you’re in good hands.

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VCS to Participate in Sgt. Sullivan Center’s Event: Rebuilding Trust, Renewing Our Dedication to Transparency in Deployment Health Science | Veterans for Common Sense

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Team VCS

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Sergeant Sullivan Center Reception: Honoring Excellence in Post-Deployment Health

Rebuilding Trust, Renewing Our Dedication to Transparency in Deployment Health Science: Awards Ceremony 2014

“If you blow the whistle on higher ups because you have identified a legitimate problem, you should not be punished. You should be protected … problems [at the VA] require us to regain the trust of our veterans and live up to our vision of a VA that is more effective and more efficient.”   President Barack Obama, August 2014

The event will be held on Tuesday, September 23rd 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Presenters Include:

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VA Officials Spun Inspector General Report to Make VA Appear Not at Fault for 40+ Veteran Deaths in Phoenix | Veterans for Common Sense

Posted on September 10, 2014 by Team VCS

A new investigative report by the Arizona Republic newspaper has found that officials in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) whitewashed a report by the VA’s Inspector General regarding the depth, breadth, and scope of the healthcare access scandal that resulted in the deaths of at least 40 veterans in Phoenix alone.

According to the news article:

During a Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing Tuesday, Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., challenged the language in the OIG report, suggesting it downplayed the effects of long-standing VA delays in delivering care to ailing veterans.

“I don’t want to give the VA a pass on this, and that’s exactly what this line does,” Heller said to Dr. John Daigh, assistant inspector general for health-care inspections. “It exonerates the VA of any responsibility in past manipulation of these … wait times.”

….

Based on the OIG’s cause-of-death conclusion, many media outlets cast the investigative report as vindication for the VA and as refutation of Arizona whistle-blower claims.

A Washington Post article was headlined, “Overblown claims of death and waiting times at the VA.” The Associated Press report, which appeared in publications nationwide, was titled, “IG: Shoddy care by VA didn’t cause Phoenix deaths.”

That spin on the story first circulated a day earlier when a copy of the VA’s response to the OIG investigation was leaked before release of the report. The key talking point: “It is important to note that OIG was unable to conclusively assert that the absence of timely quality care caused the death of these veterans.”

Inspector general reports are typically circulated to agency bosses prior to publication, providing an opportunity to correct errors and suggest changes.

More than a week before the Phoenix investigation was released, TheRepublic learned that a dispute had arisen over standard-of-proof language that was being pushed by VA administrators to downplay deaths in Phoenix.

….

OIG investigators corroborated virtually every major allegation of wrongdoing submitted by the two whistle-blowers. Nevertheless, the report and congressional briefing papers contain passages that appear to criticize Foote and his credibility, emphasizing that “the whistle-blower did not provide us with a list of 40 patient names.” The passage referred to VA patients Foote said died while awaiting care in Phoenix.

….

In interviews and a written rebuttal, Foote said the portion of the report about him is “false and misleading” because he and other whistle-blowers provided 24 names to inspectors and explained where in VA records to identify 16 more.

Another part of the VA report acknowledged that Foote had supplied at least 17 names and that others could not be traced because documentation had been destroyed by VA employees.

Read the full Arizona Republic news report here:

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/investigations/2014/09/10/report-phoenix-va-deaths-raises-questions/15375005/

Posted in VA Healthcare Crisis Updates, Veterans for Common Sense News | 1 Comment

VA’s Medical Research Failures Continue to Grow | Veterans for Common Sense

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Team VCS

A new example of VA’s failures on medical research — an often overlooked area where VA remains badly broken — has emerged near Fort Hood.

An Austin, Texas newspaper reports that a $3.8 million mobile MRI machine, widely touted by VA at the time of its 2008 inauguration, has been sitting empty and unused.  While VA announced in 2008 in detail the life changing brain research it was going to conduct using the equipment, VA never conducted that research and the equipment sits empty.   (“Lost Opportunity: With wars winding down, VA’s brain research failed to launch,” Austin Austin American Statesman-Staff, Sep. 7, 2014, Jeremy Schwartz reporting).

