Times Editorial Board

Audit found St. Cloud VA made inadvertent mistakes in tallying its ratios

Lawmakers should push for full accountability of those behind 'ghost panels'

Yet another audit of VA patient care efforts last week found more incredulous deception when it comes to caring for America's veterans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General found two VA health care systems — in Iowa City, Iowa, and Black Hills, South Dakota — assigned more than 2,300 patients to primary-care physicians who were not actually working at those facilities.

That's right. Veterans seeking primary care at these two sites had VA-assigned doctors who either had retired or resigned from those systems. The inspector general told The Associated Press there was no evidence patients were negatively affected because hospitals used other strategies to provide them needed care.

Rather, the audit delivers the message that these "ghost panels" were more about ways to make doctor-to-patient ratios look, at least on paper, more in line with federal requirements.

Several federal lawmakers are rightly calling for full accountability involving the VA staffers involved in creating and maintaining these panels. Remember, more than 2,300 veterans so it's not like it was a simple oversight. Instead, it seems much more probable there was deliberate deception.

And while the same audit determined the St. Cloud VA Health Care System did not do create "ghost panels," the inspector did find problems with how the local VA determined doctor-to-patient ratios. The investigation found the St. Cloud VA did not accurately represent the gains and losses of physicians and mid-level providers at the facility. The VA also failed to accurately report the number of primary care provider panel sizes at the facility.

No 'ghost panels' found at St. Cloud VA

The auditor did label the St. Cloud VA's mistakes as inadvertent. Still, public confidence would be buoyed with a thorough explanation from local VA leaders.

As for the more egregious violations in Iowa and South Dakota, federal lawmakers should continue to push the VA to thoroughly detail what went into such an extensive effort to hide doctor-to-patient ratios. And accountability for those actions must be clear to all Americans, but especially veterans who rely on the VA for health care.

It's no secret the VA system has been trying to rebuild public trust since reports broke a few years ago about endless wait times and other practices that showed veterans were not getting timely care.

The results of this audit rightfully renew concerns raised with those reports. Resolving them and rebuilding trust (again) will only happen if the VA's next steps include clear accountability and evidence that the practice has indeed ended.