California Health System Innovations: Shredders and Death Plans
LA VA shreds claims, rates jump, assisted suicide bill proposed.
The Obama administration spent billions to fix the Veterans Administration hospital system so that our nation’s former military service personnel could actually receive the good quality healthcare they were promised—and it appears as though the Los Angeles unit used that money to buy shredders.
The embattled Veterans Administration may have another scandal on its hands, after investigators found at least eight benefits claims for veterans at the Los Angeles VA that were shredded instead of being properly processed, according to the Washington Times.
The VA’s Office of the Inspector General conducted the internal investigation after receiving an anonymous tip that the staff at the Los Angeles regional office was shredding compensation claims.
The 15-page report details what type of documents were allegedly shredded and how the office didn’t have a Records Management Officer, the position created in the wake of similar practices in 2008, for more than a year.
Perhaps the veterans can take some consolation in that fact that the failure of our state’s healthcare exchange, Covered California, has left citizens relying on our version of Obamacare unable to access medical care.
California’s health insurance exchange is still sluggish when it comes to resolving customer service problems, leaving many people unable to access health care or finalize their tax returns, a consumer advocacy group said Thursday.
Covered California has been slow to fix enrollment mistakes entered into its computer system, according to the Health Consumer Alliance, which is made up of legal aid groups throughout the state.
Exchange staff has a limited ability to update a state computer program for determining whether people are eligible to enroll in Covered California or in Medi-Cal, the state’s low-income health program, the group says.
Those Californians who have managed to enroll in the exchange are poised to receive a 4-7 percent increase in their rates.That should make them feel a whole lot better!
Meanwhile, Governor Jerry Brown has called a special session of the state legislature to address problems such as healthcare funding, prompting one lawmaker to reintroduce an assisted suicide bill:
Assemblywoman Susan Eggman (D-Stockton), the bill’s primary author, defended the decision to bring the issue into the special session on healthcare financing.
“It’s about making healthcare work better,” she said. “Healthcare is about providing care, but it’s also about providing relief at the end of life.”
So rather than dying while waiting for an appointment, like over 200,000 of the veterans in the VA system have done, those relying on the public healthcare system in this state can depend on death plans instead.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
The VA is still cooking the books on wait times, reducing backlogs etc. They go into a software program called Vista that is connected to Veterans’ health records and they delete referrals and such so they can present better numbers.
The old saying that “A fish rots from the head” should be applied to the VA. Then after the head is gone we need to start on the body and remove every single union over paid slob who is stealing time and money from our needy vets. My daughter got an Occupational therapist job with the VA and delighted in seeing her patients. She was the “New” girl in the administration and didn’t know the “Work” rules. In just three months she received an award by her department for positive feedback from her patients for the first time in that VA’s history. That is how bad it is there. She only worked for them for one year and moved on.
Obama is the head.
All of this was both predictable AND predicted.
All one needs is a basic understanding of economics. Which, of course, Collectivists either don’t have or deny.
They are “Logic Deniers.”
i don’t have a wait time problem with the VA.
they told me ‘m not a veteran, and am not eligible for care, even though i’m a member of the Retired Reserve…
#TrueStory!
wait times here in Maine (I am disabled vet) are not as bad as other places but still not great.
at same time all this broke and the managers were getting raises local clinic got turned down for one new telephone staff member.
so they have 1 person handling phones for approx 5500 vets.
Obama didn’t “spend billions to fix” anything. He just spends to build the bureaucracy. He promised to “fix” wait times and care at VA in 2008 and did nothing until the scandal erupted, then he threw some money in the air in their general direction and went to play golf.
– –
VA is not reformable. Cannot happen, the corruption and incompetence is pervasive and institutionalize. These people were paying themselves bonuses for faking the wait times! For YEARS! Punishing whistleblowers!
A single cardiologist in private practice takes care of as many patients as EIGHT on the VA staff – with better outcomes if you care about that sort of thing.
– –
VA was formed to replace a corrupt and inefficient Bureau of Veterans’ Affairs, but has never delivered as promised. It should be shut down, assets sold for cash, and except for the whistleblowers, every single employee fired and banned from federal employment.
Health care should be vouchered instead so vets get better care, closer to home, with the doctor of their choice. Check-writing can be done by other agencies.