Patients, veterans groups and physicians claim it is still common for veterans to experience delays in receiving care, and that officials with the VA don’t offer veterans opportunities to see private physicians, according to the report.
Republican lawmakers and others also claim not enough senior managers have been held accountable for mismanagement at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix, which was the subject of an internal VA probe investigating the reasons for the wait times, according to the report.
During President Barack Obama’s recent visit to the Phoenix hospital, he acknowledged that improvement is needed but also touted good work at the hospitals, including significant progress being made by new department secretary Robert A. McDonald, according to the report.
The VA has now established the MyVA Advisory Committee, which the VA says “brings together skilled experts from the private, nonprofit and government sectors to assist in reorienting the department to better meet the needs of veterans.” Additionally, the scandal resulted in the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act — a $16 billion measure that provided private physicians with funds to treat rural veterans or those with long wait times, according to a Kennebec Journal report. A portion of the funding, $5 billion, also went to hire thousands of physicians, nurses and other health providers.
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