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The Public and Intergovernmental Affairs Office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is very concerned. No, the communications specialists in the agency are not concerned with veterans in need. They're not concerned with citizens and public officials requesting public information. They're not concerned with journalists seeking the truth. What these entrenched government employees care most about, above all else, is the business of spin and stonewalling. The VA mouthpieces are preoccupied with covering their ample bureaucratic backsides, withholding data, monitoring critics, fending off watchdogs and running constant interference for their corrupt, negligent agency. In a string of internal...

President Barack Obama is getting an update on the problems plaguing the health care system for veterans from his acting veterans affairs secretary and a top aide. The White House says Obama will meet Friday with Acting Secretary Sloan Gibson after returning from a two-day trip to Minnesota. Top White House aide Rob Nabors will join them in the Oval Office. Obama tasked Nabors with leading a broad review of the VA following allegations of treatment delays and preventable deaths around the country. That review is due to the president this month.

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...

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....

More allegations of wrongdoing plague the VA across the country Tuesday. A new report from an Oklahoma senator says that the death toll related to VA mistakes over the past decade could be over 1000. Some are wondering if Congress is to blame for failing to take action earlier. If you ask Congress, the answer is no. A lot of what's been going on had been covered up by the VA in some way due to fear of backlash, and you can't fix something if you don't know it's broken. Senator Cobun's (R-OK) report blames VA mistakes mixed with improper...

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? Disabled Air Force veteran and veterans advocate/attorney Benjamin Krause has been raising questions about the system for months and warning his peers. Under the VA policy on "patient record flags" (PRFs), federal bureaucrats can classify vets as "threats"...

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.

Despite the newest revelation in the Veterans Affairs scandal Thursday that one in ten veterans have to wait at least one month before they can get an appointment to see a doctor, CBS and NBC refused to cover the latest news in both their evening news shows on Thursday night as well as their morning shows on Friday morning. ABC News only gave 14 seconds of coverage to the issue in a news brief during the 7:00 am hour on Friday’s Good Morning America. CBS News chose to instead publish an article about it on their website Thursday afternoon.article about...

".........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...

They don't care." As Obama administration officials pivot like haywire jewelry-box ballerinas to divert attention away from the nationwide Veterans Affairs disgrace, a reader who has been fighting the system urged me to urge Capitol Hill and the American public to stay focused. This former Special Forces soldier and medic served his country for 25 years. He worked in the health care field managing military field medical clinics. "I know how health care is supposed to run, even in austere or low-budget environments," he says. And in his nightmarish, ongoing experience, the VA is an epic, deadly, monstrous failure. He...

June 17, 2014 Stay focused: One VA victim’s plea Michelle Malkin ‘They don’t care.” As Obama administration officials pivot like haywire jewelry-box ballerinas to divert attention away from the nationwide Veterans Affairs disgrace, a reader who has been fighting the system urged me to urge Capitol Hill and the American public to stay focused. This former Special Forces soldier and medic served his country for 25 years. He worked in the health-care field managing military field medical clinics. “I know how health care is supposed run, even in austere or low-budget environments,” he says. And in his nightmarish, ongoing experience,...

In case you had any remaining doubt as to the Department of Veterans AffairsÂ’ commitment to addressing the horrific mistreatment of our nationÂ’s vets, this ought to clear things up: Veterans Affairsï‚™Verified account @DeptVetAffairs Our ocean is under threat. Join people all over the world and make a difference. #OurOcean2014 http://thndr.it/1tP7rrQ

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...

In a Monday National Journal column about how many Democrats are allegedly saying they have "quit" on Obama — claims I find quite hollow, given that no one asserting this has yet had the guts to go on the record — Ron Fournier quotes "a senior White House official" with a head-shaking take on the Veterans Administration scandal. Specifically, "Questioning why the Veterans Affairs Department hadn´t been overhauled months ago as promised by Obama (actually that was seven years ago, plus six other times, Ron — Ed.), a senior White House official conceded privately to me, ´We don´t do the

Clearly the Obama administration wanted to use the Bergdahl release as a way of creating a positive diversion and getting the VA scandal behind them. As usual, they miscalculated, and depended on the liberal media for a bailout – however, that is failing as well. The rabbit hole gets deeper surrounding the Taliban release with Obama and his minions telling more lies to cover the initial lies. But the VA scandal is also getting worse — a lot worse. Remember the president stated “IF these allegations are true?” Well Mr. President, they sure as heck are, so the ball is...

Tens of thousands of veterans are stuck in backlogs awaiting care at VA facilities, the department said Monday in a report that confirms employees regularly cooked the books, often under pressure from supervisors, to try to hide long wait times. The audit found that 70 percent of Veterans Affairs facilities surveyed placed patients on alternate wait lists, meaning many of those veterans probably weren’t recorded in the official reports back to headquarters and were used to dole out bonuses to VA executives.

And they’ve been waiting a long time, too. The Associated Press reports on an internal audit from more than 700 VA facilities shows that 57,000 veterans have waited 90 or more days for their initial medical appointment, let alone for any advanced care that might be needed. Another 64,000 have been enrolled in the VA health-care system for more than ten years without ever getting to see a doctor: The Veterans Affairs Department says more than 57,000 patients are still waiting for initial medical appointments at VA hospitals and clinics 90 days or more after requesting them. An additional...

MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma - A newly released audit has found that new patients seeking health care at the Muskogee and Oklahoma City VA hospitals waited an average of 31 and 44 days, respectively, to be seen. Monday's audit released by the Department of Veterans Affairs found that 464 new patients at the two facilities waited more than 60 days for an appointment. The audit also found that established patients at both care centers had waits averaging just over two days to be seen. Spokeswomen at the Muskogee and Oklahoma City hospitals said they were still examining the state-specific data and did...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)More than 57,000 veterans have been waiting 90 days or more for medical appointments, the Veterans Affairs Department said in a wide-ranging audit released Monday. An additional 64,000 who enrolled for VA health care over the past decade have never been seen by a doctor, according to the audit. The audit is the first nationwide look at the VA network in the uproar that began with reports two months ago of patients dying while awaiting appointments and of cover-ups at the Phoenix VA center. Examining 731 VA hospitals and large outpatient clinics, the audit found long wait times across the...

Dozens of Veterans Affairs workers who have come forward with stories of mismanagement and patient abuse say they have faced retaliation within the scandal-scarred agency, according to federal investigators. In one case, a VA employee with a spotless record over two decades was suspended after reporting patients had been inappropriately restrained, according to one of 37 such complaints filed with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). In another case, an employee claimed to have been demoted after disclosing alleged mishandling of patient care funds. The employee was temporarily reassigned and an investigation is still ongoing, OSC officials said. The...