Audit: More than 57,000 await first VA appointment

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

More than 57,000 U.S. military veterans have been waiting 90 days or more for their first VA medical appointments, and an additional 64,000 appear to have fallen through the cracks, never getting appointments after enrolling, the government said Monday in a report newly demonstrating how deep and widespread the problem is.

It’s not just a backlog issue, the wide-ranging Veterans Affairs review indicated. Thirteen percent of schedulers in the facility-by-facility report on 731 hospitals and outpatient clinics reported being told by supervisors to falsify appointment schedules to make patient waits appear shorter.

The audit is the first nationwide look at the VA network in the uproar that began with reports two months ago of patients dying while awaiting appointments and of cover-ups at the Phoenix VA center. A preliminary review last month found that long patient waits and falsified records were “systemic” throughout the VA medical network, the nation’s largest single health care provider serving nearly 9 million veterans.

“This behavior runs counter to our core values,” the report said. “The overarching environment and culture which allowed this state of practice to take root must be confronted head-on.”

Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said Monday that VA officials have contacted 50,000 veterans across the country to get them off waiting lists and into clinics and are in the process of contacting 40,000 more.

The controversy forced VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign May 30. Shinseki took the blame for what he decried as a “lack of integrity” through the network. Legislation is being written in both the House and Senate to allow more veterans who can’t get timely VA appointments to see doctors listed as providers under Medicare or the military’s TRICARE program. The proposals also would make it easier to fire senior VA regional officials and hospital administrators.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the report demonstrated that Congress must act immediately.

“The fact that more than 57,000 veterans are still waiting for their first doctor appointment from the VA is a national disgrace,” Boehner said.

In Ohio, audit findings show that the medical centers in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chillicothe and Dayton scheduled all but 2 percent of their patient appointments within 30 days, but the average wait time for new enrollees ranged from more than 25 days to nearly 53 days at some of the facilities.

The Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Center in Columbus scheduled 94 percent, or more than 34,000 of nearly 37,000 appointments within 30 days.

But the average wait for new enrollees there was nearly 36 days with more than 1,700 waiting between 31 and 60 days and nearly 300 waiting between 61 and 90 days.