{"id":9930,"date":"2018-07-18T14:49:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T14:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/18\/report-va-paid-for-thousands-of-unneeded-medical-exams-for-disabled-veterans\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:16:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:16:54","slug":"report-va-paid-for-thousands-of-unneeded-medical-exams-for-disabled-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/federal-oversight\/2018\/07\/18\/report-va-paid-for-thousands-of-unneeded-medical-exams-for-disabled-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: VA paid for thousands of unneeded medical exams for disabled veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Veterans Affairs<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/03\/14\/trump-wants-the-public-to-help-cut-waste-at-dod-va\/\" target=_blank> officials are on track to waste<\/a> more than $100 million over the next five years on tens of thousands of unnecessary medical exams for disabled veterans, according a report out this week from the department\u2019s watchdog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/06\/19\/va-watchdog-accuses-leadership-of-withholding-access-to-employee-complaints\/\" target=\"_blank\">The VA Inspector General\u2019s<\/a> findings are based off a sampling of re-examination cases last year that indicated department officials may have requested unneeded medical check-ups in 37 percent of benefits cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The exams are designed to see whether veterans\u2019 health has improved enough to warrant changes in their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/04\/05\/court-ruling-could-extend-disability-benefits-to-thousands-of-injured-veterans\/\" target=\"_blank\">disability payouts<\/a>. VA covers the cost of the exams, but the process can still be time-consuming and inconvenient for the veterans involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Investigators found that a sizable portion of cases that should be clearly exempt from those periodic checks \u2014 including ones where veterans have a permanent disability or where benefits changes are unlikely \u2014 were frequently ordered despite existing rules.<\/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\/07\/17\/va-gets-a-new-top-health-official-but-still-searches-for-a-permanent-nominee\/\" 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=\"214\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/26318460232_02aa39ee4c_o.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 gets a new top health official, but still searches for a permanent nominee<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Since President Donald Trump took office, VA officials have been unable to fill the department&#039;s top health post.<\/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\"><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They blamed the problem on ratings officials skipping over pre-exam reviews of veterans cases which would have alerted them to reasons to change the standard medical report schedules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe review team estimated that (the Veterans Benefits Administration) spent $10.1 million on unwarranted reexaminations during the six-month review period,\u201d the report stated. \u201cVBA would waste $100.6 million on unwarranted reexaminations over the next five years without instituting procedures to ensure employees only request necessary reexaminations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The inspector general noted that the numerous excessive exams also put additional pressure on claims processors and VA physicians, by increasing their workload without proper justification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VBA officials agreed with the bulk of the report and said they hope to implement new internal controls by this November to help address the problem. They are also planning more internal scrutiny of claims officials requesting the exams, to make sure they understand existing rules and processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The agency has also begun collecting data for recurring reports on how many unneeded exams are ordered, to get a better sense of the scope of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The full report is available at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/oig\/pubs\/VAOIG-17-04966-201.pdf\" target=_blank>the inspector general\u2019s web site<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br><\/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 reexamination requests by VBA and estimated that, from March through August 2017, VBA spent $10.1 million on unwarranted reexaminations. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fNIkuMldaf\">https:\/\/t.co\/fNIkuMldaf<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/y0BLnM2qAW\">pic.twitter.com\/y0BLnM2qAW<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Veterans Affairs OIG (@VetAffairsOIG) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/VetAffairsOIG\/status\/1019242198779514881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 17, 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>If the issue isn&#8217;t fixed, investigators warn, it could cost taxpayers more than $100 million in the next five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28604,"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":9,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[104,106,31,33,9],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3294],"class_list":["post-9930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acquisition-update","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters","category-federal-oversight"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"JL2TASZQPZGDNDBVWS5LIYUH4Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2018\/07\/18\/report-va-paid-for-thousands-of-unneeded-medical-exams-for-disabled-veterans\/","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 paid for thousands of unneeded medical exams for disabled veterans - Federal Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If the issue isn&#039;t fixed, investigators warn, it could cost taxpayers more than $100 million in the next five years.\" \/>\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 paid for thousands of unneeded medical exams for disabled veterans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If the issue isn&#039;t fixed, investigators warn, it could cost taxpayers more than $100 million in the next five years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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