Monterey, CA Veterans Administration Criminal Probe Opens

View From A Nonprofit Serving Senior Citizens In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

The troubles run so deep at the Veterans Administration that people are not only losing their jobs, but some employees may be going to prison.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a criminal probe into scheduling practices at the Department of Veterans Affairs looking for fraud or misuse of government resources.  As I wrote yesterday on my blog, employees at 14 VA medical facilities told auditors that they felt threatened or coerced into to falsify scheduling records.  It's believed that this was being done because their supervisors were trying to make targets in their bonus plan which required them to schedule all patients within 14 days of their request.  If it's found that these supervisors had records falsified so that they could get bonuses that they shouldn't have been entitled to, they could be found guilty of fraud and other charges.  The situation still appears to be bleak.  The audit found that there are almost 60,000 veterans currently waiting to get an appointment at the VA.  The Senate stepped in yesterday and passed a bill which will allow more veterans to seek care outside of the system as well as making it easier for the agency's secretary to fire senior executives.

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