Free Republic

More whistleblowers are coming forward from the VA, but this woman from North Carolina gives a special insight into the way that wait-list fraud propagated within the system. Paulene DeWenter makes clear that the use of secret wait lists was no spontaneously-occurring method for front-line workers to deal with overstressed resources, but a deliberate strategy employed by VA management. DeWenter tells WITN that her boss told her to use the secret wait list method, or else she would buy DeWenter a bus pass — one way out of town ... DeWenter blew the whistle after one of the patients on...

It’s like the The Never Ending Story meets the Bad News Bears: the VA implosion, the implosion of Iraq, the implosion at the border, the implosion of IRS computer hard drives (along with the EPA’s) and now, the implosion of the economy. And that’s just in the past month!…a giant sucking soundImagine how you’d feel if you were president and had to find out about all of this when you tuned into the evening news. Without so much as a heads up before another disaster strikes it’s hard to “frame the discussion” properly. Which is to say, it’s hard to...

A Veterans Affairs nurse who spent 28 years at the embattled agency's facility in Albany, N.Y., says when she came forward to report abuse including stolen drugs and mistreatment of patients, her supervisors turned on her instead of trying to fix things. Nursing manager Val Riviello, 55, was considered an outstanding employee at the Albany Stratton VA Medical Center until last November, when she reported that doctors had restrained a patient for seven hours in violation of VA rules. Now she has been banished to an office cubicle, stripped of her nursing duties and supervisory role and faces a 30-day...

Imagine how much better off America’s veterans would be if the federal government spent more time delivering actual care and less time compiling tyrannical lists. The death-inducing secret waiting lists for patients are just the tip of the iceberg. Did you know, for example, that the VA keeps a database on “disgruntled” and “disruptive” vets that results in arbitrarily restricted care?

Doctors at the Philadelphia Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office are sitting around with nothing to do, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of U.S. veterans continue to wait for medical appointments. “Urgent! Need work for In-house Physicians,” wrote the Office’s assistant veterans service center manager Ameen Khabir in the subject line of a June 19 email to colleagues, which he placed on “High” importance. The Regional Office is responsible for processing compensation, benefits, employment and insurance claims. More than 276,000 veteran benefit claims across the country are still backlogged, having been waiting for more than 125 days....

CNN: Whistleblower: VA Changed Records To Make Dead Patients Appear To Be Alive (June 24, 2014)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) — A disabled veteran and father is living out of his car, because he said the Memphis VA will not help him. Lonnie Whitfield was living with a friend, but ran out of options when that person decided to move. The VA sent WREG a statement explaining the programs they have in place to help people like Whitfield. They have vouchers for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and VA Supportive Housing Program, or HUD-VASH as it is called. However, they only had 380 vouchers for the Memphis and Jackson areas, and said they are currently...

Records of dead veterans were changed to hide how many people died while awaiting care at Phoenix VA hospital, whistle-blower tells CNN. Records of dead veterans were changed or physically altered, some even in recent weeks, to hide how many people died while waiting for care at the Phoenix VA hospital, a whistle-blower told CNN in stunning revelations that point to a new coverup in the ongoing VA scandal. "Deceased" notes on files were removed to make statistics look better, so veterans would not be counted as having died while waiting for care, Pauline DeWenter said.

".........The green office isn’t merely a desk and telephone tucked away in the dark corner of a nondescript government building. It’s a substantial undertaking, with all the luxury, bells and whistles of a bureaucracy that means business. Eric K. Shinseki, who resigned as secretary in the wake of the VA scandal of the sin of omission, traveled the country to boast of the green initiative. In one instance, he traveled to Massachusetts to flick the switch at a half-million-dollar windmill project at the Massachusetts National Cemetery. “Nationally,” he said, “VA continues to expand its investment in renewable sources of energy...

Every month for the past seven years, Joe Morris, a Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, has been receiving a disability check from the VAs. Two months ago came the bizarre phone call that changed everything. "My mom called me up and said ‘Hey, you're dead.' I said ‘No, I'm not,'" Morris said. The VA sent his parents a condolence letter.

