*Editor’s Note: There are two emerging issues that clearly show how VA seeks to trick Americans into believing the recent scandals at Phoenix and elsewhere are actually being fixed.
The first report comes from The Blaze.
On the Sunday morning talk show “Meet The Press,” VA Secretary Robert McDonald claimed 900 VA employees were fired since he took over. Perhaps it is true. But the big lie is this.
He said so in a clever way, to where most innocent-minded folk would conclude the firings were related to his making good on public pledges of reform and to fix the scandal-ridden agency.
It’s like how to succeed with a big lie, without technically (perhaps legally) telling a lie.
What The Blaze found, was that he is actually doing the opposite of what he wants people to believe; it is just another classic example of Washington D.C. trickery by tongue.
According to the report, McDonald in his first six months as VA secretary has actually fired fewer employees per month than did his predecessor Eric Shinseki.
The Blaze cited a VA report to congress issued this month that states clearly just EIGHT employees at VA had been fired due to their roles in the “Secret Wait List” scandals.
Here is a link to The Blaze story:
Another separate issue which VA has been attempting to serve up to the American citizenry amounts to a Big Whopper, or to be more direct, a BS Burger with everything.
This has to do with VA’s new “Choice Cards,” which recently were issued to veterans so they could get immediate health care from private providers outside the VA if they have been waiting more than 30 days for an appointment, or live more than 40 miles from a VA facility.
This move was in direct response to the Phoenix VA “secret waiting list” scandal that was said to have caused at least 40 veterans to die while they waited on VA for treatment.
Some had waited up to three years to be treated for their illness or injury. Others just gave up altogether and took their own lives via suicide.
VA claims that just 27,000 veterans (of 9 million enrolled at VA) have used the Choice Card for non-VA medical care.
Further, they want the public to believe the reason the number using Choice Card is so low, is that veterans prefer their VA medical care to what is offered by private providers oJutside the VA.
What the VA fails to tell the public, is that any veteran who goes outside VA and attempts to get treatment using the Choice Card must navigate an incredibly “user unfriendly” administrative nightmare process in order to get treatment.
They must first get VA to pick up the phone when they call to request permission to use the card. VA has a reputation (well documented) of discouraging veterans by simply not answering the phone, or refusing to return calls in a timely manner.
And even when a veterans finally gets through, most requests are denied, or decisions for approval delayed … until the veteran just gives up in frustration.
This behavior is a classic VA tactic.
Make the process so frustrating, painful and complicated that most will give up, and either go without treatment (saving VA billions in unpaid claims) or pay out-of-pocket (for those few lucky enough to have the means).
So, really … just how many veterans have requested care outside VA with the Choice Card, hmmmm?
VA is not talking.
Certainly, the number of Choice Card denials is far far higher than the 27,000 veterans VA says it has approved for using Choice Card.
Here is another clever VA trick.
VA says if the veteran live more than 40 miles from VA, the veteran may use the Choice Card. Here is what they do not tell the public.
That 40-mile distance is “as the crow flies.”
So when vets learn to fly, maybe they will finally be able to get timely medical care outside the VA.
Click here to read several recent reports about the failures of Choice Card:
The Washington Post
Newsmax.com
http://www.newsmax.com/US/VA-choice-card-Tim-Huelskamp-Robert-McDonald/2015/02/17/id/625193/
NY Post
http://nypost.com/2015/02/15/va-empire-strikes-back-bureaucrats-vs-veterans-health/
Filed under: Resources | Tagged: Choice Card, Meet The Press VA, Phoenix VA, Robert McDonald VA, VA Choice Card Scandal, VA reform, VA Scandal, VA secret waiting lists, VA suicides | 2 Comments »
the military suicide report 