{"id":20825,"date":"2018-08-21T19:35:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T19:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/08\/21\/report-va-may-have-mishandled-thousands-of-sexual-assault-cases\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:33:15","slug":"report-va-may-have-mishandled-thousands-of-sexual-assault-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/veterans\/2018\/08\/21\/report-va-may-have-mishandled-thousands-of-sexual-assault-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: VA may have mishandled thousands of sexual assault cases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Veterans Affairs officials may have improperly denied benefits to thousands of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/11\/26\/congress-advances-new-sexual-assault-harassment-rules-for-the-military\/\" target=_blank>military sexual assault victims<\/a> in recent years due to paperwork and procedural mistakes, according to a department<a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/oig\/pubs\/VAOIG-17-05248-241.pdf\" target=_blank> inspector general report<\/a> released Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Investigators estimate that during a six-month stretch in 2017, VA officials may have wrongly refused benefits in more than 1,300 cases, potentially traumatizing victims seeking help that previous administrators had promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c(The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/02\/22\/trump-nominates-new-top-benefits-official-for-va\/\" target=_blank>Veterans Benefits Administration<\/a>) did not always fulfill its obligation to help veterans prove their military sexual trauma-related claims,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cStaff did not follow required procedures for processing these claims, which potentially resulted in undue stress to veterans as well as a denial of compensation benefits for victims of MST who could have been entitled to receive them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2018\/06\/19\/va-watchdog-accuses-leadership-of-withholding-access-to-employee-complaints\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP_17067064238464.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">VA watchdog accuses leadership of withholding access to employee complaints<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">In response, the acting VA secretary accused the inspector general of overstepping his authority and hurting the department&#039;s image.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In response, VA officials have promised a review of all denied military sexual trauma claims dating back to October 2016, with a goal of updated decisions by fall 2019. They also promised updated training for hundreds of claims processors and managers, to avoid similar problems in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the IG report, among the most common reasons for incorrect rejections was staff failing to request medical examinations even when existing evidence mandated one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under VA guidelines established in 2011, department processors are instructed to take a \u201cliberal approach\u201d when reviewing military sexual trauma claims because of established problems with documentation and reporting of such assaults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unlike other medical claims where a simple records review may determine validity of a case, the guidelines mandate that staff speak to veterans about the circumstances of their assault, look for \u201ccredible evidence\u201d of post-assault stress, and consider outside medical records that support the claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c(Staff) may deny an MST-related claim without a medical examination only if there is no evidence of the stressor, no evidence of a behavioral marker, or no evidence of symptoms of a mental disorder,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet in numerous cases, claims processors never reached out to veterans or rejected their claims based solely on a lack of evidence in their military records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fiscal 2017 alone, the Veterans Benefits Administration rejected about 5,500 military sexual trauma claims. The IG report found that of the cases they sampled, 49 percent were missing follow-up interviews, new medical examinations or other significant procedural work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The full report is available on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/oig\/pubs\/VAOIG-17-05248-241.pdf\" target=_blank>the inspector general\u2019s web site<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The OIG reviewed whether staff correctly processed veterans\u2019 MST\u2011related claims in accordance with VBA procedures prior to denying the claims. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6E6wq5e49S\">https:\/\/t.co\/6E6wq5e49S<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yuxEhstFG5\">pic.twitter.com\/yuxEhstFG5<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Veterans Affairs OIG (@VetAffairsOIG) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/VetAffairsOIG\/status\/1031935364225794048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 21, 2018<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The inspector general estimates that half of cases handled by VA recently may have ignored proper processing rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":21,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["veterans","news","middle-column","home","left-column","pentagon-congress"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"5":{"categories":["veterans","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home","pentagon-congress"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"6":{"categories":["veterans","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home","pentagon-congress"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"7":{"categories":["veterans","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home","pentagon-congress"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"8":{"categories":["federal-oversight","home","daily-brief","newsletters"],"primary_category":"federal-oversight"}}},"categories":[101,24,88,89,16,26,65,21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3328],"class_list":["post-20825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"2SW5LEK2MNAGXNRZ4PIMGQIIGQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2018\/08\/21\/report-va-may-have-mishandled-thousands-of-sexual-assault-cases\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Report: VA may have mishandled thousands of sexual assault cases - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The inspector general estimates that half of cases handled by VA recently may have ignored proper processing rules.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Report: VA may have mishandled thousands of sexual assault cases\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The inspector general estimates that half of cases handled by VA recently may have ignored proper processing rules.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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