What’s interesting in the news today?
1. System wide.
From HotAir “Add yet another VA facility to the deadly wait-list fraud scandal. The Daily Beast heard from a whistleblower in the Albuquerque VA organization that the same kind of wait-list fraud alleged at seven other facilities occurs in New Mexico as well. Veterans have to wait months to get medical attention, and any investigation may already be too late for some of them:
Add Albuquerque, New Mexico’s to the growing list of VA hospitals accused of keeping secret waiting lists to hide delays for veterans seeking medical care. And it may already be too late to get to the truth and find out what harm, if any, was done to veterans there—VA officials are already destroying records to cover their tracks, a whistleblower inside the hospital tells The Daily Beast. …
“The ‘secret wait list’ for patient appointments is being either moved or was destroyed after what happened in Phoenix,” according to a doctor who works at the Albuquerque VA hospital and spoke exclusively with The Daily Beast. “Right now,” the doctor said, “there is an eight-month waiting list for patients to get ultrasounds of their hearts. Some patients have died before they got their studies. It is unknown why they died, some for cardiac reasons, some for other reasons.”
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2. And the number of victims continues to climb as well.
From StarsAndStripes “As controversy swirls around the Veterans Administration over deaths caused by delayed care, an investigation by the Dayton Daily News found that the VA settled many cases that appear to be related to delays in treatment.
A database of paid claims by the VA since 2001 includes 167 in which the words “delay in treatment” is used in the description. The VA paid out a total of $36.4 million to settle those claims, either voluntarily or as part of a court action.
The VA has admitted that 23 people have died because of delayed care, and is facing accusations that hospital administrators are gaming the system to conceal wait times, including using a “secret list” at the VA in Phoenix.”
“The number of dead veterans could total more than 1,100 from 2001 through the first half of 2013 — including 16 at the Dayton VA Medical Center and 11 at the Cincinnati VA — according to records obtained via Freedom of Information Act. These are instances in which the family of a veteran claimed that a death occurred after something went awry and the VA paid money to resolve the issue.”
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3. What does this teach us?
From NationalReview “If our government has any obligation to fulfill its many promises on health care, it should be first and foremost to the men and women who served in our armed forces. But the scandal over hidden waiting lists at a growing number of veterans’ hospitals (seven so far) — wherein dozens of veterans died while waiting months for vital treatment, and the VA covered up the lengthy wait times — should make everyone wonder whether we can place our trust in a government-managed health-care system. The Dayton Daily News reported on Sunday that its investigation of a database of claims paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that the words “delay in treatment” were used 167 times. The VA paid out a total of $36.4 million to settle the claims. There could well be many more cases of “death by delay” at the VA that never came to light.
Are there lessons in the VA scandal for the rest of us if Obamacare survives and even expands? You betcha. The first lesson is that as government expands taxpayer subsidies for health care, the demand will always outstrip supply.”
“There’s a lot to be mad about at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute notes that more than 344,000 claims for veterans’ care are backed up and waiting to be processed. It takes an average of 160 days for a veteran to be approved for health benefits, and the VA itself estimates that is has an error rate of at least 9 percent in processing claims. According to VA figures for 2012, as reported by the Washington Post, “a veteran who takes an appeal through all available administrative steps faces an average wait of 1,598 days.” That’s more than four years of waiting.
Obamacare will dramatically expand access to the health-care system at the same time that many surveys show doctors are likely to retire or cut back their hours. It is almost inevitable that we’ll see more waiting-list scandals as the need to ration care grows.”
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4. Gee Harry, don’t you think this makes you a hypocrite after all your ranting on the Koch Bros.?
From TheNYTimes “Tom Steyer, the billionaire climate activist, recently contributed $5 million to a “super PAC” dedicated to keeping Democrats in control of the United States Senate, cementing his alliance with the party as the 2014 campaign swings into high gear.
Mr. Steyer, a retired hedge fund manager, has used some of his fortune in an effort to make climate change a more potent political issue in pivotal states like Florida, Iowa and Virginia. He is planning to raise $100 million to run campaigns on climate issues, including efforts to persuade lawmakers and the Obama administration to block the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
The contribution, confirmed by a Steyer spokesman and the super PAC, the Senate Majority PAC, makes Mr. Steyer the single largest contributor to the group this year as Democratic donors rush to provide funds to left-leaning groups. Republicans have relied far more heavily on political nonprofit groups that do not disclose their donors.
“Our candidates have faced a torrent of outside money of unprecedented scale,” Karyn Brockman, the Senate Majority PAC’s finance director, said in a statement. “As the leading Democratic super PAC, and the only one dedicated to keeping the Senate, we have had record-setting support, but we realize that we must continue to fight back.”
And another 40 million from Soros’ group as well. Yep, the Kochs’ are the problem. 🙄
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5. Back door gun control.
From TheWashingtonTimes “Gun retailers say the Obama administration is trying to put them out of business with regulations and investigations that bypass Congress and choke off their lines of credit, freeze their assets and prohibit online sales.
Since 2011, regulators have increased scrutiny on banks’ customers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2011 urged banks to better manage the risks of their merchant customers who employ payment processors, such as PayPal, for credit card transactions. The FDIC listed gun retailers as “high risk” along with porn stores and drug paraphernalia shops.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has launched Operation Choke Point, a credit card fraud probe focusing on banks and payment processors. The threat of enforcement has prompted some banks to cut ties with online gun retailers, even if those companies have valid licenses and good credit histories.
“This administration has very clearly told the banking industry which customers they feel represent ‘reputational risk’ to do business with,” said Peter Weinstock, a lawyer at Hunton & Williams LLP. “So financial institutions are reacting to this extraordinary enforcement arsenal by being ultra-conservative in who they do business with: Any companies that engage in any margin of risk as defined by this administration are being dropped.””
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Wandering Views 