While the falsification of wait times in the VA healthcare system appears to have just gotten out this year, officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs are apparently already aware of the issue long beforehand.
Records revealed that VA officials are already aware for quite a while that VA employees manipulate data on appointment wait times but did nothing despite receiving a directive that prohibit gaming the system.
Former Phoenix VA Health Care System administrator Sharon Helman and other top officials at the Phoenix VA Health Care System said they only learned about the scheduling misconduct after Sam Foote, the whistle-blower physician who revealed about the data manipulation that happened in Phoenix VA Health Care system, made his allegations public in April.
The newly obtained records, however, suggest otherwise. In 2012, a VA Southwest Health Care Network audit shows that VA facilities in New Mexico, Western Texas and Arizona employed several tactics to falsify patient wait times, a violation of department policy which has nonetheless allowed employees to earn bonus for meeting performance goals of reducing delay in the provision of patient care. It also shows that the violations is prevalent nationwide as well.
Helman apparently knew of the problem when she took her post in February 2012, which was a mere one month after the issuance of the 2012 audit that outlined the problem and noted that former VA Undersecretary Robert Petzel told leaders of Health Administration Services in September 2011 to tackle the issue and prohibited the department executives against gaming the system.
A year before that, William Schoenhard, who was then the VA deputy undersecretary, has likewise discussed about and prohibited the gaming strategies employed nationwide to manipulate the waiting time data directing the top regional administrators to safeguard the integrity of the appointment system and requiring annual reviews.
Rep. Jeff Miller, who leads congressional investigations as the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs chairman, said that the revelations show proof that VA leaders did nothing while bureaucrats lied and put the health of the veterans at risk.
"Those charged with enforcing VA policies and holding employees accountable for gaming the system never even lifted a finger to do so," Miller said. "The only way for Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson to rid the department of this widespread corruption is to pull it out by the roots, and he needs to begin that process right now."
