Shameful VA Failure

Congress Rips ‘Shameful’ VA For Deliberate Cover-up Of Bad Doctors

Congress blasted VA for its “shameful” and “astonishing” cover-up to hide bad doctors clinicians from the public and veterans.

At the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, members unleashed on VA leadership of “breathtaking” mismanagement to protect their own “butts.” The House hearing focused on newly confirmed reports that VA engaged in a deliberate cover-up of bad doctors and clinicians by failing to report these supposed professionals to a national database intended to protect the public.

For the past few years, we exposed VA’s repeated failures to protect veterans from unqualified or bad medical providers while also failing to report those wrongdoers to the respective ethics boards.

Last month, Reporter Donovan Slack at USA Today has worked on an in-depth analysis of this problem leading to her report that VA failed to notify national reporting authorities of wrongdoing.

GAO Report On Failed Reporting Of Bad Doctors And Other Clinicians

GAO then investigated the matter and confirmed VA failed its duty to report these bad doctors and clinicians. The resulting GAO report showed 90% of clinicians that should have been reported for wrongdoing were not reported. Investigators also revealed the agency failed to keep adequate records of investigations and that the practice put veterans lives at risk.

RELATED: VA Confused About Mandatory Bad Doctor Reporting

House Committee Shames VA For Cover-up

House VA Committee Chairman Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., called it “astonishing,” Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said it was “shameful,” and Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, accused them of engaging in a deliberate cover-up to conceal bad medical care provided to veterans.

“I think you’re protecting your butts; That’s what I think’s happening,” Poliquin said while grilling VA officials at a VA oversight committee hearing. “This mismanagement is breathtaking.”

RELATED: Dirty Surgical Equipment At VA Medical Center

What GAO Said About Bad Doctor Reporting

In an excerpt from the GAO report, VA was supposed to conduct a variety of assessments when allegations were properly raised, but not only was the agency not reporting its findings, but it was often not assessing the allegations properly:

Once a concern about a provider’s clinical care is identified, VHA policy and guidance establish processes for VAMC officials to use to review the concern and determine whether an action should be taken against the provider’s clinical privileges. VHA policy states that if allowing a provider under review to continue delivering patient care could result in imminent danger to veterans, VAMC officials should remove the provider from delivering patient care through a summary suspension of privileges. VAMC officials have flexibility to determine the most appropriate process to use to review a provider’s clinical care depending on the specific concerns and the situation. 

VA Proposes Fixes It Probably Won’t See Through

After the grilling, VA discussed “three major steps” the agency is taking to make improvements. These steps include:

  • Increasing oversight of hospitals responsible for reporting;
  • Ensuring the reports are made quickly; and,
  • Expanding the types of clinicians reported.

And if you believe these fixes will really have an impact, kind of like the accountability laws the agency previously flouted, I have some oceanfront property in Minnesota I’d like to sell you for a very special price, my friend.

Interested?

RELATED: Veterans Choice Overbilled By Tens Of Millions

What Else VA Needs To Do

While VA keeps Congress chasing its tail, something Congress seems more than happy to do these days, veterans lives are at risk by VA’s consistent failure to provide effective and safe health care in a timely manner to veterans in need.

These problems of accountability have persisted for decades.

RELATED: Veterans Commits Suicide By Fire

Do we think any heads will roll due to this failure to report bad doctors and bad nurses? According to my Magic 8 Ball, the outcome does not look good.

Presently, the Secretary is inching toward all-out privatization of Veterans Health Administration by usurping the agency with Tricare, inch by inch.

