Obamacare:U.S.Veterans Put On VA Hospital's Secret 'Death List'
Meanwhile British SERCO military industrial complex company of the UK government is given hundreds of millions or billions of dollars as well as all 'Obamacare' records on Americans out of the 'goodness' of British Empire's U.S.Prsident,Barack Obama's 'heart'
Gov't Gone Wild! Obama Donors Get HUGE Contracts For ...
www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3081361/posts
Oct 20, 2013 - Obama Donors Get HUGE Contracts For Obamacare (Serco and CGI ... and failed to deliver the province's flagship online medical registry.
Free Republic
British Company under Investigation for fraud hired to oversee Obamacare
21st Century Wire says…It’s the biggest company you’ve never heard of.
British outsourcing giant Serco has managed to construct a corporate state running parallel to the governments in Europe, Australia and the US. Now they are lined up to oversee large compartments of Obamacare in the US.
There’s only one problem: Serco is currently under investigation in the UK for invoicing fraud – billing the UK government for phantom services, including charging for electronic tagging of prisoners who did not exist. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg…
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/23/health/veterans-dying-health-care-delays/
A fatal wait: Veterans languish and die on a VA hospital's secret list
April 24, 2014 -- Updated 0119 GMT (0919 HKT)
Deaths tied to VA hospital's secret list
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- CNN has been reporting on delays in appointments and veterans' deaths
- New revelations of 40 deaths involving Phoenix VA are perhaps the most disturbing yet
- Retired VA doctor says there's an official wait list that he calls a sham
- He says the real list is kept secret and has wait times that stretch into the months
The secret list was part
of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix
who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to
wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA
doctor and several high-level sources.
For six months, CNN has been reporting on extended delays in health care appointments
suffered by veterans across the country and who died while waiting for
appointments and care. But the new revelations about the Phoenix VA are
perhaps the most disturbing and striking to come to light thus far.
Internal e-mails obtained
by CNN show that top management at the VA hospital in Arizona knew
about the practice and even defended it.
Dr. Sam Foote just
retired after spending 24 years with the VA system in Phoenix. The
veteran doctor told CNN in an exclusive interview that the Phoenix VA
works off two lists for patient appointments:
There's an "official"
list that's shared with officials in Washington and shows the VA has
been providing timely appointments, which Foote calls a sham list. And
then there's the real list that's hidden from outsiders, where wait
times can last more than a year.
Veterans dying waiting for healthcare
Are we fulfilling our promise to veterans?
Deliberate scheme, shredded evidence
"The scheme was
deliberately put in place to avoid the VA's own internal rules," said
Foote in Phoenix. "They developed the secret waiting list," said Foote, a
respected local physician.
The VA requires its hospitals to provide care to patients in a timely manner, typically within 14 to 30 days, Foote said.
According to Foote, the
elaborate scheme in Phoenix involved shredding evidence to hide the long
list of veterans waiting for appointments and care. Officials at the
VA, Foote says, instructed their staff to not actually make doctor's
appointments for veterans within the computer system.
Instead, Foote says,
when a veteran comes in seeking an appointment, "they enter information
into the computer and do a screen capture hard copy printout. They then
do not save what was put into the computer so there's no record that you
were ever here," he said.
According to Foote, the
information was gathered on the secret electronic list and then the
information that would show when veterans first began waiting for an
appointment was actually destroyed.
"That hard copy, if you
will, that has the patient demographic information is then taken and
placed onto a secret electronic waiting list, and then the data that is
on that paper is shredded," Foote said.
"So the only record that
you have ever been there requesting care was on that secret list," he
said. "And they wouldn't take you off that secret list until you had an
appointment time that was less than 14 days so it would give the
appearance that they were improving greatly the waiting times, when in
fact they were not."
I feel very sorry for the people who work at the Phoenix VA. They
all wish they could leave 'cause they know what they're doing is wrong.
