Posted on Jan 13, 2016
VA chips away at health care applications — eligibility backlog still above 500K
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Veterans Affairs officials say they are chipping away at a backlog of applications for health care, following an inspector general's report in September that found 300,000 veterans on the eligibility waiting list were dead.
VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson said Wednesday that VA has implemented a plan to improve its health care application system, starting with a review of more than 560,000 pending requests — from the living — including 30,000 from combat veterans who should have automatically qualified but wound up in the system because they didn’t submit income information that was not actually required.
VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson said Wednesday that VA has implemented a plan to improve its health care application system, starting with a review of more than 560,000 pending requests — from the living — including 30,000 from combat veterans who should have automatically qualified but wound up in the system because they didn’t submit income information that was not actually required.
VA chips away at health care applications — eligibility backlog still above 500K
Posted from armytimes.comPosted in these groups: 
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 2
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I understand this is a daunting task, but how many "improvements" can we get that lead to nowhere fast. The numbers aren't going down at the rate these "improvements" are going in? If this was a company in the Army, the CO and 1SG would've been relieved 15x's over. It would've gone up the chain and all of them would've been relieved for cause too. So how is it that an Academy grad, a vet himself, and having the knowledge of running one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world cannot turn VA around? I know a good chunk of it if politics, and regulations made decades ago to help government workers now coming to roost where you want to get rid of them, they take you to court, get their job back, and the VA looses no matter what. You have a congress who has some oversight, but isn't interested being this is a election year, and they have other priorities, like, doing nothing at all. You have a President who put this leader in place, so there's not much more he can do but make demands and listen to more excuses. He cannot fire the man if he's making a honest effort, but regulations and back alley friendships are making him and the President look like fools. So what do we have in the end? Nothing. What will a new President bring in? Nothing. He or She WILL fire the incumbent secretary, and bring in their own "guru" who will promise us the world, in 90 days. Three years into the next Presidency, you will see the same worn look by the next President that the current one has. You will see that the claims process on paper looks like it's flying by compared to what no one knows. But in the end, a constant will remain: There will be a backlog. VA will still continue to downgrade percentages on injuries that are blatantly obvious, continue to be a system where it's adversarial vs. friendly, little to no accountability, and those pesky laws and regulations will continue to dog the next President and the one after that.
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SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
SSG Warren Swan that is how I see it too, you broke it down in its simplest terms. I propose a new innovative new re-haul of the VA system with mandatory checks and balances within the executive, legislative and judicial branches for accountability and responsibility. It is a never ending task for justice for the Veteran and their families.
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SSG Warren Swan
SGT Sean Wike - Bur Caesar didn't have union rules, government regulations and a corps of lawyers paid by the union to tell him he couldn't. Caesar was the union, the lawyer and the government wrapped in one. And with many of the SES folks having been in these positions longer than we've been at war, they know quite a few of the minuscule rules that will keep them at the helm....if not real close to it. We still haven't fired ONE person in the VA health system. We demoted them, but they came back, we fired another, she came back after going to court, so the true Teflon Don's are in the senior GS/SES levels. You had the guy who beat a patient, and another who was reported for looking at porn...both have jobs in VA still. It would take a concerted effort of the three branches of government to include state governments to really rein this in. Federal rules may protect them from above, but the state rules on beating someone or causing the death of another, would be the power behind the it all. Hit em with both, at the same time, and see how far they think the can take it.
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Unfortunately this is not surprising SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
When I met with a patient advocate at the VAMC in martinsburg, WV he explained the process of appeals to the VA VBA process. The court was able to handle 60,000 cases a year. He advised me to wait at least a year to reapply for any condition unless it became serious enough to require treatment - almost an emergency.
It would be great if the VBA process was more efficient and responsive. That is a tall enough order.
Expanding the VA court to include another court could reduce the backlog but it would require synchronization of judgements and caseloads.
When I met with a patient advocate at the VAMC in martinsburg, WV he explained the process of appeals to the VA VBA process. The court was able to handle 60,000 cases a year. He advised me to wait at least a year to reapply for any condition unless it became serious enough to require treatment - almost an emergency.
It would be great if the VBA process was more efficient and responsive. That is a tall enough order.
Expanding the VA court to include another court could reduce the backlog but it would require synchronization of judgements and caseloads.
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SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
LTC Stephen F. wow, I kntrack ow you can your appeals on eBeneftsi, maybe this will help speed the process up.
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