A staggering 867,000 veterans have applied and been waiting for health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs for the last two decades — but a third of them may already be dead, a startling watchdog report finds.
The Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Inspector General report says "serious" problems with enrollment data make it impossible to determine just how many of the ailing vets with pending applications — which go back nearly 20 years — are still trying to get care.
The VA has said it has no way to purge the list of dead applicants,
The Washington Post reports.
The watchdog report also says VA workers incorrectly marked thousands of unprocessed health-care applications as completed — and could have deleted 10,000 or more electronic "transactions" over the past five years.
The grim report confirms lawmakers' worst fears about a massive backlog that's putting vets' care in deadly jeopardy.
"Every day, the VA sets itself up to fail our veterans," House Speaker
John Boehner charged in a statement Thursday.
"How can the VA take care of veterans when it can't keep track of how many are dying while waiting for care? How can the VA improve patient safety when it isn't looking into medical errors? How can the VA invest in patient care when its spending practices have been described — by a VA official no less — as a 'culture of lawlessness and chaos?'"
The Ohio lawmaker called the VA's problems "systemic, and our veterans are paying for it."
"So we can keep passing reforms but only President [Barack] Obama can change the culture at the VA. And until he does, we will continue to hold him and the VA accountable."
In July, the
Washington Examiner reported GOP lawmakers would would investigate unsubstantiated claims that 239,000 vets died before they ever became eligible for VA benefits.
Scott Davis, a whistleblower and program specialist at the VA enrollment center in Atlanta, tells the Post the report, nevertheless, is "a step in the right direction."
"Reports like these will force the VA to change their culture," he tells the Post. "The VA's past practice of deferring to the same management officials who caused the problem ... is both illogical and insulting to the veteran community."
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Johnny Isakson, (R-GA.) and senior Democrat on the committee, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, said in a
joint statement the report highlights "both a significant failure" by leaders at the Health Eligibility Center and "deficient oversight by the VA central office" in Washington.
As of June 30, VA has contacted 302,045 veterans by mail, asking them to submit required documents to establish eligibility, VA spokeswoman Walinda West said Wednesday.
To date, the agency got back 36,749 responses and enrolled 34,517 veterans, with outreach continuing, West said.
"As we continue our work to contact veterans, our focus remains on improving the enrollment system to better serve veterans," she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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