Dive Brief:
- A report this week by the VA Office of Inspector General reveals a backlog of about 800,000 applications from up to 20 years ago, among which officials have no idea which patients are still actively seeking VA healthcare.
- An estimated one-third of the veterans who applied are now dead, according to the report, but there was no information on when or why those veterans died. The VA suggests many are likely to have obtained other healthcare.
- The report also reveals VA workers marked thousands of unprocessed applications as complete, and possibly deleted upwards of 10,000 electronic "transactions" during the past five years. It adds an investigation in 2010 discovered VA staffers were hiding applications in their desks to be processed at a later time.
Dive Insight:
While the VA has been under scrutiny for years over delays in care, the details released Wednesday reveal a myriad of issues with the VA's management of enrollment data. These include a lack of oversight, software problems and a failure to identify and remove applicants who have since died.
The VA's Health Eligibility Center "has not effectively managed its business processes to ensure the consistent creation and maintenance of essential data," according to the report.
It also notes a lack of information security measures, such as audit trails and system backups, prevented investigators from being able to fully review the system and rule out the possibility of data manipulation.
Linda Halliday, acting inspector general of the VA, has recommended a multi-year plan aimed at improving the accuracy and usability of the VA's records.