EDITORIAL: VA issues offer preview of government-run care

In the wake of a 2014 patient wait-time scandal, Congress made the decision to allow the Veterans Administration to step up its use of private-sector doctors. It was good idea.

For years, VA employees at a variety of locations falsely reported patient wait times and covered up systemic malfeasance so they could collect bonuses at the expense of veterans’ health. If the agency can’t be privatized, the move to allow more vets to see private doctors was a step in the right direction.

Predictably, however, the VA botched the execution.

As The Wall Street Journal reported last week, an internal VA investigation exposed the agency’s highly dysfunctional system for paying for veterans’ outside care, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in improper travel claims.

According to an unnamed whistleblower whose claims spurred the 2018 probe, the payment problems are due to an antiquated system by which the VA sometimes pays outside doctors directly and other times uses a third party. The investigation, the Journal reported, found that only 51 percent of claims submitted for processing to the VA’s central billing center are considered valid. And when doctors don’t get paid, they respond as expected: They bill patients directly, cut off treatment or sell off delinquent accounts to collection agencies.

This creates hardship for veterans availing themselves of this option, of course. And as the Journal notes, the VA has known about these problems for years. But while VA officials are working to reduce the backlog of mishandled cases, investigators say the faulty system is receiving claims faster than it can handle them.

The whistleblower who alerted investigators to the billing problems, the Journal revealed, also shed light on the VA’s failure to properly track travel reimbursement payments to veterans. When vets must go long distances to VA facilities, they’re often eligible for stipends. The outdated system used for those claims was implemented in 1992, however, and has contributed to $224 million in improper reimbursements.

An update of the system intended to address these problems, though, won’t be in place until fiscal 2022.

While some veterans report no problems with the VA, the agency continues to be plagued by widespread missteps. Allowing veterans to bypass the system in favor of private care was a means to address those inefficiencies, but bureaucratic bungling has again intervened.

Consider this a preview of government-run health care for everybody.