Jim Banks Asks VA Official Point Blank: ‘Is The VA Too Bureaucratic?’

11 hours ago

During a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) discussed the inefficiencies hindering the U.S. Department Of Veterans Affairs.

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Transcript

00:00Thank You, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Engelbaum, is the VA too bureaucratic?

00:05I

00:07Think federal government as a whole is the definition of bureaucracy.

00:10There are obviously places where we can create efficiencies and deliver services to veterans better than we-

00:16There absolutely are. There absolutely are in any large organization, but especially

00:21look, I

00:23can't be part of the VA because I'm dedicated to the mission of our veteran,

00:26but I know, and after speaking with a lot of folks, many of them,

00:30employees, veterans, there is a lot of bureaucracy there. We can do better. We will do better. We need to leverage.

00:35We need to flatline our management. We need to flatline organizations. We need to streamline mission.

00:40We need systems that can do what we need them to do. There's so much work that we have to do

00:46and as we've proven, more and more people, more and more money is not the answer.

00:50It's not saying that we won't put the money in the people where we need them, but it's not the answer.

00:56I agree. How would the Restore VA Accountability Act improve the VA workforce by giving supervisors more authority?

01:03There's nothing more disheartening to our workers themselves

01:09than having substandard employees around them.

01:11There's nothing, as everybody knows, that brings down an organization more

01:15by having employees that don't do what they need to do and you're unable to either remove them, take disciplinary action,

01:22or it becomes so painful that they continue to exist.

01:26What happens is we rely more and more heavily on our top performers, on our middle performers, and don't get me wrong,

01:32we have so many dedicated employees in the VA, so many people that have dedicated their lives, veterans, non-veterans, spouses,

01:39you name it. The vast majority are good, hard-working folks that want to do well,

01:43but we have those that don't and there's nothing that destroys an organization more and

01:48those employees working next to them know who they are.

01:52It's a morale issue. It's a performance issue. It's a workload issue.

01:57And we want to make sure that we have due process. That's really, really important, but we can't stymie

02:05leadership and management. And I always remind people,

02:09managers are part of that. They're employees too. We need to hold managers accountable. It's not an us versus them

02:16question. It's a matter of us as a team and everybody at every level have to be held accountable.

02:21Mr. Montoya,

02:22Senator Moran has legislation on the agenda to improve community care provider scheduling and

02:29Senator Hassan has legislation to improve

02:33internal VHA scheduling. Can you talk about how those two work together?

02:37And what improvements would veterans trying to get appointments see if both of those bills were enacted?

02:43Yeah, so I think, thanks so much for the question, Senator.

02:45I think, you know,

02:46I reflect on my time as a medical center director at three different stations as well as my most recent experience in the field.

02:52And where I see external provider scheduling working is that it reduces the amount of time that it takes for a veteran to get an

02:59appointment scheduled in the community. So, for example, without external provider scheduling,

03:04it takes roughly 30 minutes for a veteran to get scheduled in the community. Whereas with EPS,

03:09it's actually about seven minutes for that to happen.

03:11So it allows our scheduling staff, our team, to be more efficient as they're looking at the scheduling grids for other

03:19physicians in the community. So it really helps out and the two work, you know, together in collaboration

03:25to make sure that we're providing that care. Great. I hope we can get both of them done. Mr. Friel,

03:30what problems are you having

03:33disciplining veteran benefits claim agents today without any new legal authority?

03:38Yes, sir. Thank you for that question.

03:41So one of the concerns we have is that, you know,

03:43we've all heard the claim sharks and all of that. Right now, the only authority we have is from the

03:51Office of General Counsel to send a cease and desist order. We have no other

03:56ramifications outside of that. You know, they just change their business model and come back as someone new.

04:01So the ability to be able to actually prosecute people and make take action

04:06against people who are

04:08basically frauding our veterans and misusing them.

04:10Other than a cease and desist?

04:12Cease and desist. Yes, sir.

04:14Okay. What are the most common rules that claim agents or attorneys break?

04:16So, I'm sorry.

04:18Okay. So one of the major rules is that for an initial claim,

04:20there should not be any fees charged, right?

04:22And we have these agencies that go in and

04:24we have these agencies that go in and

04:26we have these agencies that go in and

04:28we have these agencies that go in and

04:30we have these agencies that go in and

04:32we have these agencies that go in and

04:34we have these agencies that go in and

04:36they promise veterans that we will

04:38help you get a better, you know, a good

04:40rating and then they

04:42charge on the back end for

04:44you know, they take a part of the retroactive payment,

04:46they take part of what their change is

04:48over the course of a period of time

04:50and they take money from our veterans

04:52who are entitled

04:54to that because of their level of disability.

04:56Seems really gross.

04:58I hope we can do something to crack down on it.

05:00Thank you very much. I yield back.

Jim Banks Asks VA Official Point Blank: ‘Is The VA Too Bureaucratic?’

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