Despite backlogs, VA disability claims processors get bonuses

[Professor Peabody]

Despite backlogs, VA disability claims processors get bonuses

By Mary Shinn, Daniel Moore and Steven Rich,

While veterans waited longer than ever in recent years for their wartime disability compensation, the Department of Veterans Affairs gave its workers millions of dollars in bonuses for “excellent” performances that effectively encouraged them to avoid claims that needed extra work to document veterans’ injuries, a News21 investigation has found.

In 2011, a year in which the claims backlog ballooned by 155 percent, more than two-thirds of claims processors shared $5.5 million in bonuses, according to salary data from the Office of Personnel Management.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/despite-backlogs-va-disability-claims-processors-get-bonuses/2013/08/25/1be00a28-0cea-11e3-9941-6711ed662e71_story.html

It's easy to see just how much Obama and the Democrats care about the soldiers they send into harms way. Actions speak louder than words. I guess they simply don't understand that if our country is ever invaded by a foreign power or has a major civil insurrection, they will depend on the folks they are screwing right now to protect them? What the Obama administration is doing isn't likely to foster a lot of loyalty.

[waltky]

Grunts have to pay back bonuses while VA management gets 'incentives'...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/steamed.gif
VA Workers Got Millions in Unjustified Incentives
Jan 07, 2017 | An internal investigation was made after allegations that VA was giving out too many incentives to executives without cause.


The Department of Veterans Affairs handed out more than $30 million in employee incentives in one year without justification, and it will continue to overspend if changes aren't made, according to a report released Jan. 5 by the agency's internal watchdog. The findings are the result of an investigation by the VA inspector general's office into how the department was using funds to attract and retain employees. Inspectors initiated the investigation after allegations that the department was giving out too many incentives to VA executives without cause -- a charge Republican lawmakers and VA leaders have quarreled about in recent years. "The VA has limited assurance that it is using [recruitment, relocation and retention] incentives effectively and strategically to acquire and retain talent," the inspectors' report stated.

Inspectors found $30.7 million of $66 million spent in fiscal 2014 to recruit, relocate or retain employees was not fully justified. At that rate, they estimated the VA could give out $158.7 million in unsupported incentives through September 2019. Inspectors concluded VA officials did not always confirm the incentives were being used to help fix workforce gaps or were necessary to recruit and retain employees. The VA also failed to recoup about $784,000 of incentives that were awarded on conditions that employees then did not meet. Inspectors estimated the VA could fail to collect another nearly $4 million through fiscal 2019. Meghan Flanz, acting assistant secretary for VA human resources and administration, responded to the report by saying her office has started to take corrective measures and the department has already updated some of its procedures and internal controls to avoid giving out incentives haphazardly.

The findings were issued about two weeks after Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers lift spending restrictions on employee bonuses that were put in place last year. Limits on how much the VA could spend on bonuses and other awards to employees were worked into the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016, which addresses the nationwide opioid epidemic. Gibson called the restrictions "counter-productive," "unwarranted" and a hindrance in hiring and retaining high-quality employees. Because of them, he said, employees would see a 30-percent cut in performance-based awards this fiscal year. "[It] defies logic that Congress should so severely limit employee awards and incentives, for VA alone, at such a pivotal time in our transformation," Gibson wrote.

After the wait-time scandal in 2014, in which veterans were found to be waiting long periods for treatment, the VA started a concentrated effort to hire more medical staff. But the department has been giving out incentives without confirmation that they were helping to fill gaps in the workforce, the inspectors' report stated. As an example, inspectors cited one $51,316 relocation incentive awarded in October 2013 to fill the vacancy of director at the Hudson Valley Health Care System in Montrose, New York. Hiring officials said the incentive was necessary because of high turnover in the facility and a lack of qualified applicants. But inspectors found the position was not vacant for an extended period of time and the job was not well advertised. "We found this relocation incentive was based on inaccurate information and was not justified," the report states. "We determined the position was not hard to fill or subject to leadership turnover."

MORE (http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/01/07/va-workers-got-millions-in-unjustified-incentives.html)

[resister]

The fact that this thread existed so long with no response highlights the lefty double standards and their typical running away from a non defensible issue.

[Cigar]

Stop B!tching, Trump will fix it with Twitter tomorrow.

[NapRover]

The fact that this thread existed so long with no response highlights the lefty double standards and their typical running away from a non defensible issue.

I was hoping Mitt would take this on, with his fix-it skills.

[Captain Obvious]

lol - from a providers standpoint, the VA is a joke.

It's not insurance per se, it's a benefit, so if a VA vet goes to a non VA hospital the service isn't covered unless it's an emergency or if it has preauthorization.

And if all that is in order, 50/50 shot that the claim gets paid.

How we treat our vets in this country is a fucking disgrace.

[Don]

lol - from a providers standpoint, the VA is a joke.

It's not insurance per se, it's a benefit, so if a VA vet goes to a non VA hospital the service isn't covered unless it's an emergency or if it has preauthorization.

And if all that is in order, 50/50 shot that the claim gets paid.

How we treat our vets in this country is a fucking disgrace.

Its a swamp of its very own. Lets hope it gets drained posthaste, speedily, without further ado, with all speed, promptly, immediately, at once, straightaway, right away, straight off, at warp speed, pronto and bigly and hugely. :laugh:

I've have thought for a long time that the VA hospitals should basically be closed down except for a few regional ones where they might take care of in patient severe trauma that needs long term care and those patients need to be properly cared for. All other vets should just be able to go to any doctor or hospital they want or one that fits their needs. No traveling to the VA hospitals to get put on a waiting list and get treated worse than we treat enemy combatants or people in prisons or illegal aliens. This has been a problem for many decades and its time to put an end to it.

[Cannons Front]

The VA system is broken, it has been a very long time, it has not improved, it will not improve in the near future.

The people getting bonuses are due to the simple fact that they are federal employees and based on their annual reviews they can be given bonuses. Now you might say how can the get a good review? Other Gov't employees are the ones that rate them, and the raters reviews will be based on how well the lower employees are rated. Bottom Line is...... Everyone gets a great review..............