During the past year, Veterans Administration officials made false or misleading statements about a history of delays in seeking specialists' opinions on behalf of ailing veterans, says an inspector general's report issued Monday.
Last April, the Department of Veterans' Affairs said that it had reviewed more than 2 million of the unresolved cases known as "consults" dating to 1999 and that it found 23 veterans had died because of delays in receiving needed health care.
But the department's Office of Inspector General found that the review went back only to 2007 and that cases before that year "generally were closed without review" by the VA,
USA Today reported Monday.
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said Monday that the VA's conclusion that there were 23 veteran deaths from delays connected with the consults was "almost certainly wildly inaccurate."
Miller added that "we may never know the actual number of veterans affected by gaps . . . that existed for years."
The OIG reported that because the Veterans Health Administration "did not implement appropriate controls, we found it lacks reasonable assurance that facilities appropriately reviewed and resolved consults" and closed consults "only after assuring that veterans had received the requested services."
According to the OIG, the VA distributed a
"Fact Sheet" that included key statements that "were misleading or incorrect" but were nonetheless "repeated by VHA leaders at meetings with congressional staff and during media events."