Among VA’s known, systemic medical research failures:

  • Cooking the books on medical research.  In March 2013, top VA epidemiologist-turned-whistleblower Dr. Stephen Coughlin testified to Congress about concerted efforts in the VA’s Office of Public Health to deliberately cover-up research findings that might show connections between military deployment and health risks.  Just like there were real consequences of VA’s cooking the books in the healthcare access scandal rippling outwards nationwide from the Phoenix VA medical center, veterans who were found by VA during some VA medical research to be suicidal were never aided and ultimately did commit suicide.  Coughlin’s array of assertions were found to be valid.
  • Denying scientific truth.  Over the past decade, the mainstream media has covered a myriad of stories on how VA research and benefits officials have downplayed, fought against, and outright denied the consensus findings by the penultimate National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine and the VA’s own Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses that Gulf War Illness is a real,  debilitating, and enduring medical condition, that it is not psychiatric or psychological in nature, that it was likely caused by environmental exposures, that it afflicts roughly one-third of the veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, and that treatments can likely be found.
  • No Confidence.  After more than two decades and hundreds of millions of dollars expended, the VA’s own Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses blasted VA research officials with a unanimous finding of “no confidence in the ability or demonstrated intention of VA staff to formulate and execute an effective VA Gulf War illness research program,” and a, “failure to acknowledge that the central health problem of this war even exists.”  
  • Retaliation.  True to form in retaliation against VA whistleblowers and those who speak up and out about problems in VA, VA’s leaders swiftly moved against the Gulf War Illness panel, gutting its leadership, membership, charter, and independence.
  • Making medical decisions for budgetary reasons.  In April 2014, widely reviled VA Undersecretary of Benefits Allison Hickey was revealed in a Military Times expose to have secretly weighed in with the Institute of Medicine in an effort to quash the IOM’s broad recommendation to the world’s medical community of calling “Gulf War Illness” by that name.  Her apparent goal was to prevent VA from being burdened with more disability claims from veterans suffering from Gulf War Illness, a covert roll-back of existing federal benefits law.
  • “Lost” database.  VA acknowledged that a critical research registry database containing medical data on hundreds of spouses and children of 1991 Gulf War veterans has been irretreivably “lost”.
  • Footdragging.  VA officials dragged their feet for years in implementing a registry of veterans with potential lung and other effects resulting from exposure to massive overseas burn pits.  There is no announced research related to veterans on the registry that might help provide a pathway to treatments and improving ill veterans’ health and lives.
  • Inability to Lead Research to Targeted Outcomes.  An array of important veteran-related medical research aimed at targeted outcomes has had to be directed by Congress to be conducted more effectively outside VA, from prosthetic limbs development by the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to research on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in DoD’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program.

From foot-dragging to outright attempting to roll back the clock on Gulf War Illness research, VA’s systemic medical research issues remain largely on the back burner of Congressional, media, and public attention — if they are being addressed at all.

Read the full Austin article here:

http://projects.statesman.com/news/va-center-of-excellence/

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Chairman Miller Responds to OIG Report, What’s Still Needed | Veterans for Common Sense

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Team VCS

The following statements were released by the office of Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL-01), Chairman of the U.S House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

On August 7, a statement by Rep. Miller on the signing into law of the VA Reform Bill included this sage insight and advice:

“VA’s problems festered because administration officials ignored or denied the department’s challenges at every turn. In order to prevent history from repeating itself, President Obama must become personally involved in solving VA’s many problems.”

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Miller Statement on VA OIG Review of Phoenix VA Health Care System

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VA Cooking the Books on Suicide Data, too | Veterans for Common Sense

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Team VCS

Over the course of this year, systemic failures at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have become known to the public, including VA cooking the books on veterans’ healthcare, disability claims, and medical research.

A new investigative report by USA Today sheds light on VA cooking the books on yet another area under its vast military veteran purview — veteran suicides.  [“VA touts progress on suicides; data tell another story,” Aug. 25, 2014, Dennis Wagner reporting]

A widely touted statistic related to veteran suicides — that there are an average of 22 a day — now appears to be not only horrific, but vastly underestimated, according to the USA Today investigation.

“Craig Northacker of Vets-Help.org said death records do not capture the real tally of veterans’ suicides, which he estimates at 30 to 35 daily.

