"Reverse incentives of VA health care made fixing the numbers easier than fixing the system" PBS NewsHour 6/9/2014
Excerpt
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): The Veterans Affairs Department today released a new audit documenting widespread delayed patient care.
It’s based on a nationwide review of 731 of its hospitals and outpatient clinics. According to the internal report, 57,000 veterans have been waiting 90 days or more for their first medical appointment; 64,000 others appear to have fallen through the cracks, after enrolling with the agency and requesting medical care.
And in another major finding, 13 percent of schedulers said their supervisors had asked them to falsify appointment schedules to make the wait times appear shorter. The audit also found that a 14-day target for scheduling appointments wasn’t attainable.
Joining me to discuss the report are Dr. Sam Foote, whose complaints about wait times and bookkeeping in Phoenix led to an investigation in that area’s VA system. He was a VA doctor for 24 years. And Ralph Ibson, national policy director of the Wounded Warrior Project, which provides services to veterans. He previously served as the VA’s deputy assistant general counsel.
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