Press for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) isn’t getting any better. A whistleblower leak claiming more than 200,000 of nearly 900,000 veterans “waiting” to hear back on healthcare applications were likely be deceased, prompting an official inquiry. The report that followed, revealed sobering information. St. Louis Personal Injury Attorneys Hoffman & Gelfman want to fill you in on this sad state of affairs…

Out of time
In addition to the one-third of pending applicants likely deceased, the report reveals more than half of pending applications, going back nearly two decades, do not have applications dates. These serious “data limitations” have prevented investigations from uncovering how many now-deceased veterans applied for benefits and when.

Insult to injury
VA workers also reportedly incorrectly marked thousands of unprocessed health-care applications as completed, and may have deleted 10,000 or more electronic “transactions” over the past five years.

Passing the buck
VA has stated it has no way to purge the list of dead applicants, and many of those listed in the report are likely to have used another type of insurance before they died.

No kidding
Deficiencies in VA information security prevented a full investigation, including ruling out data manipulation. The report pinpointed both a significant failure by Health Eligibility Center leaders and deficient oversight by the Washington central office.

Healthcare system working against you? St. Louis Personal Injury Attorneys Hoffman & Gelfman can help. Contact us today.