And another 'Fuck You' to veterans

[unhappycamper]

Vets group cites errors reported by VA IG
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 12, 2010 15:01:20 EDT

At a conference designed to help veterans service organizations better understand the issues their clients face, Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense tried to tie it up in a one-page document of new data from the Veterans Affairs Department:

After looking at eight Veterans Benefits Administration regional offices in 2009 and 2010, VA’s inspector general found a 28 percent error rate. In fact, the San Juan, Puerto Rico, overall error rate stood at 41 percent, while the Nashville office had made errors in 52 percent of its post-traumatic stress disorder cases. In Baltimore, 55 percent of cases of diabetes in connection with Agent Orange had errors, and in Roanoke, Va., 49 percent of traumatic brain injury cases had errors.

“VA has a very significant quality problem in adjudicating their claims,” Sullivan said. “VA’s own reports indict the place. VBA is the dam that holds veterans up from getting the medical care they need.”

Sullivan spoke on a panel that detailed what roadblocks remain as service members transition from active duty to veteran status. He said Congress has focused so much on VA health care that the administrative end has gotten lost in the shuffle. “Some of their computers are older than I am,” said Sullivan, who served in the 1991 Gulf War and who used to work for VA.

But Sullivan said the “fixes” aren’t that difficult, at least in concept. For example, the idea of a joint Defense Department/VA medical record system has been fussed about for more than a decade as VA and defense officials say their medical records are not compatible, or that the hand-off violates federal HIPAA rules.



unhappycamper comment: I'm pleased that Tammy Duckworth and Eric Shinseki are at the VA, but come on Guys. How can you let your veterans continue to be pummeled by the Veterans Administration?

[tinymontgomery]

1. When I went to VA doctors

it showed that the DR. was doing his best to discount the claims and prove that nothing was wrong. Even got nasty with me.

[unhappycamper]

2. I have heard that story from many veterans. n/t

[lonestarnot]

4. Never surrender! Keep fighting no matter how long!

Disgusting you have to be going through this shit.

[w8liftinglady]

3. I have tried so hard to defend Shinseki,as I think he's done...

a better job in 2 years than the previous administrators.That being said,the whole claims process seems to be the issue with so many vets.I don't understand - with the technology we have - how a task force couldn't brainstorm and enter each vet into a database.It seems like a classic case of "we've always done it this way"....of which the military and VA are both guilty.

[Hubert Flottz]

5. When the country needed help the veterans were there...

When the Veterans need help it's "sorry About Your Luck, now get out of this gubmint office before I call the swat team"

When I needed help they said my wife and I "have too much income," even though we struggle to survive like most Americans these days. I wish I'd had too much income to get a draft notice? Or a Daddy well off enough to pull the right strings at the right time like W had.

[Scuba]

6. Just put a yellow ribbon on your rear window, it'll all be fine.