On our debut pilot, reporter Aaron Glantz uncovered how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been prescribing highly addictive pain medications at an alarming rate. He returns to the show to discuss how lawmakers might address the spike in opiate prescriptions.
Health Care for Veterans
Long waits, shoddy care and overprescription of opiates have long marred the VA health system.
Posted inHealth Care for Veterans, Opiates, Returning Home to Battle
Ex-VA doctor says she was forced out after limiting opiate prescriptions
Dr. Basimah Khulusi says she was forced out of her job as a rehabilitation specialist at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Kansas City, Mo., after patients complained that she would not prescribe high doses of opiates. She says many of her patients had been addicted to opiates for years yet received escalating doses […]
Posted inHealth Care, Health Care for Veterans, Returning Home to Battle
The drama of an investigation
Playwright Jon Bernson turned an investigative report about female veterans’ struggles into a one-act play.
Posted inHealth Care, Health Care for Veterans, Opiates, Returning Home to Battle
The VA’s pain pill habit
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the number of opiate prescriptions by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has skyrocketed. In some cases, the VA has prescribed drugs to known addicts.
Posted inBenefits, Health Care for Veterans, Returning Home to Battle
Infographic: Veterans waiting longer
The Department of Veterans Affairs tracks and widely reports the average wait time for benefits: 273 days. But internal data indicate that veterans filing their first claim, including those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, wait nearly two months longer.
Posted inBenefits, Health Care for Veterans, Returning Home to Battle
Despite VA pledge to improve, more veterans face long wait for benefits
Army veteran Michael Grabski and his wife, Sandra, search real estate websites in their Napa apartment. The Department of Veterans Affairs expedited Grabski’s 2-year-old claim for post-traumatic stress disorder and a knee injury after his case received media attention.Michael Short/Center for Investigative Reporting Under fire for its growing backlog of disability benefits claims, the U.S. […]
Posted inBenefits, Health Care for Veterans, Returning Home to Battle
Accuracy isn’t priority as VA battles disability claims backlog
Video: Adithya Sambamurthy | Read full transcript U.S. Navy cook Hosea Roundtree watched the 1983 shelling of Beirut from the deck of a ship, feelings of helplessness washing over him as people perished onshore. That memory haunted him, resurrected in flashbacks eight years later after a tour in the Gulf during Operation Desert Storm. But […]
Posted inBenefits, Health Care for Veterans, Returning Home to Battle
Video: Errors at the VA
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs denied Navy veteran Hosea Roundtree’s disability benefits claim for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, saying it could find no evidence that he was in combat. When a VA claims processor tried to intervene, she says she was forced out. Veterans’ advocates say Roundtree’s case illustrates the VA’s priorities: productivity […]
Posted inHealth Care for Veterans, Returning Home to Battle
Document: VA grills worker after CIR interview
The Department of Veterans Affairs wouldn’t talk to the Center for Investigative Reporting about why Jamie Fox lost her job. But in a sworn deposition, Assistant U.S. Attorney Victoria Carradero grilled Fox about our investigation, asking her about the time and place of our interview with her and the questions we asked.
Posted inBenefits, Health Care for Veterans, Returning Home to Battle
Video: Veterans’ disability benefits delayed
Marine Cpl. David Smith has struggled with PTSD since returning from duty in Iraq. The UC Berkeley student waited more than a year for approval of his disability benefits claim. TRANSCRIPT: [On-screen text: Marine Cpl. David Smith, now a political science student at UC Berkeley, has suffered from PTSD and depression since returning from Iraq. […]