Va Ethical Dilemmas

It requires a deep imagination to put a body back together when there are only bits and pieces are left. The V.A. is not just about the physical well-being, but the mental well-being of the military personnel. As Phillip Longhorn has made his argument for keeping the V.A. intact, for a multitude of reasons, the mental health, the general care for veterans and extreme increase in money paid to private outfits. Given the fact that PTSD is now a well-known illness, mental health is half the battle of a veteran. Longhorn stated the V.A. had an over 30% superior rating, compared to any private mental health facility. When the V.A. provides exceptional treatment, it seems silly to send veterans to a less qualified facility. Especially when the therapists and doctors cater to PTSD. As we move to the general health of a veteran, the RAND study, gave a close look at the unique capabilities of the V.A. has to offer, and the rating of the care taken of the patients. In just about every aspect, wellness, eyes, diabetes out performs independent and private outfits. If the V.A. were to privatized, it would dismantle a medical relationship that lasts almost a life time. But it would also cause different havoc like sky rocketing costs to the V.A. that

Failed internal issues at VA facilities have resulted in harm and even in the deaths of veterans. According to a report by the Office Of Inspector General (2014), “17 deaths had occurred while waiting for VHA treatment in the Phoenix VA system, and on June 5, 2014 the Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Sloan Gibson, reported that the VA had identified 18 additional deaths” (as cited in Wikipedia, n.d.).

They claimed Iraq and Afghanistan veteran polls have been taken, it shows that whatever improvements and actions being were taken were not enough. Fifty-nine percent of the people rated the job the government was doing to help was good, while fifty-six percent rated it as them doing poorly. In an article by CNN news nineteen veterans have died because of delays for medical treatments from the Veterans Affair. Those nineteen veterans were only a small proportion of that group. A number of eight-two veterans who have died because of delays for medical treatments like colonoscopies or endoscopies. Some people like my father (Jason McLain), who is a retired veteran, believes that some doctors have their own personal bias toward veterans. Jason McLain stated, “When I go to the VA they do not help me as soon as I need their help. Although when I go to any other civilian doctor’s office they help me right away with any of their help”. A website by the name of Free Grants Community stated that success and failures of the Departments of Veterans Affair are frequently the subjects of political promises and debates. There are many places that can help with benefits or homelessness, simply anything veteran(active/retired) need. A six-year veteran stated that there are places to help but emphasizes that you have to pursue yourself. After you are done with the military to go back to school and to keep getting educated. Besides the fact the regular ordinary citizens complain that veterans are not getting enough help, there have been complaints against all employers for discrimination has blames the economic crisis and ballooning deficits for the inability to provide for more

The VA System needs a complete over all we are doing a terrible disservices to our veteran’s.

One of the most serious problems facing all veterans today is the lack of proper healthcare. Soldiers, sailors and airmen are leaving active duty without having proper healthcare to cover their physical or mental injuries. The department responsible for veteran’s healthcare is the Department of Veterans Affairs. (VA) According to The department of Veterans Affairs website, “The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is responsible for administering programs of veterans’ benefits for veterans, their families, and survivors. The benefits provided include disability compensation, pension, education, home loans, life insurance, vocational rehabilitation, survivors’ benefits, medical benefits and burial benefits. It is administered by the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs.” The VA, who was formerly called the Veterans Administration, was established 21 July 1930, to consolidate and coordinate government activities affecting war veterans. The VA encompassed the functions of the former U.S. Veterans ' Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. On 25 October 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating a new federal Cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs to replace the Veterans Administration effective 15 March 1989 (V.A.)

The Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) has been tasked with providing support and benefits to Veterans after they have completed their service. However, many Veterans are reporting difficulty accessing care due to systematic barriers within the VA’s Veterans Health Administration (Oliver, 2007). Complex eligibility requirements, long wait lists and lack of providers are a few of the issues Veterans are faced with when trying to access health and mental health care. Additionally, studies indicate that veterans, predominantly those from the recent wars in Iran and Iraq, have disproportionately high amounts of mental illness (Shim & Rust, 2013). These same veterans are experiencing difficulty accessing mental health care due to issues around a backlog of healthcare eligibility applications and a shortage of mental health providers through the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which operates the Nation’s largest, integrated health care delivery system (APA, 2014). In 2014, at the request of the Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) evaluated the merit of the allegations of mismanagement at the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) and the Health Eligibility Center (HEC).

In the past few years there has been increasing discussion about how to provide adequate care for the increasing number of veterasn who are eligible for care through the Veterans’ healthcare administration (VHA). There are concerns is that the VHA is not providing the level of access, efficiency, and quality of care that veterans expect. Lee & Begley, (2016) suggest access to care for the veteran population may be resulting in poor health outcomes. In response to these concerns, the Veterans ' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act (VACAA) of 2014, also known as the Veterans Choice Act, was created to improve Veterans’ healthcare. The VACAA proposed to do this by expanding the number of options veterans have for receiving healthcare, by providing access for healthcare at non-VA care centers as well as providing for an increase in staffing at VA facilities (U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2016).

