The Phoenix VA, you'd receive better care in the warzone

[Team Sergeant]

This is what you have to look forward to when you ETS or retire from the military. I have written the VA Inspector General's Office (OIG) with no response. I've written Senator McCain and when that letter reached his office I had an appointment that day.

Hurt or wounded in the military, no one really gives a shit except you, the doctors and nurses at the VA and your family.

The VA staff and federal gov, doesn't give a shit. And the VA Inspector General's Office (OIG) is a joke.








Veterans Affairs whistle-blower faces punishment for revealing alleged harasser, email shows

By Tori Richards
·Published April 10, 2017
· FoxNews.com

An employee at the embattled Veterans Affairs hospital in Arizona is facing a punishment ranging from “reprimand to removal,” Fox News has learned, for publicly revealing the name of a colleague he claims harassed him after the whistle-blower exposed exceedingly long wait times for patients at the Phoenix facility.


In a letter dated March 30, the VA accused scheduling manager Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez of violating “privacy standards you are expected to enforce [and] breaching your responsibilities as a supervisor,” by sending the media a copy of an email he wrote to the hospital director that detailed alleged harassment and included the name of a colleague as one of the top offenders.

The VA claims divulging the name of a fellow employee violates its policy prohibiting release of “Sensitive Personal Information” (SPI) without permission. This includes “education, financial transactions, medical history, criminal or employment history, and information that can be used to distinguish or trace the individual’s identity.”

Rodriguez acknowledged his email named an assistant as someone who had criticized him in front of veterans and others -- but said he didn't disclose any personal information.

“Just reporting someone's name shouldn't be secret -- we are government employees,” Rodriguez told Fox News. “They are trying to twist anything they can to punish me.”

The Phoenix VA hospital was the epicenter of allegations ranging from lax care to misconduct in 2014 when a scheduling clerk became the first whistle-blower to disclose that a secret appointment wait list existed and dozens of would-be patients had died.

In a report released in October 2016, the VA Inspector General's Office (OIG) found that 215 deceased patients had open appointments at the Phoenix facility on the day they died.

Rodriguez complained to the VA inspector general last November that 90 veterans still were waiting more than 400 days for care and five had died without seeing a doctor. In February, he filed another complaint alleging more than 4,000 veterans had their appointments inexplicably canceled by the Phoenix VA after they already had waited more than 180 days, documents show.


cont:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...ail-shows.html

[Sohei]

The current VA needs to be abolished and started from scratch. The entire system has become corrupted and rotten. There is way too much bureaucracy involved to fix the mess we have now.

[Divemaster]

Start draining the swamp right here.

[The Reaper]

Socialized medicine and a union-protected staff who couldn't care less about veterans.

Welcome, America.

TR

[bblhead672]

Makes me sick that the government, especially the agency who is tasked to care for vets, has such disregard for the health and well being of the people they are paid to take care of. Such bullshit.

[frostfire]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

union-protected staff

don't have to look as far as VA for that. I don't know about other medcen, but the union at Womack is notorious for many progress-impeding bureaucracies

[rsdengler]

The VA and our Government are there to help our veterans, and our military. It is sickening to think that the task that they were given to uphold is basically ignored, and swept to the side. We need to clean them out, hold them accountable, and start kicking some Political Ass.

[bblhead672]

Originally Posted by rsdengler

The VA and our Government are there to help our veterans, and our military. It is sickening to think that the task that they were given to uphold is basically ignored, and swept to the side. We need to clean them out, hold them accountable, and start kicking some Political Ass.

Hang em high until care improves!

[Box]

Originally Posted by rsdengler

The VA and our Government are there to help our veterans, and our military.

I wish I had faith in that statement.

I would say that the VA does NOT exist to "help" our veterans. That government bureaucracy exists to administer a program in the best interest of the government - not necessarily the veteran.

I think it is more like an insurance company - they want you to BELIEVE that they are there for you. They want you to believe that they have a claims adjuster on strip alert with a blank check waiting to put money in your bank account.
Right up until that point when you file a claim - then they tell you "thats not covered"
...it isnt part of your plan

The VA is the same way except they tell you "thats not service related"
...it wasn't in your medical record

The VA doesnt give two Indonesian Rupiahs about veterans.