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61 Comments

  1. dr linda borgtuno at the viera va clinic,told me i had full blown diabetes,and would be dead in five days if i didnt take insulin. i asked to see me med records and she said no,thier private. so i snatched the paperwork out of her hand,shesaid UH OH! and ran out of the exam room, and i was left holding two blank sheets of paper. this quack tried to kill me! then theres dr ricardo pena,same va clinic.
    i had a stroke in 2010, dr pena put me on bloodpressure meds,then stopped them 30days later because i didnt drive over two hours to a va hospital. he let a infection go on my leg for a year without treatment. he told me to wash it with water and put a bandaid on it. the skin had started to necotize. dr pena wouldnt take a bacterial culture.ha said the va dosent do that. so i went to a dr outside the va,and he put me on antibiotics for four years to get the i fection down to a managable sixe,them i hadwhat was left surgicly removed. the va shrink, dr de castro took me off the antidepresents because they were making me suicidal. ive begged for counseling but was always denied. when i had the stroke i fell and injured my back. i went to a localer and they told me to go to the va. so i drove across the state of fl, to james haley er. dr dennis kim said, i have goodnews and bad. bad news is you have a rotten back,good news is ill give you all the pain pills you can handle for the rest of your life. when i told him i wouldnt become a va junkie,he told me to get the fuck out of his er. went back days later the next quack i saw falsified my med records. procedures that were never done. i have reported them to oig, and trumps hotline. my guess is,like everything else washington does,nothing ill happen to these criminals.

  2. yet nothing of significance is being done and Congress is the only agency that could do something

  3. Why won’t our so called leaders in Congress and the White House fix this duscusting and corrupt Veterans Administration?? They pay us lip service and it just keeps on getting worse with little happening… I have been disabled for years from the military and they keep promising me a hearing for my illnesses they caused as years have gone by?? Delay, deny, until you die!!

  4. Has anybody gotten one of the Opps we fucked up letters from the Army or the Navy for their use of Personal for testing the Dengue Vaccine?

    Guess the Vaccine only prevents Dengue Fever if you have had Dengue Fever prior to getting the shot and have built up a natural immunity to the disease. If you have not had Dengue Fever and were given the Vaccine. Not only does it make it more likely that you will be infected but it will also make the disease even more sever.

    Military’s Dengue Vaccine Candidate in Phase I Human Testing
    Department of Defense (DoD) | June 2012 | News
    “https://www.usmedicine.com/agencies/department-of-defense-dod/militarys-dengue-vaccine-candidate-in-phase-i-human-testing/”

    Sanofi updates information on dengue vaccine
    “November 29, 2017”
    “https://mediaroom.sanofi.com/sanofi-updates-information-on-dengue-vaccine/”

    1. Some things being twited by the medical community about it>

      Susan Pineda Mercado
      “This is the biggest government funded clinical-trial-masked-as-a-public-health-program scam of an experimental drug in the history of the DOH. And it cost the Philippines P3 B for the vaccines and so much more now for the risks, anxiety and even lives that are now endangered. This was reckless and irresponsible from the start and the public was deceived into thinking this vaccine would protect children from dengue.”

      Antonio Dans
      ” Our heart bleeds for more than 600,000 Filipino children who received dengue vaccine without assessment for prior infection.

      Sanofi, WHO, DOH – what happens to them now???”

      1. It appears that the twits don’t realize just how broken the system is and their were hundreds of thousands of Veterans given the Vaccine also.

        To Bad the Military was more focused on getting approval for the new Vaccine instead of truly seeing if it was safe.

    1. We are listening Ryan, please go on. But if you are a VA troll going to blow smoke up our butts don’t.

  5. “CONGRESS BLASTS VA”….. this falls on deaf ears….clearly congress has no authority of VA… just a way for congress people to look busy….ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS!

  6. Hey Congressional Veteran Committee Critters: “The shitter’s full”- ‘Christmas Vacation”.

  7. I really think that the VA healthcare should be disbanded and we receive Tricare or some variant of Medicare.

    The VA cannot staff the positions they have. Many, not all, employees could give hoot about us.

    There is no oversight and no accountability or repercussions for terrible, dangerous behavior.

  8. HR632 THE MARK TAKAI ATOMIC VETERANS HEALTHCARE PARITY ACT.
    Only 121 of 435 cosponsors.
    Google: RUNIT DOME /CACTUS CRATER MARSHALL ISLANDS. ENEWETAK ATOLL RADIATION CLEAN-UP VETERANS OF 1977-1980.

  9. Congress calls it “shameful”.
    I call it “betrayal”.

    Who is Congress? They are the folks duty bound to serve will of The People.
    Who am I? The People.

