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Agreed. This is tragic. These are the kinds of problems that I would have expected a military organization to have a pragmatic and robust solution to. I doubt y

Agreed. This is tragic. These are the kinds of problems that I would have expected a military organization to have a pragmatic and robust solution to. I doubt you can rely upon a solid wifi connection in a field situation, so I bet they have some pretty solid procedures in place so that a human reliably find what they need without the need to google it.

maxerickson 9y ago
Veterans Affairs is a cabinet level department, it isn't part of the DoD. It serves former military but it isn't military.
- nerdponx 9y ago
  That almost makes it worse. The fact that this level of incompetence nd negligence is coming from a cabinet level department is nauseating.
  - protomyth 9y ago
    Well, the Department of the Interior runs Indian Health Service with similar results and has been thrown off the internet because of incompetence, it’s not exactly surprising seeing a cabinet level department being this dysfunctional. I still wonder why the VA isn’t part of DoD?
    - skywhopper 9y ago
      I believe the primary reasoning is that the DoD is focused on national defense and military matters, and veterans care is a very different thing. In practice, the DoD will always prioritize military preparedness over care and benefits for former members of the military. US history (and I assume most history) is filled with examples of neglect of veterans' needs and failure to pay promised benefits in a timely or effective manner, from the Revolutionary War till today. The actual promotion of Veterans Affairs to a cabinet-level department in 1989 was in fact driven by the perceived need to ensure that more attention was paid to the government agencies that administered benefits that at the time covered a third of all Americans. Of course, whether that works or not depends a lot on Congress's willingness to adequately fund the department and the President's willingness to prioritize the VA over any of the many other priorities they must balance.
      - protomyth 9y ago
        At this point, the funding for the VA isn't the problem. They are beyond incompetent with the latest idiocy of hiring people with revoked licenses. The DoD does a lot, and it cannot do any worse at protecting their own. They at least won't take months to just signup.
        sambull 9y ago
        How much does a VA doctor make?
        kaitai 9y ago
        They're in the bottom 10th percentile of doctor salaries in my metropolitan area (middle of the country, not very high COL). Recruitment of docs at the VA isn't funded like recruitment in private practice, so they can't advertise as widely and can't pay for prospectives doctors' lunches (much less whiskey tastings). Credentialing now takes six months, due to the previously-mentioned high profile hirings of people without credentials. There's reasonably high satisfaction among docs actually at the high-performing VAs, but people tend to work there because they believe in the mission or don't want to deal with insurance company rationing of care, not because they want to earn lots of money. source: family member is VA doc attempting to hire more docs to the VA. If you know internal medicine doctors who are looking for a place where evidence-based care is prioritized and insurance status isn't a factor, tell them to apply to their local VA or one of the high-performing ones they might want to move to! (https://www.va.gov/qualityofcare/measure-up/End_of_Year_Hospital_Star_Rating.asp https://www.va.gov/qualityofcare/measure-up/End_of_Year_Hosp...)

maxerickson 9y ago

Veterans Affairs is a cabinet level department, it isn't part of the DoD. It serves former military but it isn't military.

nerdponx 9y ago
That almost makes it worse. The fact that this level of incompetence nd negligence is coming from a cabinet level department is nauseating.
- protomyth 9y ago
  Well, the Department of the Interior runs Indian Health Service with similar results and has been thrown off the internet because of incompetence, it’s not exactly surprising seeing a cabinet level department being this dysfunctional. I still wonder why the VA isn’t part of DoD?
  - skywhopper 9y ago
    I believe the primary reasoning is that the DoD is focused on national defense and military matters, and veterans care is a very different thing. In practice, the DoD will always prioritize military preparedness over care and benefits for former members of the military. US history (and I assume most history) is filled with examples of neglect of veterans' needs and failure to pay promised benefits in a timely or effective manner, from the Revolutionary War till today. The actual promotion of Veterans Affairs to a cabinet-level department in 1989 was in fact driven by the perceived need to ensure that more attention was paid to the government agencies that administered benefits that at the time covered a third of all Americans. Of course, whether that works or not depends a lot on Congress's willingness to adequately fund the department and the President's willingness to prioritize the VA over any of the many other priorities they must balance.
    - protomyth 9y ago
      At this point, the funding for the VA isn't the problem. They are beyond incompetent with the latest idiocy of hiring people with revoked licenses. The DoD does a lot, and it cannot do any worse at protecting their own. They at least won't take months to just signup.
      - sambull 9y ago
        How much does a VA doctor make?
        kaitai 9y ago
        They're in the bottom 10th percentile of doctor salaries in my metropolitan area (middle of the country, not very high COL). Recruitment of docs at the VA isn't funded like recruitment in private practice, so they can't advertise as widely and can't pay for prospectives doctors' lunches (much less whiskey tastings). Credentialing now takes six months, due to the previously-mentioned high profile hirings of people without credentials. There's reasonably high satisfaction among docs actually at the high-performing VAs, but people tend to work there because they believe in the mission or don't want to deal with insurance company rationing of care, not because they want to earn lots of money. source: family member is VA doc attempting to hire more docs to the VA. If you know internal medicine doctors who are looking for a place where evidence-based care is prioritized and insurance status isn't a factor, tell them to apply to their local VA or one of the high-performing ones they might want to move to! (https://www.va.gov/qualityofcare/measure-up/End_of_Year_Hospital_Star_Rating.asp https://www.va.gov/qualityofcare/measure-up/End_of_Year_Hosp...)