Sen. Warner on report on wait times at VA medical centers

U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) comments on the release of a report by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (V-A) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) that reviewed wait times across the Mid-Atlantic Healthcare Network (VISN 6) and shows Virginia Medical Centers reported wait times that were lower than those calculated by the V-A OIG.

“I am deeply concerned by the findings in the VA’s IG report on wait times at VISN 6, which oversees all of Virginia’s VA Medical Centers. This is an issue I have been working on consistently since 2014, when reports of inaccurate wait times at the VA first became widely known. While the report does not find that wait times were intentionally manipulated, it demonstrates that the VA still is not meeting its own standards for providing timely care. Most troubling to me is that the wait times for veterans who used the Choice program to seek care outside the VA were significantly longer than wait times for those who received care at the VA. This is particularly problematic because Congress authorized the Choice program specifically to help veterans access care in a more timely fashion. I have some tough questions for VA Secretary David Shulkin, who was Undersecretary of the Veterans Health Administration when this IG report was conducted. I hope he can convince me that the VHA, under his direction, took decisive action to fix the problems that this report highlights.”