OPINION:
The federal government has no more solemn or important duty than to take care of the men and women who served our country and are now part of our growing population of veterans, estimated at more than 19 million. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has long had problems fulfilling its mission of providing timely, efficient and quality services to our veterans.
The VA provides monthly disability compensation to veterans with service-related injuries or illnesses. The amounts are based on severity. A veteran who wants to file a disability claim with the VA is typically required to undergo what is known as a compensation and pension (C&P) exam to substantiate his or her claim. These exams are the gateway to the benefits that they are entitled to. As the population of veterans has increased over time, VA facilities have been under increasing pressure to perform these exams while also fulfilling their primary mission of treating patients. The result has been a ballooning backlog of exam cases that everyone, including members of Congress, agrees is unacceptable.
To alleviate the logjam, Congress voted five years ago to authorize the VA to allow its regional offices the flexibility to request exams or medical opinions from either a nearby VA health facility or from a designated contractor to the VA. A new Medical Disability Examination Program (MDE) was created to oversee this new process, which is administered by the Veterans Benefits Administration. Unfortunately, this well-intentioned effort did not go as planned. As is so often the case in the federal government, once the bureaucracy got involved goalposts were moved, the works were gummed up and the process became even more confusing and frustrating for our vets.
One factor contributing to the mess was a surprise, accelerated timeline instituted by the VA for vendors to be up and running in their assigned region. The exam providers also were required to complete and return exam results to the agency in an expedited fashion. In the case of one of its vendors, VetFed, timelines in its VA-approved contract were ignored by the VA and new and unrealistic timelines were imposed by the department to open clinics, hire and train staff, and complete the examination process.
This process was further paralyzed by the sudden transfer of background checks for service providers from the Office of Personnel Management to the Department of Defense. This might sound like a minor change, but it led to massive hiring delays, further slowing VetFed’s important work. As if all of this were not enough, the VA repeatedly changed software requirements, often without notice, causing errors, training disruptions and personnel reassignments.
Changing the rules in the middle of the game set up this contractor and the veterans it serves for failure. Yet when Congress stepped in to investigate ongoing and widespread problems with the MDE program, the VA’s response was to make an example of VetFed — a veteran-owned company, no less — and cancel its contract. This decision will now result in a reduction in the number of private-service vendors in the Western region from three to two. Considering the Veterans Benefit Administration increased the number of vendors from two to three in each region to help address the backlog of cases, this move makes no sense. It takes the VA and its needy veterans right back to where they started. The setback is particularly troubling for veterans who live in rural communities where providers are hard to come by. Sadly, this scenario is repeated over and over again at the VA. Too often, the agency is simply incapable of managing the process that veterans rely on.
The time has come for Congress and the Trump administration to step in to ensure a fair and efficient process for veterans who are filing medical disability claims with the Veterans Administration. Reducing the number of private-sector health providers in the midst of an unacceptable backlog of cases makes no sense and should be immediately re-evaluated. Our nation’s veterans deserve no less.
• Harold M. Koenig, a retired vice admiral, is a former surgeon general of the U.S. Navy.
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