    To the servants of me; please get the words right assholes and then fucking do something about it besides calling names.

  10. veterans need to organized a armed militia like Columbia military guerilla fighters it sounds like.just start taking homeless vets in as guerilla fighters in the us. create half a million dollar compound welcome them with boots weapons and armor vehicles start training them for a revolution. fuck lets go back to boot camp am down.

  11. Hurry up & Wait while the VA takes a full year to start to report ‘bad’ doctors per the report @ “https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/688378.pdf” & while you wait get you new ID card @ “https://www.vets.gov/?next=%2Fveteran-id-card%2F” & wait 60 days for that card.

  12. Congress blasted VA? They were “astonished”? Like their “reaction” should surprise any of us. It’s amazing how many that ride the Trump train think that by POTUS signing an executive order corrected all of fucking VA shortcomings. Maybe I’m out of line, but all we have in DC are “paper tigers” from the top all the way down. Congress is trying to push through tax reform as I write this, fuck me, they can’t even reign in the corruption at VA. But hey, we’re just Veterans, there are more important things to do in DC. These days writing checks to the “skanks” that our duly elected “paper tigers” boned is more important than Veterans issues.
    Fuck VA, Fuck AFGE

    1. can always create a militia start grouping up veterans arm them and take over VA sites get the FBI involved if congress doesn’t want to get involved . at that point they would have to sue the AFGE because vets had no choice but to use force because they where manipulated by congress scandal to keep the VA running. alot of young veterans want to do that right about now and willing to put the boots back on and arm themselves and take siege. they rather choose civil war rather than taking a care that doesn’t help them . if congress figured out Americans veterans where establishing a militia because of the distraught of the VA they would have to dismantle the AFGE

  13. Dear VA, just in case you did not know. AS A VETERAN OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY, THERE ARE CORE PRINCIPLES OF EVERY SERVICEMAN’S OATH TO HIMSELF AND TO THE CONSTITUTION, HIS BROTHERS AND SISTERS AT ARMS.
    THAT NUMBER 1 PRINCIPLE IS DEFINING WHO HE IS IN THE CONTEXT OF HIS MILITARY SERVICE.
    I WAS A NAVY CORPSMAN. MY OBLIGATION AS A SURVIVOR OF THOSE WHO BORE THE BATTLE AND MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE , US NOT TO LET YOU DISRESPECT, CHEAT ,STEAL AND DEMONIZE THOSE WHO SPEAK OUT TO DEFEND THAT CODE OF HONOR.
    TO REFRESH YOUR MEMORY ON WHAT A NAVY CORPSMAN STANDS FOR.
    READ THE WELL SPOKEN WORDS BELOW.
    CORPSMAN :/corps-man/ noun;
    Navy Enlisted medical person
    Known to possess bad language,
    A bad attitude, and respected
    as a complete bad ass when shit gets real.

    LEARN IT, STUDY IT. ABIDE BY IT WHEN MY FELLOW VETERANS COME TO SEEK CARE UNDER THE NORMAL GUIDELINES OF HEALTHCARE.

  14. No heads will roll over this. The VA already claimed its just a problem of updating policy and getting their overpaid managers to follow it.

    The bigger problem I see with this Ben is that even if they do report some quack to the NPDB, a veteran is no better off because that data is hidden behind a pay wall at the NPDB web site.

    Unless I am missing something, the NPDB does not allow public searches of their data. Their site requires an account be created and approved, and a fee paid for every search made. Their guidelines for creating accounts and searches suggest their database is more geared towards organizations conducting searches rather than individual members of the public. So a hospital or university might be able to find out a VA doctor is a quack, but a veteran is SOL on finding out if his surgeon is a butcher.

    I would like nothing more than to create an account and search every VA provider I can, and compare that data with what is listed in state licensing board web sites, but even if they allowed my account, it would cost money for every single search I made.

    This makes the entire database useless, and makes this VA policy of reporting to it just as useless because how many individual veterans, reporters or even congressional staffers are going to create an account and pay to verify whether a VA doctor is a quack?

    I think this is a serious problem Ben that needs to be fixed. I refuse to accept the word of the VA that they are reporting to the NPDB.