[VA deputy director for suicide prevention Caitlin] Thompson acknowledged the data dilemma: “Numbers of suicides are just very, very difficult to get, period.” ”

USA Today also showed how slow real change is to come to VA.  Seven years ago, VA’s top mental health officer, Dr. Ira Katz, was exposed in a media scandal of covering up the true impact of the veteran suicide crisis.  According to USA Today, Katz sought to minimize the crisis in secret internal emails marked so they would not be released to the media, which they were eventually anyways:

” “Shh!” Katz wrote in one message. “Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our medical facilities.” “

This renewed public exposure revives a longstanding issue:  Why is Ira Katz still at VA in the same position of responsibility over veteran suicides?

The USA Today story includes a bulleted list of veteran suicides following VA failure — statistics and anecdotes not reported by VA anywhere.

These tragic statistics and anecdotes mirror the findings in a 2007 Veterans for Common Sense lawsuit filed against VA that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and definitively showed that veterans were committing suicide awaiting VA care and benefits decisions.  [Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth and Justice v. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs].

Veterans and the public await justice and the long-overdue removal of Ira Katz and others like him from the federal agency entrusted with the care of our nation’s veterans, their widows, and their orphans.  in the meantime, the public’s recognition continues to grow regarding how wide the extent is of VA officials cooking the books over many years:  veterans’ VA healthcare, veterans’ VA benefits claims, veteran-related VA medical research, and the latest…  VA’s monitoring, tracking, reporting, and preventing veteran suicides.

*** Read the full USA Today story here:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/25/vets-suicides-data/14554371/

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Tampa Bay Times: VA Mislead Congress, Public on Veteran Deaths | Veterans for Common Sense

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Team VCS

During the ongoing investigation into the growing scandal of VA cooking the books on veterans’ healthcare access, disability claims denials, and medical research coverups, a new trend has emerged:  VA officials at every level lying to Congress, the media, and the public.

Such is the case in a story reported this week by the Tampa Bay Times (“VA Numbers on Treatment Delays were Misleading“, Aug. 1, 2014, William Levesque reporting).

According to the investigative report, the VA, “told Congress and the public in April [in a fact sheet] that the agency reviewed 250 million medical consultations, dating back to 1999, and found 76 veterans seriously harmed by treatment delays for gastrointestinal cancers. Of them, 23 died.”

However, the Tampa Bay Times investigation found that all of these cases were in fact in 2010 and 2011, not dating back to 1999, and data from 1999 to 2009, and 2012 to the present, have not yet been released, and VA officials tried desperately to stonewall the media investigating this matter.

According to the TBT article:

“They tried to misdirect Congress and the American people away from the facts,” said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Pensacola, the committee’s chairman. “I think they got caught and now they are trying to modify their story. . . . The misdirection was, in fact, designed in Washington.”

….

The VA is embroiled in what might be the worst scandal in its history, with disclosures that hospitals across the nation engaged in rampant “gaming strategies” that hid delays in treating veterans and that some facilities tried to hide patient deaths.

Allegations have also been reported that the VA engaged in widespread whistleblower retaliation.

The Tampa Bay Times, based in St. Petersburg, Fla., is one of Florida’s largest print newspapers.  St. Petersburg is also home to the Bay Pines VA Medical Center and Florida’s VA Regional Office, also located at Bay Pines.  The Bay Pines VAMC had the 13th worst wait times in the entire United States, according to data in a recent VA Inspector General investigative report.

Read the full Tampa Bay Times article here:  http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/va-stats-on-consultation-delays-dont-reach-as-far-back-as-implied/2191157

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VA’s Claims Backlog Assertions Disputed During Tense Congressional Hearing | Veterans for Common Sense

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Team VCS

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials’ claimed to have nearly resolved the VA disability claims backlog during a Congressional hearing this week.  Those claims were widely disputed, not just by members of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs that held the hearing, but even by the VA’s own Inspector General.

According to a July 15, 2014 AP wire story (Matthew Daly, “VA Cites Progress on Backlog; Congress Disagrees“):

Allison Hickey, the VA’s undersecretary for benefits, told Congress that at the insistence of officials from President Barack Obama on down, the benefits backlog has been whittled down to about 275,000 — a 55 percent decrease from the peak.

Hickey’s claims were met with disbelief by some. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, told her flatly that he thinks the VA’s numbers are inaccurate.