Fire the corrupt and incompetent VA executives that let our veterans down. Under a Trump Administration, there will be no job security for VA executives that enabled or overlooked corruption and incompetence. They’re fired. New leadership will focus the VA staff on delivering timely, top quality care and other services to our nation’s veterans. Under a Trump Administration, exposing and addressing the VA’s inefficiencies and shortcomings will be rewarded, not punished.

During the year of 2014 the VA experienced the largest scandal in the past 20 years. The Phoenix, Arizona VA was revealed to have extremely long wait times for the Veterans to receive care. This news led to the Director of the Phoenix VA being accused of

The author starts off the article by telling us that the president at the time, Barack Obama visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and gave a brief speech telling everybody that the Department of Veterans Affairs has failed them. He talks about the challenging aspects that go with trying to improve the VA but doesn’t know how that will be achieved.

The Veterans Affair has always claimed to take pride in their timeliness care. What they were not offering was the truth about how they were getting these numbers. They were changing the dates on paper work and falsely recording in the database. The patient’s charts were altered in order to lessen the effect of their conditions, along with performing useless procedures to make the time seem more favorable. Schedulers were pressured into using unofficial waitlist and other inaccurate paper work in justifying these wait times. It has been proven that the extended waiting periods have led to many deaths within the Veterans Affairs care system. An incident surrounding the wait was when “Thomas Breen, a 71-year-old U.S. Navy veteran, With a history of bladder cancer, Breen called his Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix for a follow-up appointment. He had to wait months to receive treatment. In the meantime, his family took him to a private hospital where he was diagnosed with bladder cancer”(Hankel,1). Thomas Breen had passed away before ever hearing back from his Veterans Affairs hospital. This story is important in understanding that the wait times for the Veterans Affair program are causing deaths in our Veteran population. This story allows one to understand how long the wait times could be for this care, but the question aroused from this is what is allowing the Veterans

In recent years, the Veterans Benefits Administration has found itself defending against a tsunami of negative public opinion, unrelenting media coverage and has suffered from a contentious relationship with the U.S. Congress. While the administration has made enormous strides in reducing the claims backlog, improving quality and undertaking the largest technological transformation in its history, the agency as a whole has not transformed its leadership practices and has neglected to learn from its failures. This has resulted in an erosion of trust both within the Veteran population and with external stakeholders alike. In order to restore the trust and respect of Veterans and reestablish public trust, the agency must transform itself into a learning organization, practice sound financial stewardship, focus on incremental improvements, act with a sense of urgency and reduce potential exposure to significant media events.

VA Accountability Act of 2015, H.R. 1994 is a bill that has 98 cosponsors, only two of which are democrats. “The bill passed the house on 7/29/2015 and was received in the Senate, read twice and was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on 07/30/2015 (Congress.gov (1) n.a.).” The intent of the bill is to ensure that employees of the VA are held accountable and held to a high standard at work, those that are unable to fulfill the requirements will be subject to demotion or will be terminated as a result. The bill also calls for an 18-month probationary period for new employees. “Employees have the right to appeal any demotion or termination before the Merit and Systems Protection

However, he Veterans for America have taken to a less popular choice. Instead of completely doing away with the VA, the Veterans for America request a change in them instead. The priorities have been sorted in a list of ten that also serve as instructions. First off is the rule that veterans must come first, not the VA. This is the most important rule. They believe that the care and funding of veteran health should be the first priority. The second priority refocuses on veteran service for those with disabilities and specialized needs. The third is the improvement of the VA, or more specifically the improvement of how the VA work-such as dealing with the timing and quality of care. The fourth and fifth priorities deals with the allowing of choice concerning from who and where the veterans receive their health care from. They believe the veteran has a right to choose. Following suit, the sixth, seventh, and eighth priorities again drills upon the Veteran Affairs by suggesting reform on thing such as the possibilities of health care on their budget, veterans’ demographics, and the cycle of their ‘standard operating procedures.’ They also note that the reform of such things will require bipartisan vision, courage, and commitment-to which they state in their ninth priority and how to implement it. The tenth -but by far not the least important-priority is to hold the VA accountable for all

Instead of voicing concerns regarding the lack of resources, it appears that executives across the VA instead decided to set up systems that allowed the numbers to be gamed. It could be that the rigid, inflexible system did not give executives the ability to voice concerns regarding the measures and lack of resources without endangering their careers. The same could be said for lower level employees who kept the secret waitlists. In an effectively functioning ethics program, individuals, the employees involved at any level should have felt comfortable enough voicing these concerns to supervisors or the ethics program. As mentioned, I would argue that a major problem with the ethics program at the VA is that it is based on extrinsic rewards such as performance bonuses and not on intrinsic factors such as passion and values. Stucke (2014) points out that intrinsic based ethics