Why don't we have an accountable VA?

2015-07-29T16:16:18-04:00

Five hundred and fourteen days. That’s how long it took to get the emergency department at the Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center in my home state of Kansas reopened after it was closed in 2013 due to a staffing shortage.

Only after numerous phone calls, letters, meetings and more were we able to navigate through the bureaucracy of the Department of Veterans Affairs. For nearly two years, our veterans in Topeka and across Kansas were left without emergency facilities in the face of VA immovability, lacking the care they are owed and deserve.

This is a story told across the country. The VA remains inefficient, unaccountable and completely lacking transparency. One in three veterans seeking VA care have died while waiting, equating to hundreds of thousands of lives.

We promise the brave men and women fighting for our country that if you take care of us, we will take care of you. It’s a unanimous principle nationwide, yet for too many veterans, the sad reality is the VA fails time and again to provide the necessary care.

An unaccountable VA, lost in the bureaucracies of Washington, fails to hold accountable employees who do not perform. Before coming to Congress, I spent 20 years working as a certified public accountant. I knew that if I didn’t do my job well, I could expect consequences. But for too many VA officials, there is no downside to incompetence. Getting the firing process started takes an average of six months to a year — all while veterans continue to suffer the impacts of VA mismanagement.

Read more at ...

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/opinion/2015/07/29/commentary-veterans-deserve-accountable-va/30822629/

Commentary: Veterans deserve an accountable VA

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 29 at 2015 4:18 PM

2015-07-29T16:18:50-04:00

Too many years of a bureaucracy & people getting comfy appointments. Those same appointments doing nothing but appeasing those that appointed them. Too many others in the office that the work can be pushed off on or blamed for when it all goes wrong.

Response by 1SG Joseph Yorski, MHS made Jul 29 at 2015 4:25 PM

2015-07-29T16:25:46-04:00

Start with the unions. AFGE has many supervisors and administrators I know terrified and it's too hard to fire the usually VETERAN employees who need firing. We're our own worst enemies sometimes. There should be NO unions in public service.

Response by PO3 Steven Sherrill made Jul 29 at 2015 4:39 PM

2015-07-29T16:39:50-04:00

GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad it is sad that the solution to short staffing was to just shut down a necessary service. The sad truth is that it seems the VA is getting a desired effect: wait long enough the veterans die and the number problem is solved.
This is a horrible thing for a "grateful nation" to do to those who have answered the call to serve in her military forces. They need to put a group of VETERANS in charge of the VA. Having one person in charge of fixing this disaster is a recipe for disaster in itself. Need to have a board consisting of an odd number so there are no tie votes working together with Veterans to fix this disaster. So the real question is what can we as Veterans do to help get it fixed? Unfortunately, this is such a huge disaster that it may be better to tear out the old system entirely and rebuild it from the ground up. The big problem there is how many more vets have to die before the new system is up an running. With things moving at the speed of government, our grand children will have a better chance of seeing it than anyone now serving. Making it worse is that because of the difficulty involved in actually repairing the VA, they want to slap a band aid on the problem and hope it goes away. This is not going to be a simple fix. The first thing that is needed is exactly what is mentioned in the title ACCOUNTABILITY. Clean house from the top down. If you are not serving your position effectively, you are out. Once the cancer is removed, begin the healing process bring in well vetted people to fill the positions. People who understand that your customers are the brave men and women who have sacrificed for this nation. Change the culture of the VA. Veterans are not a number, they are people. Great people. Set that as your VA culture. Now you have a jumping off point, move forward.

Response by SGT Jeremiah B. made Jul 29 at 2015 4:46 PM

2015-07-29T16:46:10-04:00

Rep. Jenkins nails it. We can blame the unions, but that's looking in the wrong direction. The problem is the Civil Service model. It doesn't work because it makes it too damn difficult to remove bad employees. The new act SHOULD help, but after decades of that system, it'll be a slow boat to turn.

