Researched and Written and Revised by Philip Fusco
The department of the VA made an accounted plan this week to fix a pending backlog of veterans who had their applications for health care in but were never enrolled because of issues at the office in Atlanta
Scott Davis who is a one of the exposers of this problem of the more than 800,000 application problem in a series of stories in the Atlanta Journal Constitution in 2014 says this is more of a public relations effort by the VA and not a permanent solution
Some of the veterans in this immense backlog are still now aware of the issue, “said Scott Davis, a programs specialist in the NHECA. The VA has chosen not to make the necessary modifications as of now in the enrollment system that continues to place veterans in the backlog. “Senior VA officials pushed untrue and misleading information to veterans, the public and Congress to blunt a potential scandal involving a backlog of hundreds of thousands of applications for access to VA health care, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation has found”.
VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson said in an announcement on Monday that the agency would extend the healthcare enrollment period for veterans in the pending backlog for another year. VA will contact veterans on the list to see if they still want to enroll.
He said in the press release the move was an important step to restore veterans’ trust.
“Fixing the veterans enrollment system is a top priority for VA,” Gibson said.
Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, questioned why it took so long for VA to acknowledge the problem and doing something to fix it.
“While I’m glad VA is finally doing something to address this problem, I’m baffled as to why it took the department so long to acknowledge it,” Miller said. “Whistleblowers have been complaining about this issue and others at the department’s Health Eligibility Center for years.”
Davis first spoke out in June 2014 in an article in the AJC that resulted in his testimony before Congress regarding a host of problems at the national enrollment office in Atlanta. That led to a Congressional inquiry into the pending backlog and an inspector general’s report last September that confirmed the problems highlighted by the AJC’s investigation.
source: This is a link to investigations.blog.ajc.com/2016/03/08/will-new-plan-fix-national-va-backlog-caused-by-atlanta-office/ http://www.myajc.com/news/news/va-misled-public-vets-on-health-care-backlog/nhj2s/ This is a link to www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/includes/viewPDF.cfm?id=2757