Hands to Help Seniors

A nationwide audit of hospitals and clinics run by the Department of Veterans Affairs has been released and the results are depressing.  More than 57,000 patients have been waiting to get an appointment for more than three months and another 64,000 have been enrolled in the system for more than a decade but have still not been seen by a doctor despite their pleas.  The audit, which was completed by the VA itself, found that in 76% of the department's hospitals and clinics there was at least one instance of manipulated data on patient wait times.  The audit found that 13% of patient schedulers said that they have been instructed by supervisors or others to enter false information related to how long veterans had to wait for an appointment.   At 14 facilities, employees told auditors that they felt threatened or coerced to falsify records.  Sadly, the report said that part of the problem was likely tied to compensation.  Managers had incentive plans which benefited them if they reached their goal of scheduling all patients within 14 days of their request.  How sad that so many veterans suffered while so many middle management VA employees got fat bonuses. 

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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

Problems at the Veterans Administration have plagued the Obama Administration, but the general public likely doesn't understand the depth and the breadth of how hard it will be to fix.  Since 2000, the agency has tripled in size and now represents $85 billion in government expenditures.  Running an agency of this size is a daunting task.  There are now 22 million veterans eligible for benefits, and many of them are older with myriad health problems.  Of the 22 million veterans, 13 million served in Korea, Vietnam or World War III.  And the number of veteran patients which visited a VA health center has grown from 3.4 million in 2000 to 5.6 million in 2012.  "The VA has without question received more increases than any other federal department or agency, but it hasn't kept pace with demand, Joseph Vilante, legislative director for Disabled American Veterans," told The Wall Street Journal.  "When you combine the older population with a more severely disabled younger population, you are going to need more money," he said.  Although the problems at the VA are many, until they do a significant enhancement to the software system, the agency has little chance of serving our veterans.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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

Backers of the Veterans cemetery on the old Fort Ord site jumped through a number of hoops in order to raise funds and get approval to build the cemetery and it appeared to be on the fast track.  Not so fast, now that environmentalists have jumped in and challenged the project.  State officials indicate that they will skip a year-long environmental impact report and allow the project to move forward with just a short environmental assessment report from the Central Coast Veterans Cemetery.  Environmental have vowed to block the decision which could delay the November groundbreaking which was planned.  This is a shame.  The project has had so much local support and I hate to see delays which could be extremely lengthy.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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Despite our nation's health care reform laws which are, in part, designed to reduce the cost of health care for government programs like Medicare and Medi-Cal, a new study found that the cost of many common procedures surged in 2012 for Medicare patients.  Although Medicare has pre-arranged rates with hospitals, the "retail" cost has gone up dramatically.  Many believe that this is being done by hospitals in order to encourage poor people to buy insurance through exchanges rather than go to the hospital with no insurance and generate a huge bill.  Even those with regular insurance get hurt badly when these rate cards go up.  I have a 20% co-pay on both emergency room and inpatient hospital visits.  A hospital visit can easily rack up $10K to $50K which would result in a co-pay of $2K to $10K.  "You're seeing a lot more benefit packages out there with co-insurance amounts that require the holders to pay 20% of a lab test or 20% of an X-ray.  Well, twenty percent of what price," Glenn Melnick, a professor who holds a Blue Cross of California endowed chair at the University of Southern California, told The New York Times.  "Some hospitals will charge 20 percent of what Blue Cross Blue Shield will pay; others will play games," he said.  Sadly, the recent study found that hospitals charged more for every one of 98 common ailments which could be compared to the previous year and in all but seven cases, the increase exceeded 2%.  If you end up with a large out-of-pocket hospital expense, it's well worth arguing with them about it.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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Myriad problems continue to plague the Veterans Administration but a search is in high gear to replace VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who recently resigned.  The top candidate appears to be the CEO of the well-respected Cleveland Clinic, Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, according to the Wall Street Journal.  The position would be a challenge, to say the least.  However, in addition to running one of the best hospital systems in America Dr. Cosgrove is a heart surgeon who has performed more than 22,000 operations as well as a decorated Vietnam veteran (having received the Bronze Star and the Republic of Vietnam Commendation Medal).  Lost in all of the political headlines have been the opinions of what veterans really think about the situation.  It was nice to see that the WSJ did a less political article on Monday, interviewing hospital patients at a Chicago VA facility who are hoping the scandal will lead to improvement.  "He's a scapegoat, he can't watch everything, Tom Conroy, a 71-year old veteran of Korea and Vietnam said of outgoing VA chief Eric Shinseki.  Conroy was once a general and lost half of his foot to a land mine in Vietnam and now suffers from myriad health problems.  He had some important words for whoever is chosen to head the VA.  "Get people to do their jobs.  It's not the doctors and nurses, it's the damned administrators," he said.  "I think a lot of people are going to lose their jobs, and they probably should," he said. 

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

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