Suit threatened over VA wait list

House panel chairman says court next step in bid for records

Surrounded by veterans and GOP House members, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., (left) chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, finishes a statement Thursday calling for changes in the veterans health-care system.
Surrounded by veterans and GOP House members, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., (left) chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, finishes a statement Thursday calling for changes in the veterans health-care system.

The House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman said he will ask a court to force the disclosure of documents related to a secret waiting list of patients in Phoenix, widening the dispute over veterans' health care.

"Our next step is federal courts," Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said Thursday.

Miller said he's preparing a lawsuit against the U.S. government in federal court in Washington. He's seeking documents from the Department of Veterans Affairs related to the destruction of a secret list kept by Phoenix VA hospital officials to hide excessive waiting times for patients seeking appointments.

Miller's panel on May 8 ordered the government to produce the documents, and he said the committee hasn't received them.

Pressure continued to grow for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign after an inspector general's report found "systemic" problems in health-care scheduling for veterans.

Shinseki on Thursday spoke privately with lawmakers and met with nearly two dozen veterans groups, assuring them that he takes the reports seriously and is moving swiftly to fix problems. Today, he is to address the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, outlining his plans for corrections.

Shinseki told the groups that he has directed the agency to immediately contact each of the 1,700 veterans waiting for primary-care appointments in Phoenix, an official said.

Shinseki is expected to deliver to President Barack Obama as early as today an audit assessing the breadth of misconduct at veterans hospitals.

Richard Griffin, the department's acting inspector general, reported that in reviewing 42 VA medical facilities, his office documented repeated instances of patient waiting lists being manipulated.

At the Phoenix VA facility, as many as 1,700 veterans were "at risk of being lost or forgotten" when the hospital left them off an official list of patients waiting to see a doctor, the report states.

The official list showed that veterans waited 24 days for their first primary-care appointment, while a more complete list -- which was kept secret -- showed the average waiting time was 115 days, according to the report.

The report states a 2010 VA study first disclosed many of the practices that manipulated patient waiting times.

Miller said he's drafting legislation that would require care be offered outside the VA system to veterans who waited at least 30 days for a medical appointment. The proposal, which would require reports from the VA to Congress on care provided under the new rules, has support from House Speaker John Boehner, said his spokesman, Michael Steel.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday that she would be open to supporting Miller's plan.

Pelosi has resisted calling for Shinseki to resign. "It's easy to call for somebody at the top to go," she said. "Is it a solution? Is it an answer? That remains to be seen."

Senate leaders are considering discussing legislation next week that would make it easier to dismiss VA officials for misconduct, said a Democratic leadership aide who sought anonymity to discuss the plans. A similar proposal passed the House, which has also voted to freeze bonuses for senior VA officials through the 2018 fiscal year.

A growing number of Democrats have joined Republican colleagues in urging Shinseki to resign.

Democrats calling for him to step down include some facing competitive races in November: Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia, Mark Udall of Colorado, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Al Franken of Minnesota, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and John Walsh of Montana.

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said Thursday, however, that he is not ready to call for Shinseki's ouster.

Pryor said that he is still looking at all the information about the scandal, including the inspector general's report.

"In terms of Shinseki's resignation, my view on that is -- not yet. I'm not going to call for that yet," Pryor said after a discussion with college students about loan debt.

"I have a lot of questions about what he knew. If they were cooking the books in Phoenix ... how could he have known? I want to spend some time looking at this."

The two-term senator said he hopes to visit the VA health-care facilities in Little Rock and Fayetteville and ask the administrators some questions guided by those raised in the report. Pryor said he's heard no indication that there have been secret waiting lists or cover-ups at the Arkansas facilities.

Rep. Tom Cotton, a 4th District Republican running against Pryor, has supported asking Shinseki to resign. His campaign issued a statement Thursday criticizing the senator for not joining the resignation call.

Also from Arkansas, Republican U.S. Reps. Tim Griffin and Rick Crawford and GOP congressional candidate Bruce Westerman, as well as Democratic congressional candidates Patrick Henry Hays and Jackie McPherson, all have issued statements calling for Shinseki's resignation.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael C. Bender, Derek Wallbank, Kathleen Hunter, Roxana Tiron, Angela Greiling Keane, Julie Bykowicz, Phil Mattingly and James Rowley of Bloomberg News; by Matthew Daly and Donna Cassata of The Associated Press; and by Claudia Lauer of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

A Section on 05/30/2014

Upcoming Events