November was busy month, packed full of news. Some great work was done at the VA to ensure doctors and medical staff are spending their time caring for veterans. Under a new Trump administration regulation, VA medical staff is no longer able to spend work hours on union activity. This move will let VA doctors and medical professionals do what they were trained to do – take care of veterans.
But it wasn’t all good news for veterans this month. Several problems on both the benefits and health care sides of VA has continued to fester, leaving veterans without the benefits and care they deserve.
Here are the worst #VAFails from November:
- Many student veterans continue to wait for their GI Bill education benefits. Computer glitches at the VA caused a months-long delay in students receiving accurate housing payments. Multiple contentious hearings have taken place to figure out the problem, but the VA thinks it has worked out a solution.
- The VA’s oversight over non-VA medical care has been lacking too. A watchdog report found that the VA doesn’t have the tools and resources to track whether non-VA providers are giving accurate exams to determine benefit eligibility. Hopefully, implementation of the VA MISSION Act will fix these problems so veterans can still receive accurate benefits after seeing non-VA doctors.
- A deceased veteran’s parents just settled with the VA after their son died in a VA emergency room. Records indicated hospital staff hadn’t didn’t follow up with regular tests and exams, and by the time he was admitted to the ER, it was too late.
Stay up to date on the latest VA woes and missteps on CVA’s #VAFails tracker.