    I refuse to believe the VA would follow through and report to the NPDB and state licensing boards. Without an account, how can I compare if the VA did report a quack to the state they are licensed in.

    1. Just about every state has a data base like this one here in NY.
      https://apps.health.ny.gov/pubdoh/professionals/doctors/conduct/factions/Home.action
      In the search feature just click or any instead of all if you do not have the doctor’s license number.
      The New York State Data base (when it went on line years after my FTCA settlement was finished, is how I proved to OGC that the malpracting doctor’s in my husband’s case ,( in 2 NY VAMCs ) were never reported at all to the NPDB.
      When I questioned OGC attorney with this proof ,of their defiance of the NPDB mandate ,in regards to my settlement , he knew it all along.

      NY’s state Home page is this:
      https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/doctors/conduct/
      the link above is within their site.
      It used to be searched under Disciplined Doctors.
      If you search under Disciplined doctors or similar terms, and add your state to the google search, something should pop up…..

      I wouldn’t pay for any healthgrade run downs, as nothing negative might show up there.However I bought a healthgrade.com run down for a vet I helped -that then helped him win his claim-that had been to the BVA multiple times, and to the CAVC twice.
      His private doctor was pissed that I did that but I had to explain that an IMO or IME from a real doctor often needs a CV or a listing of their expertise in order for VA to properly consider the non VA opinion.
      The private doc thought though everyone knew how good he was.
      Maybe around the southern tier where I live in NY but the Buffalo VARO had denied this claim for years, so his IMO/IME had to be supported with evidence of how “good” he was.

  15. “House VA Committee Chairman Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., called it “astonishing,” Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said it was “shameful,” and Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, accused them of engaging in a deliberate cover-up to conceal bad medical care provided to veterans.”

    If VH in fact has been “engaging in a deliberate cover-up to conceal bad medical care provided to veterans,” has VA also breached its “ethical and legal obligation” to disclose any “adverse event(s)” in those veterans’ care?

    This veteran can attest that’s *exactly* what VA did in his case.

    Worse, when I asked, how, in a case that included 13 months’ delay in diagnosing cancer, and the need for corrective surgery & radiation therapy, could my VAMC/providers have remained silent about any adverse event(s)?

    Even “worsee,” my VAMC ascting director & VISN network director “doubled down,” and falsely asserted that my treatment met the standard of care.

    So, please tell me, in cases were it turns out VA did engage in a deliberate cover-up of bad medical care, and then deliberately conceal that adverse events had occurred, will VA automatically grant equitable relief?

    If not, why not?

  16. To whom it may concern the solution call Veteran Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C. who you contact your belief how to improve Veterans Health Benefits and Veteran Health Care and their share on here….Semper Fi

    1. You DO realize Johnny Isakson and other dino’s on those committees are about as useful as teats on a boar.

      1. Isakson is NOT my particular Senator Swamp Creature on VA Committee…I was inferring the entire horse & pony show called the Veteran’s Committee, Senate/House is a Shameful Sham of Hams.

      2. Only the “do be” part, which I will interpret as “doobie”, which would be partly correct.

      3. He is a Congressional Wilderbeast that lactates . Looking like Bullwinkle without antlers. “Hey Rocky, you want to see pull a rabbit out of hat? Rocky : Again?
        Bullwinkle: With nothing up my sleeve….
        Presto!!!
        That dude is clearly a Fuckboy!

      4. CorpsmanUp! you must been in the Navy I Mean Lean Machine Marine I always bug the Shit out of my Senators and Representative my firm belief as Concerned Veteran to improve Veteran Health Benefits and Veterans Health Care.

      5. 1. Good men will die.
        2. Doc Can’t save everyone.
        3. Doc will go through hell and back to break rules 1 and 2.
        Corpsman101

      6. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,__
        ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,/ *_)
        ,,,,, _,—-,_/,,/ , RAWR Means .
        ,,,,/,,,,,,,,,,,,,,/ ,Fuck you VA .
        _/…(…|.(…|) , In Dinosaur .
        /__.-|_|–|_|

      7. —~~~~– – – – – – – -(O) I raise your dinosaur with an apocalyptic meteor in my rudimentary graphical attempt.

