From Military.com:
“Abandoned More Than 200,000
Incomplete Vets' Health Care Applications “
A well-known whistleblower at the
Department of Veterans Affairs is charging that the agency has purged thousands
of veterans' pending health care applications, leaving them without the
benefits they have earned. Scott Davis, a VA employee who testified before
Congress in 2015 on problems at the VA Health Eligibility Center in Atlanta,
wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Examiner in May that the department has
deleted more than 200,000 incomplete applications after failing to help resolve
them. Davis said the VA has not sufficiently notified affected veterans on the
status of their applications. He also said it has not been proactive in
obtaining accurate contact information for the veterans through the Internal
Revenue Service or Social Security Administration. "Instead, the agency
has chosen a policy of sending a single notification letter for pending
applications, despite knowing that 25% of the letters mailed to veterans are
returned or placed on hold due to bad address information in the enrollment
system," Davis wrote. The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) reported
Monday that the VA has abandoned 208,272 applications from veterans for health
care services, saying they were missing required data and information and were
a year old or more. By law, according to the VA, the department must deem
incomplete applications as "closed or abandoned" after one year. The
VA notifies patients of their incomplete status by mail and then, when it
closes an application, sends them a follow-up letter to reapply. But Davis said
the department should initiate an outreach campaign to reach affected veterans before
closing the application. In 2015, Davis revealed that the VA's Health
Eligibility Center had a backlog of nearly 800,000 health care applications,
including 245,000 from veterans who were deceased, having died after filing an
application and before receiving a response. Following an uproar from veterans
advocates and members of Congress, the VA said it would notify veterans of
their incomplete applications and extend the enrollment application for a year.
After a year, the files are to be closed. According to AJC, the backlog of
pending applications was 317,157 in April, down from 886,045 last year. Davis
said, with the current backlog, veterans are denied access to health care
benefits at a "rate of 5,000 new pending health care applications per month."
"This purge flies in the face of the previous guidance provided by
lawmakers. On March 3, 2017, Senate and House Veterans Affairs committee
members sent a joint letter to the VA, instructing the agency to delay its
plans to purge these records. The committees wanted the VA to send new letters
to veterans, informing them of their application status," Davis said. In a
rebuttal to Davis's op-ed, VA officials said the VA Office of Inspector General
reviewed the letters and confirmed that the department sent correct
correspondence to veterans. The department also "regularly reaches out to
veterans both via letter and by phone call. This fiscal year alone, VA has made
over 200,000 call attempts to veterans with pending applications," a VA
official told Military.com. "VA does not rely on a single notification
letter to veterans. VA issues multiple letters and attempts to contact each
veteran up to six times through a combination of letters and phone," the
VA official said in a statement. VA officials took issue with Davis' use of the
word "purged." They also said veterans have not been denied benefits.
"VA has not 'purged' any applications. VA will continue closing incomplete
applications in accordance with the law," the official stated. "VA
encourages veterans to contact the Health Eligibility Center for assistance in
completing their enrollment in VA." Veterans also can go online at VA.gov,
inquire in person at a VA medical center or call 1-877-222-8387 to ask about
health care benefits and enrollment.
^ The VA continues to abuse the
American soldier and both the Federal Government and the American people seem
to do little to nothing to stop it. They just shrug their shoulders and move on
to other things. ^
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