The And Health Care System

In the past few years there has been increasing discussion about how to provide adequate care for the increasing number of veterasn who are eligible for care through the Veterans’ healthcare administration (VHA). There are concerns is that the VHA is not providing the level of access, efficiency, and quality of care that veterans expect. Lee & Begley, (2016) suggest access to care for the veteran population may be resulting in poor health outcomes. In response to these concerns, the Veterans ' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act (VACAA) of 2014, also known as the Veterans Choice Act, was created to improve Veterans’ healthcare. The VACAA proposed to do this by expanding the number of options veterans have for receiving healthcare, by providing access for healthcare at non-VA care centers as well as providing for an increase in staffing at VA facilities (U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2016).

Current funding for veteran healthcare care is low and insufficient because of the large number of veterans, who are being discharged from the military as the country transitions to a democratic President. According to Dr. Rachel Nardin in her article about veteran healthcare, “Soldiers get excellent acute care when injured on active duty, but as revelations of poor conditions for soldiers receiving ongoing outpatient care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center highlighted, service members often have trouble getting the care they need once active duty ends” (Nardin 1)

A major scandal arose out of Phoenix, Arizona in 2014 that led to many investigations finding that as many as forty patients died while waiting for care at a local VA hospital. (O’Donnel) And since then, there have not been many signs of improvement, In Arizona as well as the rest of the United States United States, on the wait time scandal. Despite billions of dollars and many calls of reform, investigations still show that that some VA facilities still struggle with bettering the wait times for their patients, leading to more death and late diagnoses. Reports conclude that there are over 500,000 cases of extended wait times, including delays longer than 30 days and being put on a waiting list just for an available appointment.

Data released in October 2014 indicated an average wait time of approximately 50 days for new primary care appointments, with a range of 2 to 122 days across all VA/VHA facilities (VA, 2014c). The OIG found that VHA was not meeting the outline standards, forcing some veterans to wait as many as 60 days for an initial evaluation. This caused a great setback in meeting the measurements set forth by OIG and caused a hindrance on veterans who have returned home from war and dealing with physical and mental health aliments and disabilities. The research study will be conducted to examine the circumstances preventing veterans from receiving new patient appointments in a timely matter. Since 2012, this researcher has witnessed the VA make great efforts to implement recommendations from OIG, however, the shortage of (1) healthcare provider availability, staffing, and (2) scheduling practices with out-of-date technology continues to cause delay in effective

The Veterans Affair has always claimed to take pride in their timeliness care. What they were not offering was the truth about how they were getting these numbers. They were changing the dates on paper work and falsely recording in the database. The patient’s charts were altered in order to lessen the effect of their conditions, along with performing useless procedures to make the time seem more favorable. Schedulers were pressured into using unofficial waitlist and other inaccurate paper work in justifying these wait times. It has been proven that the extended waiting periods have led to many deaths within the Veterans Affairs care system. An incident surrounding the wait was when “Thomas Breen, a 71-year-old U.S. Navy veteran, With a history of bladder cancer, Breen called his Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix for a follow-up appointment. He had to wait months to receive treatment. In the meantime, his family took him to a private hospital where he was diagnosed with bladder cancer”(Hankel,1). Thomas Breen had passed away before ever hearing back from his Veterans Affairs hospital. This story is important in understanding that the wait times for the Veterans Affair program are causing deaths in our Veteran population. This story allows one to understand how long the wait times could be for this care, but the question aroused from this is what is allowing the Veterans

Josh Hicks, author at The Washing Post, says that the Veterans Affairs has an ongoing problem of delays in servicing veterans. “Phoenix VA hospital kept delays off the books with secret wait lists that allegedly included dozens of patients who died while waiting for care” (Hicks 1). “Several patients died at an Atlanta clinic because of mismanagement” (Hicks 1). “A Department clinic in Fort Collins, Colorado, falsified appointment records to give the impression that staff doctors saw patients within the agency’s goal of 14 days” (Hicks 1). In addition to these issues, other veterans waiting to hear if their disability claims had been approved for care were waiting in excess of 125 days without determination. Retired four-star Army General Eric Shinseki, serving

According to Druzin, the Department of Veterans Affairs failed to contact tens of thousands of veterans, who had applications for health benefits pending, before they died (Druzin, 2016). Moreover, over 288,000 deceased veterans currently have pending cases within

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system that provides essential financial and medical assistance to veterans and their families that are located all over the world. (www.va.gov) As the country and the military’s needs change, the VA needs to continue to evolve and grow. With this thought in mind, it is necessary to understand how the department is coping with the many different challenges that they are currently facing to effectively address the current issues and policy pitfalls. The most critical issues presently facing the VA, is the concern over long increasing wait-times and backlogs for services, which have emerged since 9/11 and are primarily the result of the growing

