Oversight Needed on New VA Law
By Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) – 12/05/14 08:00 AM EST
Unfortunately, the more time we spend examining the chronic problems within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the more we realize they extend well beyond headlines of secret medical waiting lists and news of departing VA leaders. Individual veterans needs have remained a low priority in this entrenched bureaucracy for decades. Passage of the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act (VACAA) has come and gone, and some in Washington have already forgotten about the problems at the VA. The brave men and women who served this country deserve our sustained attention as they struggle to receive the medical care and professional customer service they deserve.
As public servants who have intervened in the cases of innumerable veterans receiving poor treatment, we do not trust the VA to appropriately implement the new law without aggressive Congressional oversight. One provision in the law, Section 106, was intended to require the VA to make efficient and appropriate payments for veterans emergency medical services. In Louisiana, the VA has admitted to harming the credit ratings of hundreds of veterans by inappropriately denying payments for veterans emergency ambulance services and hospital emergency room visits at non-VA facilities.
Section 106 required VA Secretary Robert McDonald to centralize authority over these payments and standardize claims processing under the Chief Business Office in Denver, Colorado. However, Chief Business Office leaders recently visited Louisiana, apologizing for continued unfair payment denials and poor customer service under Veterans Integrated Service Network 16 (VISN 16), which processes Louisiana veterans claims. These VA leaders accused VISN 16 employees of rejecting what they had been taught during recent training and returning to their old misbehavior: imposing long hold times on callers and refusing to scan and process medical records only to force medical providers to repeatedly resend them by certified mail. Chief Business Office leaders also said VISN 16 recently deprived thousands of Louisiana veterans of their appeals rights by refusing to inform them of denied claims, leaving 650,000 letters to veterans, many containing sensitive appeals information, locked untouched in cabinets.
The average person would expect better customer service and professionalism from the local Department of Motor Vehicles. Whether its incompetence or indifference, why should we tolerate such behavior in VISN 16 when were dealing with veterans life-saving medical care? After passage of VACAA, the entire Louisiana Congressional Delegation raised these concerns in a letter to Secretary McDonald. The VA Secretarys recent speeches mention plans to rebuild trust and improve service delivery, but our letter remains unanswered. He has a duty to demonstrate meaningful continuous improvements under the new law, and we hope he will consider visiting Louisiana. To earn our trust, the Secretary McDonald must become more accountable and engaged on this issue. By tolerating inappropriate denials, his organization needlessly forces thousands of Louisiana veterans into a lengthy appeals process that can last more than two years in Washington, D.C.
We recently followed up by asking the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees to hold hearings on abuses within VISN 16 to ensure that the agency doesnt slip into old habits. Denvers Chief Business Office officials said they do not plan to visit the VISN until January, yet they lack the real-time ability to catch inappropriate denials. They need better ways to measure and report performance to Congress, and veterans deserve hearings to verify the new law is working as promised.
Our veterans fought and sacrificed of themselves for the greater good. The least we can do is treat them with the dignity and respect theyve earned when they return home. We wont accept anything less than world-class service for our veterans, and we will continue to expose VA failures until we reach that standard.
Boustany has represented Louisianas 3rd Congressional District since 2005. He sits on the Ways and Means Committee. Vitter is the Louisianas junior senator serving since 2005. He sits on the Armed Services; the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; the Environment and Public Works; and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship committees.
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