The U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is the top law enforcer of America, but that is only his title, it is not his job. This man is an assassin to the rule of law, but he is also complicit in a huge number of deaths for which we are aware of Fast and Furious, but most recently he is giving a pass to the deaths and secret lists at the Veterans Administration.
As the scandal grows state by state within the national VA healthcare program, Eric Holder has said he is not likely to investigate Eric Shinseki, the top slot at the VA. The White House continues to broadcast unbending confidence in both Eric Holder and Eric Shinseki, so the White House is part of this deadly collusion.
No Plans at DOJ to Investigate Secret Waiting Lists and Veteran Deaths at VA Hospitals
Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Department of Justice doesn’t have any plans to investigate allegations that veterans placed on secret waiting lists at VA hospitals died while waiting for care.
“Well, obviously these reports if they’re true are unacceptable, and the allegations are being taken very seriously by the administration. But I don’t have any announcements at this time with regard to anything that the Justice Department is doing,” Holder told reporters at a press conference.
“This is something on our radar screen at this point, but there is an investigation being done by the [VA] inspector general, and we’ll see what happens as a result of that inquiry and other information that comes to light in some form or fashion,” Holder added.
According to CNN, at least 40 veterans died while waiting for treatment at one VA hospital in Phoenix. Members of Congress have said in recent weeks that the inspector general investigation is inadequate and have called on the DOJ to launch its own investigation.
“Because these cases involve individuals working in their capacity as federal employees, and these incidents have occurred at federal facilities throughout the nation, I urge you to work with the state Attorneys General in Arizona and across the country to investigate these preventable deaths thoroughly, determine appropriate criminal charges, and prosecute the offenders accordingly,” Rep. Tom Rooney, a Republican of Florida, wrote in a letter to Holder on May 1.
Holder’s announcement that the DOJ doesn’t currently have any plans to investigate the VA hospital scandal was made Tuesday afternoon at a press conference held to announce that the DOJ was filing a lawsuit against lenders under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which caps interest rates on student loans at 6 percent for members of the military.
“We are here to announce a landmark step forward in our effort to achieve justice for victims of improper lending practices–and to protect the men and women of America’s armed services from anyone who would take advantage of those who wear the uniform,” Holder said.
Shinseki set to testify about alleged secret list hiding VA treatment delays
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is scheduled to testify Thursday about the state of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with Senate lawmakers poised to question him about VA health clinics allegedly covering up treatment delays.
The hearing, which takes place with the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee starting at 10 a.m., comes just eight days after the American Legion called for Shinseki and two of his top executives to resign over the latest controversy and a string of other troubles, including the agency’s longstanding backlog of disability claims and preventable deaths at its medical centers.
Lawmakers are likely to challenge Shinseki over the amount of time he took to order the preservation of all electronic and paper evidence related to the purported treatment delays. House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) has said he requested the action at an April 9 hearing but that the department did not comply for eight days.
The latest scandal erupted when a former VA doctor alleged the department’s Phoenix health clinic developed a secret system to hide treatment delays, possibly affecting dozens of patients who died while waiting for care. CNN first reported the claims late last month, and other whistleblowers have substantiated them, according to the news network.
A later report from the VA’s Office of the Medical Inspector said Fort Collins, Colo., medical center falsified appointment records to give the impression that staff doctors had seen patients within the department’s goal of 14 to 30 days, according to a USA Today article.
Shinseki has requested an inspector general’s investigation into allegations, in addition to ordering face-to-face audits of all VA medical centers and placing three of the Phoenix center’s executives on administrative leave while the reviews take place.
Last week, the House Veterans Affairs Committee voted unanimously to subpoena top VA officials for documents related to the growing health clinic controversies.
The White House has said President Obama remains confident that Shinseki will take appropriate action in response to the findings.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars has refrained from demanding removals, instead calling on Shinseki to take strong action to restore faith in the VA and insisting that Congress needs to exercise stronger oversight of the department.
Standby readers it gets worse.
Testing and Care Rationed “Because of Dollars and Cents”
It’s pouring rain in the Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare scandal, with a fifth location now accused of gaming the system to conceal unacceptable wait times. Allegations and whistleblowers have emerged in Arizona, Colorado, and at two Texas facilities. Now add Wyoming to the list. CBS News reports:
A Veterans Affairs employee at the VA Medical Center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, has been placed on administrative leave after CBS News obtained an email showing an employee directing his staff on how to game the appointments system to make it appear as though veterans were being seen within the VA’s 14-day directive. The email, written by Telehealth Coordinator David Newman, a registered nurse, describes how patients at the Cheyenne VA Medical Center are always listed getting appointments within a 14-day window, no matter when the appointment was first requested, and no matter how long the patient actually waited. The memo admitted, “Yes, this is gaming the system a bit…” because “when we exceed the 14 day measure, the front office gets very upset, which doesn’t help us.” The employee further instructs staff on how to “get off the bad boys list” by “cancelling the visit (by clinic) and then rescheduling it with a desired date within that 14 day window.”
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki has resisted calls for his resignation as this scandal has gained steam, ordering a nationwide audit to review these practices. But will its findings do any good? CBS reports that the Cheyenne incident was reported by an informant last year, yet it took media scrutiny six months later for anything to happen:
CBS News has learned that the VA’s Office of the Medical Inspector had already investigated and substantiated claims of improper scheduling practices at the Cheyenne VAMC, sending a report to the Office of Special Counsel on December 23, 2013. It is unclear why it took five months, and an inquiry by CBS News, for the VA to take action against an employee there and order an Inspector General’s investigation.
As I’ve written previously, accountability is in short supply these days. Meanwhile, in Texas, another tentacle of the VA’s appalling health system has come to light. When conservatives warn about poor quality of care and treatment rationing under government-run and -operated systems, this is the sort of thing we’re talking about (content warning — via the Examiner):
Patients in a Southeast Texas Department of Veterans Affairs medical system faced denials or long delays in getting routine colonoscopies and other medical tests because of bureaucratic cost-cutting, a former top administrator told the Washington Examiner in an exclusive interview. Dr. Richard Krugman, former associate chief of staff at the Veterans Affairs health care system based in Harlingen, Texas, said his boss implemented a policy in 2010 that colonoscopies would only be approved if the patient tested positive in three successive screenings for bloody stools. “By the time that you do the colonoscopies on these patients, you went from a stage 1 to a stage 4 [colorectal cancer], which is basically inoperable,” said Krugman. “That was done because of dollars and cents. For the VA, they have to be bleeding out of their rectum before they would authorize a colonoscopy. That was the standard of care,” he said. Since the Harlingen VA health center couldn’t do colonoscopies at that time, all referrals had to go to local private providers…As many as 15,000 patients who should have gotten the colonoscopies either did not get them or were examined only after long and needless delays, Krugman said. That estimate is based on the demographics and total number of veterans treated in the Texas Valley network, about 40,000. Many likely died, Krugman said. But, since there is no VA hospital in the area, their final days would have been spent in a private hospital or at home, where they would not appear in VA statistics, he said.
No further comment is necessary. This is an abomination. Where else are these ghoulish guidelines in place? It took one former doctor to step forward and expose the wait list scheme in Phoenix, which has led to a steady stream of similar revelations across the country. Are other facilities denying veterans basic screenings and care for budgetary reasons?
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There is no sadder commentary in America right now, than that of the White House, the Department of Justice and the damaged confidence is protecting our own, our veterans.
