Dive Brief:
- More than 35,000 combat vets have been classified as "pending" for healthcare enrollment because they didn't complete a means test that assesses household income. However, this is not required by combat vets since they are entitled to special health care eligibility status established in January 2008.
- According to The Huffington Post, Scott Davis, a program specialist at the VA's Health Eligibility Center in Atlanta, and a past whistleblower of VA mismanagement provided a document that shows the combat vets were flagged in error for not submitting a means test.
- Most of the vets served in Iran or Afghanistan, with 16,000 pending for more than five years and 19,000 pending between one month and five years. They lose eligibility after five years.
Dive Insight:
Davis contacted the House and Senate veteran affairs committees about the computer error. Senate committee staff will be meeting with VA officials this week at the Health Eligibility Center.
The Huffington Post reported that VA management knew about the glitch since April and directed their system management staff last month to create a computer script to "automatically complete a means test" for all those pending. However, in lieu of that solution, the VA staff started calling all 35,000 combat vets last month to inform them of their pending health care status.
"The VA has created an illegal, artificial barrier for people to access care," said Davis. He also said that VA Secretary Bob McDonald could provide a simple solution: gather all the Social Security numbers of those pending and tell the system the are enrolled immediately.
However, VA spokeswoman Walinda West said McDonald lacks legal authority to automatically enroll vets in healthcare. "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this issue may have caused our Veterans. We are working to get this right," she said.