Congresswoman Sinema takes action after ABC15 investigation into VA national call center

[lonestarnot]

Source: ABC News

An ABC15 Investigation is prompting an Arizona Congresswoman to take action to help America’s veterans get the help they’ve earned.

Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) promises to talk to Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Secretary Robert McDonald about time restrictions put on employees of the VA’s national call centers.

“I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be a widow who’s calling about benefits,” Sinema said. “To have someone who’s required to shuttle you off the phone in less than ten minutes is, in my opinion, a harsh way to deal with somebody who is dealing with such great stress.

Read more: Link to source

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Good luck Ms. Sinema!

[Jackpine Radical]

1. If Congress had put more money into the VA, this wouldn't be happening.

They cut off the VA's legs & are now beating on it for being short.

I'm a disabled vet, and the VA has always treated me well, despite being chronically short-staffed.

[lonestarnot]

2. Glad to hear it man.

Have you tried calling them recently?

[Jackpine Radical]

3. This morning.

I have some claims hanging out & they're frantically trying to resolve them; I apparently got on an "Expedite" list when I turned 70 last month.

[lonestarnot]

4. Do you know that the person you talked to can be paid a performance bonus at the end of the year for

concluding their conversation with you in less than 7.5 minutes? And can be fired, demoted or receive a personnel action for over 8.5 minutes? That is what the news is saying as demonstrated with VA's own document. Glad you were taken care of with the expeditious processing due to age.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I don't deny that there have been huge problems in the VA, but they are mostly funding-related.

Yes, the call problem is real, but again it arises from underfunding the organization & not preparing it for the load it has had to assume with the combined output of human wreckage from our current wars plus the aging geezers from Vietnam like me who are starting to file claims.

The ordinary personnel of the VA are too often set up to take the hits that arise from conditions outside their control. Consider the pressure they are under--an administrator who is told to eliminate a backlog of calls but given no additional resources to do it. Solution? Put pressure on the phone staff to shorten calls & get more done per day. The result? People often get poor service. The supervisor shows increased productivity. Then the Congresscritters start getting complaints brought about by their own Starve the VA policies, so they shuffle the blame to the VA.

[lonestarnot]

9. "...aging geezers from Vietnam..."why do you lack respect for yourself? .. Bck to topic

Thus limiting $'s going to vets in the form of benefits they have earned by serving thus violating the Lincoln contract.

[lonestarnot]

10. Perhaps the policy is intended to rein in expenditures.

[rhett o rick]

6. Most likely if the person on the phone extended the call as appropriate, many other callers wouldn't

even get thru. It's a funding issue. They need to hire more personnel.

[lonestarnot]

7. In not having adequate staff, and limiting conversations with vets calling regarding a plethora of

benefits, the policy is tantamount to suppression of benefits.

[rhett o rick]

8. I think that's the problem we are seeing. nm

[Puppyjive]

11. VA has still has some house cleaning to do.

I use to work at a VA clinic. The current manager at the clinic has told me and several others that she does not like to hire veterans, does not have to hire veterans and the veterans that do work at the clinic talk to the patients too much. She said the veteran employees get sick too much and she only wants to hire people with experience. What she fails to see is that the veteran patients respond better to employees that are veterans. She also fails to see that her veteran employees have also been her most reliable employees. She doesn't understand that many of the veteran employees do have extensive knowledge in health care which they learned through extensive training and in the battlefield. She collects an enormous paycheck and does zero percent community volunteer work. She does not attend any functions that honor or help veterans. She is not compassionate and does not like interacting with patients at all. She is one of the thousands that need to go.

The VA has a lot of work to do to make things right. As a former employee and a veteran, I am astonished at the lack of professionalism. What is more astonishing is that it is not the lower paid employees that are immoral, it is those at the top. And yes, the VA call centers are inhumane and delay health care. Mental health has fallen off the radar as well, becoming virtual, rather than one on one.