Congress wants study of how VA uses money

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Congress wants study of how VA uses money
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Dec 3, 2009 17:55:10 EST

A key House committee is calling for a full investigation of how the Veterans Affairs Department allocates funds to various regions and projects in the face of complaints that, in an era of continually growing VA budgets, there still doesn’t seem to be enough money to go around.

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee wants a review by the Government Accountability Office out of concern that the formula for allocating money to local medical facilities is a confusing mess, resulting in widely varying services and waiting times.

Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., the committee’s ranking Republican, also said it appears VA has taken money set aside in the economic stimulus package earlier this year — intended to cut the backlog of veterans disability claims by covering overtime costs for processors — and used it to pay the salaries of people hired to process Post-9/11 GI Bill claims when that program ran into trouble after its Aug. 1 launch.

Buyer, speaking at a Wednesday hearing, said shifting money to help one group of veterans over another is wrong, especially when those on the losing end are seeking compensation for service-connected disabilities. He said he worries that this could become a continuing issue.

Clyde Parkis, former director of VA’s health care system in Ohio, said money is allocated to VA medical facilities based on a variety of formulas that take into account patient load, complexity of treatment, costs in the previous year and exactly where treatment is being done.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/military_VA_funds_120309w/