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Jul 29 at 2015 4:46 PM

2015-07-29T16:46:58-04:00

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who is going to make them accountable? The Government. They are the Government. What are they going to do? Slap them with a fine? That's OUR money. Demand answers! What level of accountability could we possibly expect? You cannot blame a single "cog" for a breakdown in a machine, when the machine is built horribly. All you can do is find the section of the machine which currently has the most garbage in it, and hopefully clear it out, and pray other sections don't get gunked up.

Unless we have an "external" organization coming in, and actually slapping the Government, not the VA's hand, and slapping it hard every time one of these problems come to light, then there is no accountability.

How would we do this in the Service? Remove the name VA, and put the name USMC in there, and leave all the problems in place. How would Higher Headquarters react? What would HQMC do? What would Congress or the President do? That's the answer to this problem, but no one wants to accept that answer, because it is too damn simple, pardon my french.

Response by SSgt Alex Robinson made Jul 29 at 2015 4:49 PM

2015-07-29T16:49:51-04:00

There are too many lazy leaders in the VA structure who don't care about those they are charged with serving. It's time to nuke the VA and start over. Perhaps letting vets see their private physicans and having a VA card that covers the cost of services like Medicare might me the way to go.

Response by CW4 Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 29 at 2015 6:15 PM

2015-07-29T18:15:25-04:00

Too many issues to count and too many people to place blame on. The entire VA hierarchy needs a shame up and then some kind of strict monitoring processes need to be in place to keep the system from getting out of hand in the future. Veterans deserve a better program. I hope that when its time for me to retire, that the entire system is better than it is now.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 29 at 2015 6:23 PM

2015-07-29T18:23:16-04:00

Accountability is key. A cush cabinet secretary position that becomes a revolving door with every other scandal that rocks the VA isn't getting it done. If the buck truly stops at the top and if the person currently sitting in that chair is content to subvert the American government through the use of Executive Orders, how about abusing those powers for the greater good? Call a "blue ribbon panel of experts" to determine where the fault(s) lie(s) and let the heads roll by executive decree.

Response by GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad made Jul 29 at 2015 7:13 PM

2015-07-29T19:13:56-04:00

House passes new VA reforms, but veto threat looms ...

House Republicans on Wednesday passed new rules to speed the firing of problematic Veterans Affairs Department employees, despite a veto threat from the White House and objections from Democratic lawmakers.

The measure would shorten the appeals process time for fired or demoted VA employees and put strict limits on how long workers could be put on paid suspensions for infractions.

Supporters call the accountability bill a critical step forward in reforming the VA’s reputation, still battered from accusations of mismanagement, records manipulation and callousness at regional offices.

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2015/07/29/house-new-va-reforms/30845137/

House passes new VA reforms, but veto threat looms

House Republicans on Wednesday passed new rules to speed the firing of problematic Veterans Affairs Department employees, despite a veto threat from the White House and objections from Democratic lawmakers.

Response by Cpl Chris Rice made Jul 29 at 2015 10:24 PM

2015-07-29T22:24:54-04:00

The problem is there is a provider shortage in all avenues. I know that we would like to fire your way out of a waiting list, but if you don't have a MD, NP, or PA to see the person then you can't get through a wait list. If the VA is going to reduce the amount of a wait list that they have their going to need to employ measures to increase The population of providers available to the system. Either they need to work to help individuals want to go to medical school, further their nursing education, or going to a physicians assistant program. Or they need to even consider if there is A way that they can create a new provider that may meet the needs of the VA, consider the way that the Army really pioneered the physicians assistant position.

Response by Sgt Spencer Sikder made Jul 30 at 2015 10:56 AM

2015-07-30T10:56:03-04:00

What I found interesting is that many of the same leaders in VA Central Office are still large and in charge. They have endured enough to help transition the new Deputy Secretary and the new Secretary to their way of thinking.

Many of the comments made herein are on point. While the unions have created some challenges, I didn't find the unions to be at fault. I found the liberal court system has created the frustration for managers and supervisors to fire staff. The courts have set the bar so high that many supervisors and managers don't have enough time in their day to document the problems with each and every employee. It's not enough to say I told the employee to do it, now it's required to show in writing where you instructed the employee and how did you confirm that the employee understood. Just because it's in policy and they initialed the policy as an indication they read the policy, did you as a supervisor test their knowledge to see that they understood the policy? Did you have them demonstrate it, was that in writing. If not, give them a pass and document, document, document and when all else fails, document some more.