Dr. Sam Foote
Dr. Sam Foote
Foote estimates right
now the number of veterans waiting on the "secret list" to see a primary
care physician is somewhere between 1,400 and 1,600.
Doctor: It's a 'frustrated' staff
"I feel very sorry for
the people who work at the Phoenix VA," said Foote. "They're all
frustrated. They're all upset. They all wish they could leave 'cause
they know what they're doing is wrong.
"But they have families,
they have mortgages and if they speak out or say anything to anybody
about it, they will be fired and they know that."
Several other high-level
VA staff confirmed Foote's description to CNN and confirmed this is
exactly how the secret list works in Phoenix.
Foote says the Phoenix
wait times reported back to Washington were entirely fictitious. "So
then when they did that, they would report to Washington, 'Oh yeah.
We're makin' our appointments within -- within 10 days, within the
14-day frame,' when in reality it had been six, nine, in some cases 21
months," he said.
Thomas Breen was so proud of his time in the Navy that he wanted to be treated only at a VA facility, his family says.
In the case of 71-year-old Navy veteran Thomas Breen, the wait on the secret list ended much sooner.
"We had noticed that he
started to have bleeding in his urine," said Teddy Barnes-Breen, his
son. "So I was like, 'Listen, we gotta get you to the doctor.' "
Teddy says his
Brooklyn-raised father was so proud of his military service that he
would go nowhere but the VA for treatment. On September 28, 2013, with
blood in his urine and a history of cancer, Teddy and his wife, Sally,
rushed his father to the Phoenix VA emergency room, where he was
examined and sent home to wait.
"They wrote on his chart
that it was urgent," said Sally, her father-in-law's main caretaker.
The family has obtained the chart from the VA that clearly states the
"urgency" as "one week" for Breen to see a primary care doctor or at
least a urologist, for the concerns about the blood in the urine.
"And they sent him home," says Teddy, incredulously.
Sally and Teddy say
Thomas Breen was given an appointment with a rheumatologist to look at
his prosthetic leg but was given no appointment for the main reason he
went in.
The Breens wait ... and wait ... and wait ...
No one called from the
VA with a primary care appointment. Sally says she and her father-in-law
called "numerous times" in an effort to try to get an urgent
appointment for him. She says the response they got was less than
helpful.
"Well, you know, we have
other patients that are critical as well," Sally says she was told.
"It's a seven-month waiting list. And you're gonna have to have
patience."
Sally says she kept
calling, day after day, from late September to October. She kept up the
calls through November. But then she no longer had reason to call.
Thomas Breen died on
November 30. The death certificate shows that he died from Stage 4
bladder cancer. Months after the initial visit, Sally says she finally
did get a call.
"They called me December 6. He's dead already."
Sally says the VA
official told her, "We finally have that appointment. We have a primary
for him.' I said, 'Really, you're a little too late, sweetheart.' "
At the end is when he suffered. He screamed. He cried.
Sally Brenn on the death of her father-in-law
Sally Brenn on the death of her father-in-law
Sally says her father-in-law realized toward the end he was not getting the care he needed.
"At the end is when he
suffered. He screamed. He cried. And that's somethin' I'd never seen him
do before, was cry. Never. Never. He cried in the kitchen right here.
'Don't let me die.' "
Teddy added his father said: "Why is this happening to me? Why won't anybody help me?"
Teddy added: "They didn't do the right thing." Sally said: "No. They neglected Pop."
First hidden -- and then removed
Foote says Breen is a
perfect example of a veteran who needed an urgent appointment with a
primary doctor and who was instead put on the secret waiting list --
where he remained hidden.
Foote adds that when veterans waiting on the secret list die, they are simply removed.
"They could just remove
you from that list, and there's no record that you ever came to the VA
and presented for care. ... It's pretty sad."
Foote said that the number of dead veterans who died waiting for care is at least 40.
