Donovan Slack

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs did not mislead Congress when explaining wait times for health care last year, a new departmental investigation has concluded.

The investigation had been requested by lawmakers in light of news stories suggesting veterans were waiting far longer for medical care than the VA had reported.

VA executive Skye McDougall testified in a February 2015 congressional hearing that veterans were waiting only four days on average to get appointments at VA facilities she was overseeing in Southern California. But CNN later reported veterans there were waiting 10 times that long, spurring accusations from lawmakers that McDougall had deliberately misled them.

VA Secretary Bob McDonald tried to set the record straight earlier this year, telling Congress that McDougall had inadvertently understated wait times by two to seven days. But the questions remained.

The VA inspector general found in its investigation that McDonald's assertions were accurate, that McDougall had understated wait times by a matter of days, but CNN likely was using an entirely different measurement.

The allegations against McDougall have dogged her across the country.

When the VA announced last year she would move from California to take over VA facilities in the Southwest, including the Phoenix facility at the center of the VA's wait-time scandal, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other lawmakers decried the choice, given her flawed wait time testimony. McDougall opted not to take the job.

She went instead to her current post overseeing VA medical centers in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas, and once again faced angry calls from members of Congress who said they didn’t want her there.

Sen. David Vitter, R, and -La., and six other members of Congress from Louisiana said her appointment was “an insult to our veterans” while the entire congressional delegation from Mississippi signed a letter saying that given McDougall’s testimony, she “has proven to be, at the very least, untrustworthy.”

VA Inspector General Michael Missal, who took over that post in April, agreed to investigate at the behest of Vitter. The findings demonstrate some fundamental issues with the way the VA reports how long veterans wait for appointments.

His office found that during the period McDougall testified about, wait times for new patients at the Southern California facilities were between six and 11 days on average depending on the type of care — primary, specialty or mental health. That matched what McDonald had said in his letter earlier this year to Congress trying to set the record straight.

Nevertheless, nearly 2,000 veterans were waiting more than two months for appointments at the time, and more than 500 were waiting up to six months.

In addition, the agency reports the time between veterans’ desired appointment dates and their actual appointments but doesn’t include the full length of time veterans wait between scheduling an appointment and being seen.

For example, if a veteran calls the VA today, asks for an appointment in a week and gets one in two weeks, that’s a seven-day wait by the VA’s publicly reported measure even though the total wait was two weeks.

The inspector general concluded the wait times cited by CNN were likely based on the longer measure. The network, which reported average waits for new patients of 48 days for primary care and 36 days for mental health, declined to provide its data to the inspector general.

But data from a few weeks after the CNN report shows the waits — according to the longer measure — were between 50 and 71 days, according to the VA inspector general’s office.

“To avoid the perception of misrepresentation of wait times, it is imperative that VA, the media, and others clearly indicate both the source of the data, such as the specific data report, and the type of wait time measure being referenced,” the inspector general concluded.

VA officials concurred with the findings and said they are “committed to improving access to care and to ensuring any veteran with the requirement for urgent care will receive the right care at the right time.”

Some lawmakers, however, are taking issue with the investigation, saying it wasn’t comprehensive enough. Vitter told USA TODAY that he believes it was “an absolute waste of time and resources.”

“Not only did the report ignore the clear conclusion Skye McDougall misrepresented VA wait times — which she most certainly did when she lied before Congress — but it also directly contradicts individual facts from Secretary McDonald’s letter,” he said.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said the inspector general’s report seemed to be little more than "a cursory exercise in checking the box that was expressly designed to exonerate Skye McDougall rather than uncover the truth.”

Missal said in a statement to USA TODAY on Friday that his office sought to fulfill Congress’s request for the investigation in an “accurate, thorough, objective, and fair manner.” But Missal said he would be happy to look further into the matter if Congress requests it.

“We recognize that the issue of wait times and access is of great importance to all stakeholders, including veterans, Veterans Service Organizations, Congress and VA," he said. "Presently, we are completing a range of work on the topic that will examine the current state of access to care at VA.”

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