Response by PO1 John Miller made Aug 1 at 2015 4:51 AM

2015-08-01T04:51:54-04:00

This isn't just a VA problem, it's government wide!

Response by SMSgt Tony Barnes made Aug 1 at 2015 7:45 PM

2015-08-01T19:45:10-04:00

The VA is better than its ever been...but, its not as good as it is going to get.

Response by SGT Forrest Stewart made Oct 17 at 2015 6:46 AM

2015-10-17T06:46:02-04:00

I truly wish I had the answer.

Response by CPT Pedro Meza made Oct 17 at 2015 12:32 PM

2015-10-17T12:32:56-04:00

The fault falls on us all we elect all the decision makers and then set them free to do as they please, once we get together as a vocal minority and use the press and social media to shame and expose those elected to make them do their job. Also we can expose those administrator that make the decisions.

Response by Sgt Spencer Sikder made Oct 17 at 2015 7:55 PM

2015-10-17T19:55:15-04:00

There are several reasons why they aren't accountable. One stated herein is on point, although not everyone will agree and that is the point made by MSG(P) Joseph Yorski in that many supervisors, managers and administrators are not adequately trained to understand their union's contract. I had no problems with two separate unions in VA and that I attributed to understanding the union contracts. While there were times that the union and I didn't agree, as long as it was within the contract, it was too bad for them. Another is as SGT Jeremiah Brookins points out, the Civil Service System. From it's inception as a "spoils system" to the formation of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform act, designed to stop the cronyism that was going on at the time, Congress and the Courts have shaped the Civil Service System into an unmanageable beast. These two organizations have inundated supervisors/managers with hoops so high, many supervisors and managers just don't take the time. They hope for the employee or themselves to move on into another job. Compounding the problems is throughout our federal system there are very competent Labor Relation Specialist and very incompetent LRS. What seems to get glorified in the news and courts are those incompetent LRS who erroneously guide supervisors and managers in how to deal with problematic employees.

Response by LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow made Oct 18 at 2015 1:00 PM

2015-10-18T13:00:32-04:00

Civil service protections; mass bureaucracy, civilians who don't understand the military, etc etc etc, oh and a CONgress and White House who don't put proper emphasis...

Response by PO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 19 at 2015 7:51 AM

2015-10-19T07:51:02-04:00

... because it had a huge political contribution power to some politician.

People don't realize ... big government program? mean big political contribution.

Response by PO3 Brad Phlipot made Dec 6 at 2015 9:49 PM

2015-12-06T21:49:01-05:00

As I stated I have my Tri Care and Blue Cross but I thought every Veteran was issued a healthcard to seek treatment if none were available in a reasonable amount of time, I have one that came in the mail I just tossed it in the drawer of my desk. Is your Congressman involved? What did the Vets do for 2yrs for health care and prescriptions?

Response by Maj William Mitchell made Apr 11 at 2019 12:35 AM

2019-04-11T00:35:54-04:00

I've been happy with my VA experience. I'd be dead if I didn't advocate for myself when it's been necessary, but I'm still breathing so I can't complain.

Response by SGT Cynthia Douglas Ybarra made May 9 at 2019 9:05 AM

2019-05-09T09:05:19-04:00

The question should read, why dont we have an accountable congress?

Response by SP5 Harold Smith made Jul 5 at 2019 9:57 PM

2019-07-05T21:57:24-04:00

I go to the VA for my health care. I am 74 now and I belong to the Dav here in Louisville.

Response by CW4 Craig Urban made Jul 5 at 2019 10:15 PM

2019-07-05T22:15:16-04:00

Because the va sucks

Response by SSgt Dean Santiago made May 10 at 2020 3:30 AM

2020-05-10T03:30:42-04:00

Now that is tragic to read. Lord have Mercy on those who gave the best years of their life and health in Uniform, and prized later on in
poison and left to rot on their own
without appropriate medical attention. Shame on you VA