  17. If the VA fraud, waste & abuse were looked at with genuine scrutiny like the current Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Weinstein, et al collective abusive creeps in the news, losing their high-end jobs and status in a blink of an eye, we would all be PROUD of our VA and how fast it gave itself a massive enema…but I think VA Public Affairs and OIG and OSC are in collusion to keep things exactly the systemic mess it is…too much $$$ to say no to…but we tickets to the Veteran Cookie Jar (we Vets) are expendable to these rat bastards.

  18. “https://www.wthitv.com/content/news/Local-woman-wants-hospitals-to-work-together-after-hand-injury-experience-460913523.html”

    If you are a female, (Marx-feminism and man hate is huge locally) here or in a clique you can get on the news. Not the same for some old suffering white/male veteran playing target for all the cliques, evil networks, country clubbers, special interest groups, typical college town activist, or lying media here.

    Something new also, they are allowing a comment section on this one but no doubt is heavily censored. We will see. They sure as hell refuse to report about veteran issues, all the identity politics, or of all the covering up and all-out attacks on someone wanting to see some truth and reality investigated and reported on. They sure as hell won’t report on why veterans threatened by the VA to politicians are given the same treatments by local health care creeps, as the threats come to fruition from every angle possible for them all.

    Figures. An injured finger big news, veterans dying, threatened, etc., not news at all. Heads will never roll because it will mean all the connected groups, “professionals,” family members, cliques and club members will be held accountable and would expose much and would affect the entire establishment and medical systems. The “deep corrupt state,” and the “swamp” will never be allowed to change for any good to happen in our life times.

    1. I should add. This is the same hospital and clinics that I get near constant harassing and threatening phone calls from. Admin doesn’t seem to care what kind of activism, threats, to incompetence goes on there either. Now they are building, in association with Eskinazi group, a new medical student college next to Union hosp. Promising top quality care. LOL They also think it’s professional and allowable for six hour long waits in chronic pain waiting rooms to attacking anyone with negative comments about all the local corruption or complaints about our local VA criminal element.

      Side note. Top secret and for country clubbers and cliques eyes only. Grapevine scuttle-butt reports VA is outing local contractors like Humana from the CBOC. Replacing them with highly trained, professional VA staff. Oh what fun the game is.

  19. Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah!

    We’ve been hearing this shit for decades! It’s the same as at the end of the old “Batman” series, when the announcer says: “Stay tuned next week for another crime fighting episode, SAME BAT TIME, SAME BAT CHANNEL!”
    Well, we’ve had the “SAME BAT SHIT” for a long while!
    So, I’ll agree, “FUCK THE VA! FUCK THE VA COMMITTEE! AND FUCK ALL THOSE ASSWIPES IN CONGRESS WHO BELIEVE THEY’RE ABOVE THE LAW FOR: 1. SEXUALLY ABUSING WOMEN! 2. USING TAXPAYERS MONIES TO “BRIBE” THE WOMEN INTO SILENCE!

    1. P.S.
      If anyone believes the VA will “clean up its act!” I’ve got some “prime oceanfront property out in Arizona” just waiting for someone to purchase – CHEAP!

      1. That would be right next to the Brooklyn Bridge spanning the Grand Canyon I purchased not long ago? Nice neighborhood, just do not use the VA and mid the other scorpions as well.

  20. Need I ask the rhetorical question again of just why is the VA still allowed to police itself? If the VA has VD or Syphilis, then the VAOIG & OSC surely are leaving a trail like a snail with or without urine present….meaning the systemic mess is a systemic mess.

    1. The OSC is suppose to publish your disclosure and they don’t.
      I tried to FOIA my disclosure and got the run around from their FOIA office.

