Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

VA under new fire for high-risk status, IT, scheduling systems

Healthcare IT News: VA Inspector General Michael Missal had a laundry list of damning evaluations concerning the state of VA and its IT systems. Those include: Ambiguous policies, inconsistent processes, inadequate oversight, delays, series of questionable decisions and mismanagement by Veterans’ Affairs senior officials, and more.

Missal, along with Debra Draper, director of Health Care Team of the Government Accountability Office, took the VA to task for what Draper called “the VA’s exceedingly slow pace of progress,” during the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs meeting on Wednesday.

VA ended up on the GAO’s high-risk list again this year, the third year in a row. It was added to the list for the first time in 2015 because of the agency’s concerns about the “VA’s ability to ensure the timeliness, cost-effectiveness, quality and safety of the care provided to veterans,” Draper said.

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