[rsdengler]

Originally Posted by Billy L-bach

I wish I had faith in that statement.

I would say that the VA does NOT exist to "help" our veterans. That government bureaucracy exists to administer a program in the best interest of the government - not necessarily the veteran.

I think it is more like an insurance company - they want you to BELIEVE that they are there for you. They want you to believe that they have a claims adjuster on strip alert with a blank check waiting to put money in your bank account.
Right up until that point when you file a claim - then they tell you "thats not covered"
...it isnt part of your plan

The VA is the same way except they tell you "thats not service related"
...it wasn't in your medical record

The VA doesnt give two Indonesian Rupiahs about veterans.

I think you are correct in your statement, regular Insurance Companies are the same way. They care only about themselves, they approve nothing, they think your claim is "not necessary" and you end up paying the majority of everything. It gets to the point that it feels like a scam, and when you finally get to talk to a "real" person after all the BS telephone prompts; you actually feel happy when you ream them a new one. Except you realize it does not help in the end, and you now have a freaking ice pick to the brain headache....

[MR2]

Guillotine worthy they are.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

Here is a crazy fuckin idea. Shut down VA clinics hospitals etc and let people go to a private MD or hospital and VA pays for it. They do that now with some folks not sure the criteria but why not everyone?

That works, except that there are limited number of 'civilian' spinal cord injury/disease centers in the country staffed, trained and equipped to handle patients with those problems. Most private hospitals lack the staff and expertise to handle the issues that often accompany SCI/D. The DOD has a very large percentage of that patient demographic in the US, and they're spread all over the country, so most states have a VA SCI/D center or one is relatively close by. Farming those patients out to private care could become problematic.

[PRB]

Question...most guys here are retired SF types...I've never been to the VA, not once...I use my Tricare for life with the same Dr. I've seen for some years now....you guys use the VA?

I'm not here to defend the VA in any form but does the VA not spend most of it's time/resources working outside of its original charter?
Locally, guys that spent a few years in service use it for lifetime support....and dental too. These are not service related issues in the most part. They simply believe the VA owes them lifetime medical support for their one tour.

I suspect if the VA operated by it's initial charter these things could be fixed.

Service related injury.

Retiree's.

[Divemaster]

We still use Tricare.

Originally Posted by PRB

Question...most guys here are retired SF types...I've never been to the VA, not once...I use my Tricare for life with the same Dr. I've seen for some years now....you guys use the VA?

I'm not here to defend the VA in any form but does the VA not spend most of it's time/resources working outside of its original charter?
Locally, guys that spent a few years in service use it for lifetime support....and dental too. These are not service related issues in the most part. They simply believe the VA owes them lifetime medical support for their one tour.

I suspect if the VA operated by it's initial charter these things could be fixed.

Service related injury.

Retiree's.

[Team Sergeant]

CSM,
I didn't use the VA for the first twelve years of my retirement, I used my ex's health plan. After I got divorced I had no plan except Tricare. So for the last few years I've used the VA and for the most part have been happy. That happiness ended recently (last 2 years) when I tried to book an appointment and had a civilian female appointments supervisor "lie" about contacting me about my request to make an appointment. This piece of shit (and tomorrow I will post her name) lied to me and her VA bosses about contacting me multiple times. I will post a copy of the letter she sent me on a couple of occasions stating she tried to contact me to make a VA appointment.

See funny thing is, I have only one phone number and if she or her office tried to contact me my phone would have had a record. She never called, not once. And the letter I wrote to the VA OIG and Senator (fuck it) McCain I told them the same thing I'm writing here. There's no records of the VA EVER trying to call me to schedule an appointment. And I'd be happy for the VA OIG to have a look at my phone records, you know the ones that would show no one at the VA ever called me to schedule an appointment.

This is what you lads on active duty have to look forward to..... a federal system that doesn't give a shit about you. (the doctors and nurses excluded for the most part)

The care you were promised is a half truth.

Would I serve again knowing this, no. Would I enlist now, no. We have a really screwed up system and have hired a bunch of union assholes that serve as staff in our VA's. This is your country and it needs fixing.

I'm pretty much done with the VA, I'll go to see them again like I did in Special Forces, when I'm broken or bleeding. Otherwise fuck it.