ADVERTISEMENT

VA Misled Congress on Patient Deaths, Congressman Says

Phoenix VA Health Care Center / AP

The Department of Veterans Affairs misled Congress and the public about the number of veterans who were seriously injured or killed because of delays in care, the House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman said Monday in response to new documents obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.

The Times reports:

A Department of Veterans Affairs "fact sheet" told Congress and the public in April that the agency reviewed 250 million medical consultations, dating back to 1999, and found 76 veterans seriously harmed by treatment delays for gastrointestinal cancers. Of them, 23 died.

Here's what the VA didn't say: Its report included only cases involving veterans harmed in fiscal years 2010 and 2011, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Tampa Bay Times. Not one of those 23 deaths occurred before 2010.

The chairman of the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee said in an interview that the VA deliberately misled Congress by producing a fact sheet that led to the unmistakable conclusion that the figures went back 15 years.

"They tried to misdirect Congress and the American people away from the facts," said Rep. Jeff Miller (R., Fla.) the committee's chairman. "I think they got caught and now they are trying to modify their story . . . The misdirection was, in fact, designed in Washington."

It was not until July 3 that the VA acknowledged to Miller in a letter that the numbers in the fact sheet involved cases only from fiscal 2010 and 2011. The letter provided no explanation for the earlier omission.

Published under: Veterans Affairs