Hard-working Virginians deserve access to affordable health care. This may be Virginia's last chance to expand Medicaid. Contact Gov. McAuliffe today and urge him to veto the state budget! Gov. McAuliffe has a tough decision to make before this Sunday at midnight: whether to sign or veto the state budget. Why? Because state legislators sent the governor a budget that does not include expanding Medicaid for hard-working Virginians who earn up to $16,000 a year. These 400,000 Virginians are our friends, neighbors, family. Many are age 50-64, struggling in jobs without health benefits. They are counting on state lawmakers to...

Yesterday Equality Virginia was honored to receive a proclamation from Governor Terry McAuliffe that recognizes June 2014 as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride month. The proclamation noted that the Commonwealth celebrates its diverse LGBT community, is dedicated to fostering acceptance and preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and that LGBT Virginians contribute to a stronger Commonwealth. We couldn't agree more; and will continue to work towards that ideal. The support we have received from the Governor has been invaluable. He understands that fairness and inclusion are important to Virginia's families and to the commonwealth as a...

The Department of Veteran Affairs is drawing online criticism for tweeting about the world’s oceans on Monday. The VA tweeted about how the world’s oceans are under threat from over-fishing, pollution and even climate change. Veterans Affairs @DeptVetAffairs Our ocean is under threat. Join people all over the world and make a difference. #OurOcean2014 http://thndr.it/1tP7rrQ 9:02 AM - 16 Jun 2014 The tweet linked to a press release from the State Department that let people tweet out their own support for a number of ocean-related issues, such as avoiding shark-fin soup and only consuming seafood caught in a sustainable manner....

The embattled Phoenix branch of the Department of Veterans Affairs apparently has paid out $10 million in bonuses during the past three years, far more than previously reported. The Arizona Republic obtained and published the bonus records after seeking them from the VA for months. The documents showed 4,188 bonuses were paid in that period to more than 2,150 employees.

Summer doldrums is here.  That time between the end of basketball and hockey season, and before football season starts, when lazy baseball games stretch on, the days are long, and everyone takes their vacations.  There’s plenty of reasons the Obama White House would like us to just forget the next two months and take a national vacation. Let’s review the White House’s woe-list: Lois Lerner’s imminent sacrifice has been kicked down the road with the IRS claim that the dog computer ate her homework email.  Conveniently, only the emails from the time period where she was (allegedly) masterminding the...

As I see it, and saw it, serving my 4 years in the US Navy Submarine Service on the USS Grenadier (SS-525) and the USS George C. Bancroft (SSBN -643) as a TM 3 (MT) was a privilege. I owed my country my time & energy for providing me with the privilege of living in the greatest nation ever to arise on the face of the Earth. I'm not owed anything. Thank you America, for letting me serve.

U.S. officials are in discussions to temporarily shelter unaccompanied immigrant children on the campus of shuttered Saint Paul’s College in Lawrenceville. Faced with a surge in the numbers of minors arriving on their own from Central America, representatives of the federal Department of Health and Human Services visited the campus this week and are nearing an agreement to use Saint Paul’s facilities for at least six months, sources in Brunswick County said.

Spending on veterans’ health care could double in three years under the Senate’s solution to the long waits experienced by thousands seeking medical care at VA hospitals and clinics, according to congressional budget experts. […] Both the Senate bill and a House version also passed this past week would dramatically expand government-paid health care. They would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay private providers to treat qualifying veterans who can’t get prompt appointments at the VA’s nearly 1,000 hospitals and outpatient clinics or who live at least 40 miles from one of them. …

According to a report from the Daily Caller, the Obama administration has been aware of allegations about the VA’s secret waiting lists since 2010: The administration knew that an internal VA investigation into secret “paper” waiting lists was conducted in 2010 under (recently-resigned Secretary Eric) Shinseki. According to an August 17, 2010 VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) report entitled “Review of Alleged Use of Unauthorized Wait Lists at the Portland VA Medical Center”: “We conducted this review to determine the validity of an allegation that senior officials in Veterans Integrated Service Network 20 (VISN) instructed employees at the Portland...

The founder and chair of a group dedicated to reducing hospital infection deaths told the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Thursday that a bill backed by the Senate Wednesday to address the backlog of veterans awaiting medical care “is designed to protect union jobs, not ailing vets.” The bill drafted by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, “will not save the lives of vets stuck on the wait list,” said Dr. Betsy McCaughey, chair of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. “This bill as currently written is designed to protect union...