I think the fact that the VA's Office of
Inspector General found that 16,000 documents were turned in during an
employee "amnesty" at the Detroit Regional Office did the trick.
I hope this signals a renewed interest in
veterans' issues by the media.
-------------------------
Video is from the CBS Evening News with Katie
Couric, Wednesday, March 4, 2009.
CBS Evening News: Missing Files, Unopened Mail,
Deliberately Misdated Forms Revealed By Inspector General
by David Martin
(CBS) All too often, our veterans feel like they're David battling
Goliath, when dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In the latest outrage involving the VA, it turns out thousands of claims
for benefits weren't even opened, reports CBS News correspondent David
Martin.
Jason Scott is one of nearly 350,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who
depend on the VA for health care. When CBS News met him two years ago, he
was already worrying about what would happen after he was discharged from
the army.
"Getting lost in the VA system is definitely a concern," Scott said at the
time.
Those fears may have been justified. The administration recently turned up
16,000 pieces of unopened mail at its Detroit office. Another 132
documents which belonged in veterans' claim files ended up in the shred
bins at four regional offices.
"Had we not discovered this situation," the VA's inspector general wrote,
"some veterans claims may have languished with no action or been
inappropriately denied."
"It is unacceptable to have them lost, to have their dates changed, to
have them shredded. This is not acceptable," said Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz.,
who serves on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
The inspector general reviewed 390 claims submitted to the New York office
and found that 220 of them - more than half - had been deliberately
misdated to make it look like claims were being processed faster than they
really were.
VA workers are overwhelmed by paperwork - 160 million pages a year - and
as a result cut corners or just plain screw up.
"[They told] me my whole file had been lost. They had no idea where it was
so I had to recreate the whole file," says Carol Politz, who had to submit
a second claim on behalf of her late husband, a Vietnam vet.
She was assured that this time it would be handled expeditiously.
"It's a year and I'm still waiting to hear something positive," Politz
says.
And what about Jason Scott? His home is in Florida but his records ended
up in Chicago. When the VA transferred them to Florida, they were lost.
Jason is working on his MBA and says he's just waiting to graduate so "I
can get a job and get real health care."
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posted by Larry Scott Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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