ROSEN URGES VA SECRETARY TO IMMEDIATELY CORRECT PRACTICE OF REQUIRING DISABLED VETERANS TO UNDERGO COSTLY, UNWARRANTED MEDICAL REEXAMINATIONS

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Congresswoman Jacky Rosen (NV-03), a Member of the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Military Personnel and the bipartisan Congressional Military Families Caucus, sent a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie expressing serious concerns regarding the recently issued Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) report, Unwarranted Medical Reexaminations for Disability Benefits. The report found that disabled veterans were unnecessarily required to undergo reexaminations to continue receiving the benefits they had earned for their service to our country. Such actions wasted veterans’ time, taxpayers’ dollars, and diverted critical VA resources from caring for veterans.

“The veterans forced to go through needless reexaminations should have qualified for exclusion for a number of reasons, from having a ‘permanent disability that was unlikely to improve’ to individuals whose claims folders already ‘contained updated medical evidence' to warrant continued disability evaluation without need for reexamination. Nonetheless, VBA required thousands of these veterans to show up for appointments, undergo tests, and wait with uncertainty about whether or not their benefits would continue,” wrote Rosen. “I therefore strongly urge you to work with the Under Secretary for Benefits to implement the Inspector General’s recommendations and immediately correct this wrong which has burdened our country’s disabled veterans and taxpayers. I also request that you report to Congress within 30 days with your plan to implement OIG’s recommendations and ensure that this never happens again.”

BACKGROUND: Since joining Congress Rosen has spearheaded and supported numerous efforts aimed at ensuring our nation’s veterans maintain access to healthcare and critical VA benefits:

• Veterans Deserve Better Act - This bipartisan legislation introduced by Rep. Rosen would improve access to quality health care for veterans who count on the Veterans Choice Program. Two of the provisions included in Rosen’s Veterans Deserve Better Act passed the House as part of the VA MISSION Act. Rosen’s provisions included in the VA MISSION Act require prompt reimbursement to non-VA health care providers serving our veterans and a program to educate veterans about their VA health options. Specifically, it would require the VA to pay for or deny payment to outside providers within 30 days of receiving an electronic claim, or within 45 days of receiving a paper claim. Rosen introduced her bipartisan Veterans Deserve Better Act in January with Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC). Rosen opposes privatizing the VA.

• Keeping Our Commitment to Ending Veteran Homelessness Act - This bipartisan bill introduced by Rosen would reauthorize several key programs that provide outreach and services to homeless veterans in Nevada and across the country.

• Fair Access to Insurance for Retired (FAIR) Heroes Act - This bill would provide disabled veterans, who are medically retired from the military, the ability to choose between TRICARE and Medicare Part B, whichever health plan works best for their families. This bill could potentially save many veterans up to $1,300 a year on their health care costs.

• A bill to modify the presumption of service connection for veterans exposed to herbicides - This bipartisan bill, which passed the House and was  co-led by Rosen, expands Agent Orange benefits to Vietnam War-era veterans exposed to toxic herbicide substances while serving in Thailand and their families.

• Burn Pits Accountability Act - A bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Rosen that would require the evaluation of the exposure of servicemembers and veterans to open burn pits and toxic airborne chemicals.

Read text of the letter below:

LETTER TEXT

August 22, 2018

The Honorable Robert Wilkie
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20420

Dear Secretary Wilkie:

I write to express serious concern regarding the recently issued Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) report, Unwarranted Medical Reexaminations for Disability Benefits, which found that disabled veterans were unnecessarily required to undergo reexaminations to continue receiving the benefits they had earned in the service of our country. Such actions wasted veterans’ time and taxpayers’ dollars and diverted critical VA resources from caring for veterans.

Of the more than 50,000 reexaminations that took place during the period the OIG report reviewed, thirty-seven percent were deemed unwarranted. In many cases, this was a direct result of VA ignoring its own departmental policies. Current policy at the Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA) requires that a veteran’s claim folder be reviewed before seeking reexamination. However, the OIG report estimated that of the 19,800 veterans who had to go through the burden of unnecessary tests, 15,500 – seventy-eight percent – did not even have a pre-exam review, and  14,200 veterans experienced “no change to their disability evaluations because of their reexamination.”

The veterans forced to go through needless reexaminations should have qualified for exclusion for a number of reasons, from having a “permanent disability that was unlikely to improve” to individuals whose claims folders already “contained updated medical evidence” to warrant continued disability evaluation without need for reexamination. Nonetheless, VBA required thousands of these veterans to show up for appointments, undergo tests, and wait with uncertainty about whether or not their benefits would continue.

Unnecessary reexaminations are both costly and burdensome, both to the veterans involved and taxpayers.  The OIG report found that, “While reexaminations are important in the appropriate situation to ensure taxpayer dollars are appropriately spent, unwarranted reexaminations cause undue hardship for veterans. They also generate excessive work, resulting in significant costs and the diversion of VA personnel from veteran care and services.” These costs are estimated to have totaled over ten million dollars in taxpayer money spent on unwarranted reexaminations in just a six-month period.

I therefore strongly urge you to work with the Under Secretary for Benefits to implement the Inspector General’s recommendations and immediately correct this wrong which has burdened our country’s disabled veterans and taxpayers. I also request that you report to Congress within 30 days with your plan to implement OIG’s recommendations and ensure that this never happens again.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to continuing to work with VA on improving care for veterans.

Sincerely,
                                                

Jacky Rosen
Member of Congress

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