However, he Veterans for America have taken to a less popular choice. Instead of completely doing away with the VA, the Veterans for America request a change in them instead. The priorities have been sorted in a list of ten that also serve as instructions. First off is the rule that veterans must come first, not the VA. This is the most important rule. They believe that the care and funding of veteran health should be the first priority. The second priority refocuses on veteran service for those with disabilities and specialized needs. The third is the improvement of the VA, or more specifically the improvement of how the VA work-such as dealing with the timing and quality of care. The fourth and fifth priorities deals with the allowing of choice concerning from who and where the veterans receive their health care from. They believe the veteran has a right to choose. Following suit, the sixth, seventh, and eighth priorities again drills upon the Veteran Affairs by suggesting reform on thing such as the possibilities of health care on their budget, veterans’ demographics, and the cycle of their ‘standard operating procedures.’ They also note that the reform of such things will require bipartisan vision, courage, and commitment-to which they state in their ninth priority and how to implement it. The tenth -but by far not the least important-priority is to hold the VA accountable for all

According to a report by CNN in 2016, 307,000 veterans may have died waiting for healthcare from the VA (Devine). Considering that this might not be an outstanding number, it is still a major issue, and presents one of the more prevalent concerns with the VA today. Wait times are one of the most common complaints with the organization, and according to The New American, “The VA has been caught having large-scale problems with unsanitary conditions (spreading diseases), poor care, long waits, corruption (including bribes and kickbacks), enormous waste, inefficiency, falsifying wait lists, denial of services, unnecessary surgeries, and more” (Williamsen). Additionally, one VA audit found that 10% of veterans attempting to obtain medical care at a VA or VHA institution were forced to wait at least 30 days to get an appointment (“The US Veteran Health Care System Is Overwhelmed and Failing”). With a larger budget, the VHA could hire more medical employees to care for their numerous patients, and build more facilities across the country, giving them more space and increasing their capability to aid all veterans who require their services.

Every day veterans are unattended to, or their appointments are rescheduled. So many veterans are homeless because they can’t or won’t be hired, to me this is unfair. I know many veterans that would rather not go to the VA or be cared for at the VA because of their lack of being cared. The way I see it is, if the people/ workers at the VA work there they should know what they’re getting themselves into. yes the VA is insane, and deranged etc., but hey if you work there stay committed to help and take good care of our veterans, to help the people who is or have fought for our country as a favor in return to

The VA Health Care is a program to veterans that need health care that they must attend. On the article Veterans Health Care said that “Department of Veteran’s Affairs is required by law to provide eligible veterans hospital care”. The public hospital provide service to veterans that need it, because they are required by law to provide medical care to veterans.The Veterans must attend a hospital for any physical, and mental check. Some veterans suffer from metals problems and don't attend for any help at the end they end up command to suicide. Because they see that they're a easy way out but they can find help. The U.S. should demand all the veterans that have serviced in the military with a physical check. They also provide Insurance that name Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance is a insurance that coverage for totally disabled veterans. If the Insurance is provided to all the veterans with no cost for all the disabled veterans. The United States treat the Veterans fairly but they’re not attending the

In July 1775, the Congress established a hospital or what they called it then a medical department in Massachusetts with a chief physician of the hospital, four surgeons, a pharmacist, and nurses, which are usually wives or widows of military personnel to care for military members. (TRICARE Timeline). Today health care has come a long way especially for the military; we have better equipment and more than enough surgeons, physicians, and of course, our spouses or widows are no longer our nurses. Now we have qualified individuals that are very capable of making sure that they are patched and ready to get

On a daily basis, thousands of Soldiers are seen at appointments varying anywhere from surgery on better eye sight to putting a broken foot into a cast for 6 weeks to heal. Appointments can be located anywhere on or off post depending on the type of appointment or preference of the Soldier. It is every Soldier’s right to choose where they would like to receive health care services. The Army spends Billions of dollars on medical supplies, medications, the latest and newest high tech equipment, and the healthcare facilities and the healthcare providers. When a Soldier misses an appointment, the Army’s money is then wasted. Money that could have been used on something such as new trucks, weapons and equipment. With budget cuts on funds within the ranks, missing an appointment is money the Army could use elsewhere.

Given the fact that the United states of America and Canada are linked together sharing a border which is open basically to and from both sides, their health care systems are highly different from each other and how the services are financed, organized and given to the citizens.