Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala) at a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing last month raised the possibility of creating a special commission to examine the VA’s disability claims process. This comes on the heels of recommendations from the Government Accountability Office which said the VA needs to improve management of compensation programs and update its disability ratings schedule and also following reports in the Washington Post about fraud within the VA disability program.
As reported in Military Times “according to Tuberville, the panel would be similar to the VA’s Commission on Care, which reviewed the VA’s health care system in the mid-2010s and made recommendations on veterans’ medical services. The VA also had an Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission that reviewed the VA hospital system in the early 2020s and made recommendations to modernize it. Those efforts resulted in mixed success, with some recommendations adopted, such as consolidating the VA’s community care programs, and expanding access to urgent care and emergency care. But others, including the AIR Commission’s recommendations to realign or close dozens of medical centers and clinics, were blocked.”
The Washington Post’s series of articles about VA disability have come under fire. Witnesses and lawmakers at the Senate hearing slammed the reports, calling them “harmful” and “shaming,” blaming all veterans for the actions of a few bad actors. Senator Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) the committee’s ranking Democrat argued that “the articles fail to understand or capture the purpose of [disability compensation]. Instead, they cherry pick anecdotes to wrongly claim that disability benefits system is fraught with widespread fraud,” Blumenthal acknowledged that some fraud may occur but said that the system should not be abandoned as a result.
VA Inspector General Cheryl Mason says that the vast majority of fraud investigations by her office involve fraud perpetrated against Veterans. Less than 4% of their investigations are allegations of fraud by Veterans.
