Boozman seeks assurance on timely care for vets

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. John Boozman wants the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to confirm that Arkansas veterans aren't facing long waits before receiving medical treatment at its facilities.

RELATED ARTICLE

http://www.arkansas…">VA chief vows full wait-list probe

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee had a hearing Thursday to question Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki about allegations that veterans hospitals in several states were using secret lists to obscure how long veterans waited to see doctors.

Boozman, who is recovering from heart surgery in Northwest Arkansas and could not attend Thursday's hearing, made the request in a letter to Shinseki.

"I am disheartened by these allegations and am committed to ensuring that we conduct appropriate oversight of VA and are accountable to our veterans and their needs through providing the best, timely health care services possible," Boozman said. "I seek your explicit assurance that no such 'double list' exists ... that would in effect hide detrimentally long wait times or otherwise manipulate data."

Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System spokesman Miles Brown said its patients normally don't have to wait a long time for an appointment.

"Our access to care generally speaking is pretty good here," he said.

When no appointment is available for more than 90 days, the system adds veterans to its electronic wait list, Brown said.

But, "we don't have a lot of clinics that require an electronic wait list," he said.

The electronic wait list, created by the system's Veterans Health Administration in 2002, is meant to help health systems keep track of appointments and how long veterans wait for care. It is different from the purported ad hoc lists that have raised Senate concerns.

Brown didn't know which central Arkansas clinics have an electronic wait list, but he said it is primarily specialty clinics or more popular primary-care clinics.

The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department is conducting site visits at each of the country's more than 150 Veterans Affairs medical centers this week as part of its investigation into the waiting-list allegations, he said.

Arkansas veterans also are served by centers in Memphis, Fayetteville, Texarkana, Shreveport, and Poplar Bluff, Mo.

The Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System's site visit was Monday, Brown said. He said the department is interviewing schedulers to make sure Veterans Affairs is providing access to care the same way across the country and is following VA guidelines.

He said the federal department also is collecting information from every center on the number of veterans waiting for appointments and how long they have been waiting. The information should be made public online within a week, Brown said.

Also in the news recently is how long it takes the department's Veterans Benefits Administration to consider disability claims.

As of Thursday, 3,085 Arkansas veterans have been waiting more than 125 days to hear if their disability claims have been approved, central Arkansas Regional Benefit Office spokesman Kim Godeaux said. The Department of Veterans Affairs classifies a backlog as a wait of more than 125 days.

That means 49.5 percent of the 6,211 Arkansas veterans waiting to hear about claims have been waiting for more than 125 days, she said. Godeaux said the average wait time in Arkansas is 152.5 days.

Godeaux said the number of claims peaked in Arkansas in December 2012 at 8,731, and in January 2013, there were 5,682 people who had waited more than 125 days to hear about claims.

On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor signed onto the 21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act, which would require audits of Benefits Administration regional offices, annual reports on the backlog and more information to veterans about completing the claim requests.

Metro on 05/16/2014

Upcoming Events