Latta tries to cut red tape for local vets

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Wood County veterans have to wait months for medical appointments and years, even decades, when they
apply or appeal to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The agency has been under a microscope in the months following a national scandal that started at the VA
in Phoenix, where top officials are accused of skewing reports and manipulating wait times to hide the
agency’s failures, which include a nationwide backlog of hundreds of thousands of applications.
U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, has been one of those pointing a magnifying glass toward the agency
responsible for coordinating the care of armed forces veterans. After conducting three town hall
meetings within his district in May, Latta said he heard of both successes and difficulties working
within the VA’s framework for applications and appeals.
"These are the folks who laid their lives on the line for us, and we want to make sure we’re doing
everything possible to take care of them. And a lot of it’s bureaucratic red tape they’re trying to get
through," Latta said in an interview with the Sentinel-Tribune.
"It’s really sloppy work that they’re doing trying to get this case load reduced."
House investigative hearings into the matter have shown that "on the top tier, there’s a real
dysfunction" in the VA, Latta said.
Latta said former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who resigned in the wake of the controversy, did not
believe he had the authority to remove top officials. Latta maintains that Shinseki could have done so,
but to emphasize the fact as a replacement is chosen, the House passed a bill explicitly outlining the
secretary’s ability to terminate those who perform poorly or contributed to the agency’s dysfunction.

"There needs to be a thorough housecleaning of how things are done over there," Latta said.
"We want to make sure we have people who are doing their jobs. If they’re not doing their jobs, they
shouldn’t be there."
Other legislation has been pushed to expand the circumstances under which veterans may be reimbursed for
treatment from non-VA care centers such as private doctors and hospitals.
Latta said he’s heard from some who have been able to navigate the system successfully, while others
report being told to repeatedly submit the same application, or being assigned a wait time on an appeal
of five to 10 years.
If that were the schedule of the appeal for a court case, "people would never accept that,"
Latta said.
In a separate incident, a doctor told him of a patient who couldn’t get a VA appointment and was worried
the cost of going to a hospital wouldn’t be covered. After an examination, the patient was scheduled for
emergency surgery and was still stressing over the cost after it was finished, Latta said.
"He was very concerned how the claim would be handled, and the cost of it. Those are things that
they (veterans) shouldn’t be worrying about. We want to make sure that there’s the reimbursement to
those non-VA providers."
Gerald Drake of Bowling Green, who served in the Army, got a phone call from the VA in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, earlier this month. They wanted to know if he would consider seeing a local optometrist
instead of waiting until November, which was the earliest he could get an eye exam from the Toledo VA
clinic.
A few days later, Drake learned that his regular optometrist, Dr. David Shilling, had agreed to accept a
VA contract for his exam. Drake saw the doctor Thursday for his exam and offered high praise for
Schilling.
"I just think it’s a wonderful approach" to address delays by expanding non-VA care, Drake
said.
"I’m a good example of it happening. Even though it was just an eye exam, it’s a start."
Another bill would require regional VA officers to ensure claims are addressed within a year of their
receipt.
"Otherwise they’ll just leave it sit on a desk," Latta said.
Latta said he’s hopeful that President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Shinseki as VA secretary, Robert
McDonald, will bring a fresh, effective approach to addressing the problems given his experience in
business.
"You don’t have successful companies unless they have happy customers," he said.
"These veterans are our customers they (the VA) need to be serving."

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