“I don’t believe anybody at the table is telling the truth from the VA,” Miller said at a contentious hearing that lasted more than five hours Monday night. “I believe you are hiding numbers.”

Asked if she trusted numbers produced by VA, the agency’s assistant inspector general, Linda Halliday, said no.

“I don’t want to say I trust them,” Halliday said.

A July 15, 2014 Stars and Stripes article was even more critical (Travis J. Tritten, “House hears evidence VA cooked the books on claims backlog“):

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the committee, said the VA manipulation of its backlog of veterans seeking disability and pension ratings by writing off thousands of unresolved cases is analogous to its health care facilities keeping secret patient wait lists to hide months-long waits.  It “created the appearance of success just like cooking the books on scheduling times,” he said.

….Over 7,800 of the unresolved benefit claims disappeared from the backlog after the VA issued what it called a “provisional rating,” a preliminary decision based on incomplete or outdated medical information in a claims file. It is a classification that requires additional work by VA staff to become a final disability or pension rating and cannot be appealed by veterans, the IG found.  ….VA then “lost control” of the provisional ratings cases, which were pushed further to the back burner, where they were ignored. Some veterans might never have received final rating decisions if not for the IG investigation, according to Halliday….

“When we find these individuals, you can rest assured I will respond quickly and take necessary actions,” Hickey said.  Miller and other members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee have said they are skeptical of such reassurances.

Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich., said repeated VA claims about the backlog are “baloney” designed to make the department look good while staff was actually hiding the true numbers.  “They are all concerned about numbers and not veterans,” Benishek said. “It is absolutely unbelievable to me that this is going on and nobody seems responsible for it.”

“At this point, I can say ‘No, I do not trust those numbers,’” Halliday said. “They need to be looked at very carefully, so I don’t want to say I trust them.”

A July 15, 2014 Fox News story took a different tact (“VA is making disability payment errors in rush to cut backlog, watchdog says“), but also reported on serious problems identified at various VA claims processing facilities:

Inspectors surveying Philadelphia’s VA benefits center in June found mail bins brimming with claims and associated evidence dating to 2011 that had not been electronically scanned, she said.

Inspectors also found evidence that staffers at the Philadelphia regional office were manipulating dates to make old claims appear newer. The findings are similar to problems that have plagued VA health centers nationwide. Investigators have found long waits for appointments at VA hospitals and clinics, and falsified records to cover up the delays.

In Baltimore, investigators discovered that an employee had inappropriately stored thousands of documents, including some that contained Social Security data, in his office “for an extensive period of time.” About 8,000 documents, including 80 claims folders, unprocessed mail and Social Security information of dead or incarcerated veterans, were stored in the employee’s office, Halliday said.

Kristen Ruell, an employee at the VA’s Pension Management Center in Philadelphia, told the committee that mail routinely “sat in boxes untouched for years” at the pension office. Once, after becoming concerned that unopened mail was being shredded, Ruell opened the boxes and took photos. Instead of addressing the problem, she said, VA supervisors enacted a policy prohibiting taking photos.

“A lot of the mail that should not have been shredded was shredded,” she said.

A July 14, 2014 USA Today article (Gregg Zoroya, “Report cites VA struggles with benefits paid to veterans“) reported even more details of the Inspector General’s reports that stand in sharp contrast to Benefits Undersecretary Allison Hickey’s pollyannaish assertions that all is well with “her” efforts to reduce the claims backlog:

Other mistakes or sloppiness cited by Haliday include:

— The VA failed to follow up with veterans granted temporary 100{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} disability pending improvement of their physical health. Investigators estimate this has resulted in $85 million overpaid since 2012 and could mean another $370 million wasted in the next five years,

— Other VA processing responsibilities have suffered because of so much emphasis on reducing the compensation backlog. The number of pending appeals of compensation judgments has increased 18{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} since 2011 to nearly 270,000.

— Federal law prohibits reservists and National Guard troops from receiving drill pay and VA compensation at the same time. But the VA has failed to check on this, resulting in $50-$100 million in overpaid compensation annually.

Halliday cites an assortment of other problems including thousands of pieces of undelivered mail languishing at an Indianapolis VA processing center.

Read the full VA Inspector General testimony here:  http://www.va.gov/OIG/pubs/statements/VAOIG-statement-20140714-halliday.pdf

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