"That's correct. The
number's actually higher. ... I would say that 40, there's more than
that that I know of, but 40's probably a good number."
CNN has obtained e-mails
from July 2013 showing that top management, including Phoenix VA
Director Sharon Helman, was well-aware about the actual wait times, knew
about the electronic off-the-books list and even defended its use to
her staff.
I think it's unfair to call any of this a success when Veterans are waiting 6 weeks on an electronic waiting list
From 2013 Phoenix VA e-mail obtained by CNN
From 2013 Phoenix VA e-mail obtained by CNN
In one internal Phoenix
VA e-mail dated July 3, 2013, one staffer raised concerns about the
secret electronic list and raised alarms that Phoenix VA officials were
praising its use.
"I have to say, I think
it's unfair to call any of this a success when Veterans are waiting 6
weeks on an electronic waiting list before they're called to schedule
their first PCP (primary care physician) appointment," the e-mail
states. "Sure, when their appointment is created, it can be 14 days out,
but we're making them wait 6-20 weeks to create that appointment."
The e-mail adds pointedly: "That is unethical and a disservice to our Veterans."
Last year and earlier
this year, Foote also sent letters to officials at the VA Office of the
Inspector General with details about the secret electronic waiting list
and about the large number of veterans who died waiting for care, many
hidden on the secret list. Foote and several other sources inside the
Phoenix VA confirmed to CNN that IG inspectors have interviewed them
about the allegations.
VA: 'It is disheartening to hear allegations'
CNN has made numerous
requests to Helman and her staff for an interview about the secret list,
the e-mails showing she was aware of it and the allegations of the 40
veterans who died waiting on the list, to no avail.
But CNN was sent a statement from VA officials in Texas, quoting Helman.
"It is disheartening to
hear allegations about Veterans care being compromised," the statement
from Helman reads, "and we are open to any collaborative discussion that
assists in our goal to continually improve patient care."
Just before deadline Wednesday, the VA sent an additional comment to CNN.
It stated, in part: "We
have conducted robust internal reviews since these allegations surfaced
and welcome the results from the Office of Inspector General's review.
We take these allegations seriously."
The VA statement to CNN
added: "To ensure new Veterans waiting for appointments are managed
appropriately, we maintain an Electronic Wait List (EWL) in accordance
with the national VHA Scheduling Directive. The ability of new and
established patients to get more timely care has showed significant
improvement in the last two years which is attributable to increased
budget, staffing, efficiency and infrastructure."
Foote says Helman's
response in the first statement is stunning, explaining the entire
secret list and the reason for its existence was planned and created by
top management at the Phoenix VA, specifically to avoid detection of the
long wait times by veterans there.
"This was a plan that
involved the Pentad, which includes the director, the associate
director, the assistant director, the chief of nursing, along with the
medical chief of staff -- in collaboration with the chief of H.A.S."
Washington is paying attention
The Phoenix VA's "off
the books" waiting list has now gotten the attention of the U.S. House
Veterans Affairs Committee in Washington, whose chairman has been
investigating delays in care at veterans hospitals across the country.
According to Rep. Jeff
Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, what was
happening in Phoenix is even worse than veterans dying while waiting for
care.
Even as CNN was working
to report this story, the Florida Republican demanded the VA preserve
all records in anticipation of a congressional investigation.
In a hearing on April 9,
Miller learned even the undersecretary of health for the VA wasn't
being told the truth about the secret list:
"It appears as though
there could be as many as 40 veterans whose deaths could be related to
delays in care. Were you made aware of these unofficial lists in any
part of your look back?" asked Miller.
"Mr. Chairman, I was not," replied Dr. Thomas Lynch, assistant deputy undersecretary, Veterans Health Administration.
Congress has now ordered all records in Phoenix, secret or not, be preserved.
That would include the record of a 71-year-old Navy veteran named Thomas Breen.
Curt Devine and Jessica Jimenez contributed to this report.
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