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UPDATE: VA HAS A LONG HISTORY OF LOSING
PAPERWORK
-- Registered mail? A VA worker signed and it
vanished.
Fax? VA claimed it never arrived. Regular mail?
Don't even ask.
MJ and David Chini show copies of
medical records which they keep because the VA has lost them on
numerous occasions. (photo: JAMES BORCHUCK | Times) |
All stories regarding the VA's shredder and
document handling scandal can be found on this page... click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/VAshredderscandal.htm
For more articles by reporter William Levesque,
use the VA Watchdog search engine... click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessear
ch.php?q=levesque&op=and
Today's story here...
http://www.tampabay
.com/news/military/veterans/article920468.ece
Story below:
Your comments accepted at bottom of
page.
-------------------------
VA has history of lost records
By William R. Levesque
Times staff writer
Air Force veteran David Chini has lost track of all the times the
Department of Veterans Affairs lost records he sent to it.
Registered mail? A VA worker signed, and the paperwork vanished. By fax?
Chini, 69, of St. Petersburg said the VA claimed it never arrived. Regular
mail? Don't even ask.
And if something doesn't arrive, the agency threatens to discontinue his
medical benefits because Chini isn't sending the papers it needs.
"It's just totally demoralizing," he said.
Recent revelations that workers in 41 of 57 VA regional benefits offices,
including St. Petersburg, improperly set aside hundreds of claims records
for shredding came as no surprise to veterans.
The VA, critics say, has long operated in a veritable culture of lost
paper and was losing records many years before this latest scandal. Lost
paperwork sometimes leads to delayed, denied or abandoned claims for
medical or financial assistance.
 And
it leaves some questioning if workers lose it deliberately to ease
workloads. At least two VA employees outside Florida are being
investigated for just that.
"I remain angry that a culture of dishonesty has led to an increased
mistrust of the VA within the veteran community," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif.,
chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.
The VA notes it is the most paper-intensive federal bureaucracy, sifting
through 162-million pages of claims documents a year.
And while the VA hopes to have largely paperless claims filing by 2012,
the size of the agency makes computerization a challenge.
"Until we get out of the paper business, lost documents are something
we're going to have to contend with," said Mike Walcoff, the VA's deputy
undersecretary for benefits in Washington.
Walcoff said it is unfair to criticize thousands of dedicated VA employees
for the failures of a small minority, and said the VA is working hard to
improve its performance.
Others remain skeptical, and question why it has taken so long for the
agency to move toward digitized records.
"It's ludicrous that we have the most highly technologically advanced army
in the history of the world and still come back home to an antiquated
system that is all on paper," said Rick Weidman, director of governmental
relations at Vietnam Veterans of America.
Take a look at one measure of the problem: the Board of Veterans Appeals
in Washington, where veterans appeal the denial of claims.
Searching an online database of appeals decisions for "destroyed records"
reveals 20,000 cases where those words appear. "Missing files" locates
33,000 cases.
Disappearing files
Through VA history, confidential claims papers have been found in some odd
places: above ceiling tiles, inside closets, in curbside trash at a VA
lawyer's home, and in one case at the bottom of an elevator shaft.
"It's a corporate culture of disappearing records," Weidman said. "It's
just generally a disdain for the individual veteran that needs to be
changed."
But Weidman applauds the VA for moving quickly to suspend shredding
nationally after discovering the latest problem and then implementing new
policies.
Now it will take the approval of three VA employees before any document is
shredded. Records czars are being appointed in all 57 regional offices.
The agency also said it has reminded employees that claims records can't
be stowed in unauthorized areas. Workers who do so can be fired.
And the VA has announced a temporary policy (see accompanying box)
allowing, in some cases, veterans to refile crucial paperwork if they
think the VA lost it.
"We're taking the steps that we need to do to get the trust of the veteran
community again," Walcoff said.
He said moving to digital records too quickly would only lead to more
problems, though Walcoff noted that much of VA operations are already
computerized.
But the VA wants to integrate all its activities in five separate business
lines, including insurance, loan programs and medical, an enormously
complicated process. That takes time, Walcoff said.
Filner remains wary about any proposed fixes.
"We have heard promises from the VA before," he said after a Nov. 19
meeting in Washington on shredding with members of his committee, the VA
and veteran advocates.
Filner was particularly displeased that he and other members of the
veterans committee found out about the shredding problem in news reports,
not from the VA.
"The way to build confidence is to tell people about it before it appears
in the paper," Filner said.
Many critics point to one thing as the biggest incentive for workers to
"lose" records: incentive bonuses to quickly resolve claims and improve
their numbers.
The VA's Walcoff denied that the agency believes there is any link between
bonuses and misplaced paperwork.
Weidman at Vietnam Veterans of America said the VA needs to enforce
employee accountability and offer better training and competency tests for
anyone deciding a claim.
“Unless the VA changes how it measures work, we will be back here again in
eight years doing the same thing," said Ron Abrams, joint executive
director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program.
William R. Levesque can be reached at
levesque@sptimes.com or
(813) 269-5306.
fast facts
VA lost papers?
A new VA policy allows some veterans whose documents are lost to resubmit
paperwork. If a veteran says he sent a document for a disability or
pension claim to the VA between April 14, 2007, and this Oct. 14 but it
was lost, he can submit it a second time without fear of missing any
deadline. The VA said it will give veterans the benefit of the doubt, and
none will have to prove he actually sent the document during that time
frame. And nobody has to prove that the VA is responsible for the loss.
Veterans have until Nov. 17 next year to resubmit lost paperwork.
For veterans who believe documents are missing that were sent to the VA
before April 14, 2007, the veteran will have to provide "credible
corroborating evidence" he sent the paperwork.
Call the VA at 1-800-827-1000 if you have any questions about this policy
or to learn more about claims processing.
-------------------------
posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
-------------------------
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