      1. I have tried it all, VA admin, directors, med boards, poly-tick-tians, attorney general, media, all vet groups out there, etc. Odd thing I encountered during a civilian MD office visit to sit for six hours to see the speed freak. I couldn’t get a word in edge-wise he chattered on and trying to fill in my sentences. I had to sign papers (I VC – Vi Coactus -or/and “…” all documents now), that stated the MD can sue us for not abiding by laws or office orders. Also I have in black and white stating from the civy MD that some information exchanged between MD (VA too not writ) or staff may or may not be included in requested copies of our med files and may be considered as in-office private MD discussions that can be withheld. This was brought up when I questioned them about info in my medical files being leaked to local activist and city council members, medical staff using the same language or activist challenges or wording, and asking about the VA seeming being carried out by local medical people. While the same games are played, IE like not easily giving me copies of files or health findings or for not allowing me X-rays to prove the damage done to me at the VA. They all have totally side-stepped the main issues and carried on with the God-like authoritarian abuse and total lacks of concern.

        As they censor us, call out their dogs, activist, in-crowd, and thugs to battle us, not follow their oaths of positions, seems the evil networks have all their bases covered and plenty of support for THEM to go around. FOIAs here are just a waste of time. Meanwhile they all just repeat..”go back to the VA,” or “hire an attorney.” Fat chance on both of those, not happening.

  21. “[•Increasing oversight of hospitals responsible for reporting;
    •Ensuring the reports are made quickly; and,
    •Expanding the types of clinicians reported…]”- *Each* word starting each of Three Major Steps relates to the VA treating any problem with dumping more $$$ on it, a bit like thinking pouring gasoline on a burning fire will put it out.

    Also, the word “Shameful” is appropriate in so many ways: Within word “Shameful” there’s the word “SHAM” and “HAM”…the pork feast is out of control. Fuck You VA.

  22. Zero accountability, never will be any, as CorpsmanUp!, has stated, this is nothing but grandstanding.

    Think I am wrong? Let me know when a murdering Quack, is put behind bars, or let my great great great great grandkids know, since I doubt I’ll still be breathing.

    Yeah right they will change things, sure they will, just like the Chicago VARO said they wouldn’t use unqualified examiners to deny TBI claims anymore, guess what? they are still using unqualified hacks to deny TBI claims. YOU SEE THIS, YOU DO NOTHING POLITICIANS?

    Fucking DC,,,,,,,,,,,grow a fucking pair and do your fucking job, useless pieces of shit.

    Fuck you VA/AFGE/SES/VA OIG/DOD/DOJ………..fuck you very much..

    1. Beer Hall Putsch for veterans cj. should start recruiting speakers and militia of veteran activist put out flyers organize events start rioting and storming government offices and use them as barracks.

  23. It really doesn’t matter if VA does not report them, the problem is that when a veteran complains directly to the board , they cite they have no jurisdiction over federal employees.
    Congress is just grandstanding to appease the public.
    It is because they VA will say there is ongoing litigation and the VA knows that it is a conflict of interest for Congress to get involved.
    I disclosed to Bernie Sanders that the OIG was retaliating against me by going into my medical record. I worked at VA and the OIG agent Chris Algeri had no business questioning and emailing a social worker about an evaluation I had with her as an employee.
    HHS recieved the complaint as well as OSC.
    THE VA Is A Shitbag healthcare Racket!

    1. OMG. Was the social worker your supervisor? So, when you made a complaint against VA, OIG went into your medical record? I am so sorry to hear this.

      1. No they tried to set me up when I went in my appointment. There was a so called “trainee” in the evaulation.
        I later requested my medical records and low and behold the social worker wrote in my record that she was contacted by the OIG .Wrote his name ,phone number in my record.
        I should publish a copy of it on a big t shirt and make my on clothing line and name it corruption wear.
        The Chris Algeri collection.

      2. If those T-shirts would also have a OIG commemorative design of the chief OIG all glass conference room of masturbation station…I will take one with the body heat-activated thermal graphics of the conference room glass windows become frothy but not frosty. 😀

      3. Remember the real fat OIG that was in charge before the current one?
        I would have a no neck collection. The Lu lu Hogg bonus ham series one piece fart suit that they would have to wear during the Congressional hearings.
        The best dress would get a challenge coin titled “The Tuna beast Vanguard Award”?

      4. May I suggest a one piece hermetically sealed biohazard suit rated for Ebola? Keep that tuna beast stank contanked.

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