COVID-19
3 VA health workers have died of COVID-19. 776 have tested positive.
The casualties come in the wake of reporting that staff were short of protective masks and gloves and were required to report to work sick.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
COVID-19
Trump says he’s protecting veterans. VA workers say they’re forced to work without safety precautions.
Department of Veterans Affairs health workers exposed to COVID-19 are being forced to come to work without being tested for the virus, so long as they are not showing symptoms.
Benefits
Trump administration now says it won’t scrap VA anti-corruption law
“Such a waiver would foster a culture of corruption in the VA,” said Melissa Bryant, political director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
Benefits
5th senator slams blanket ethics waiver on for-profit college payments
The move, Sen. Tom Carper writes, represents “a drastic departure from the intent of Congress and weakens important ethics standards.”
Health Care
Obama signs new opiate safety law for veterans
President Barack Obama has signed sweeping new narcotics reforms into law that dramatically change the way the Department of Veterans Affairs dispenses and monitors dangerous and addictive opiates.
Education
Defense Department now reviewing University of Phoenix recruiting
The Defense Department has confirmed that it is reviewing whether recruitment practices by the University of Phoenix, the country’s largest benefactor of GI Bill funds, comply with federal law.
Benefits
Senators seek investigation of GI Bill funds at unaccredited schools
Eight U.S. senators are demanding that the Department of Veterans Affairs launch an inquiry into revelations that GI Bill tuition subsidies have flowed to questionable unaccredited schools.
Opiates
Congressional hearing reveals 4 more deaths at Tomah, Wisconsin, VA
A congressional hearing today revealed more unexpected deaths at the Tomah, Wisconsin, VA – known as “Candy Land” for the ease with which narcotic painkillers were prescribed – during Dr. David Houlihan’s decade as the hospital’s chief of staff.
Opiates
Nearly 100,000 veterans prescribed dangerous tranquilizer-opiate combo
Nearly 100,000 veterans currently are receiving prescriptions for both tranquilizers and narcotic painkillers from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a potentially deadly combination that is explicitly discouraged by agency guidelines.
Health Care
Wisconsin VA’s opiate overprescription harmed patients, report finds
A preliminary report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs revealed that runaway opiate prescriptions and a culture of fear created by hospital leadership compromised patient care and harmed the staff at the Tomah, Wisconsin, VA.
