Veterans Groups Say VA Should Have Done More To Alert Rejected Applicants During Efforts To Shrink Backlog Of Requests
The Department of Veterans Affairs sent out one rejection letter to each of the 208,272 applicants in 2016 before purging them from the backlog, despite requests that the agency send an additional letter.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Veterans Affairs Axed 208,272 Health Care Applications This Year
An arm of the Veterans Affairs Department in Atlanta eliminated 208,272 applications from across the country for health care early this year amid efforts to shrink a massive backlog of requests, saying they were missing signatures or information about military service and income, according to records reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Veterans groups say the VA should have done more to communicate with the veterans before closing their applications, some of which date back to 1998. (Redmon, 7/15)
In other veterans' health care news —
Modern Healthcare:
Case Western Reserve, Cleveland VA To Train More Nurses For Primary Care
Though nurses have traditionally been employed in inpatient acute-care settings, more and more nurses are now playing a larger role in providing and coordinating care across the continuum of care. As services move from inpatient to outpatient services, Case Western Reserve University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center are teaming up to help address that shift. (Coutre, 7/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
VA Names First AI Director
The Department of Veterans Affairs last week named Harvard Medical School professor Gil Alterovitz as its first director of artificial intelligence, putting him in charge of coordinating and building capacity for the agency’s AI research-and-development activities. (McCormick, 7/16)
