What possibly has gotten lost in the headlines and back and forth exchanges between the governor and VA officials – is that the report on delayed diagnosis and treatment leading to possible death and injury of veterans in the Florida VA system was the result of an internal review."We do extensive reviews internally and we welcome external reviews", said Mary Kay Hollingsworth.
Hollingsworth is communications director for the VA region that includes Florida, south Georgia and the Caribbean. As to the state regulators seeking access to their federal records – Hollingsworth says the VA’s deputy under-secretary for health has spoken several times with Florida’s top health care regulator.
"We have released some documentation sharing with them the extensive, internal processes that we have in place", Hollingsworth said. "There were some documents that they requested that we were unable to provide them because they contain patient information."
But that has not been enough to satisfy Gov. Rick Scott.
"There should be complete transparency", said Scott. "If you’re not going to talk about it, if you’re not going to share the information, how are we going to know how they’re going to solve it."
That was Scott during a press conference at a Tampa American Legion hall in late April. It was there that he was asked if veterans should not use the VA until he had that transparency.
"What I know is we’ve been told there are deaths", Scott said. "We’ve been told there are injuries and we’ve been told they won’t allow us to come in and help them. They won’t tell us where it happened why it happened what the corrective action is. That’s wrong. I mean, It’s our tax dollars doing this and its our veterans."
But one of those veterans has been alarmed by kind of message that veterans could be receiving from the recent barrage of negative news.
"We noticed that the newer generation of veterans are somewhat reluctant to receive care at the VA", said
John Pickens III, a Vietnam veteran who worked decades for the VA but is retired and now runs a non-profit financial counseling service for veterans.
"I don’t want young veterans who are on the fence about receiving care at the VA, I don’t want them to be influenced by unfair media or political attacks", Pickens said.
But there will be more headlines - when Florida Congressman Jeff Miller - chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs - holds a “field hearing” on the VA internal investigation.
"I think the problem is in the size of the bureaucracy, it’s the second largest agency in the federal government over 330,000 employees", Miller said. "The vast majority of those employees are doing great work. veterans will tell you today that the health care that they receive once they get into the system, is excellent health care."
Miller has held previous congressional hearings in Washington, but says his committee is still waiting on answers and documents. He blames mid-level managers - not former general now VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.
"I believe that Secretary Shinseki wants to do the right thing. But the fear that I have is that he is not being told the truth by his subordinates", said Miller.
While the state of Florida has no legal right to those VA documents – congress does according to Jay Woflson, an attorney and distinguished service professor of public health at the University of South Florida.
Wolfson says it’s not unreasonable to have a field hearing no matter who asked for it.
"If it uses it not just for political purposes, which it will, but to do genuine fact finding for the purposes of improving care and services and efficiencies and the use of scarce resources, that is always a good thing", said Wolfson. "But count on a reasonable, if not substantial portion of the process, being political."
Wolfson says we live in a political system and veterans are a prized part of that system especially in a political year.