VA Health Care:
Allegations Concerning VA's Patient Mortality Study
HRD-89-80: Published: May 18, 1989. Publicly Released: May 18, 1989.
Additional Materials:
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In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed allegations that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) altered the design of a patient mortality study to obtain more favorable results, focusing on: (1) whether the Chief Medical Director or any other VA official attempted to give the appearance that VA had fewer quality assurance problems at its medical centers than actually existed; and (2) the decision to use a 99-percent confidence level to calculate summary hospital mortality data.
GAO found that: (1) neither the Chief Medical Director nor any other VA official inappropriately attempted to give the appearance that VA had fewer hospitals with higher-than-expected mortality rates than it did; (2) the Chief Medical Director initially decided to use a methodology that the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) used to determine mortality rates for Medicare patients in private-sector hospitals in order to obtain comparative mortality data; (3) the VA Office of Quality Assurance found that because of the differences in the databases and statistical tests used, it could not make any direct comparisons between the VA and HCFA mortality study results; (4) the Chief Medical Director's staff interpreted the Chief's insistence on using the HCFA methodology as instructions to alter the VA mortality study so that the results were similar to the HCFA study; and (5) although VA used both the 95- and 99-percent levels in its mortality study, a VA research specialist chose the 99-percent confidence level because it increased VA confidence that the hospitals identified had differences between the observed and expected mortality rates that VA considered meaningful.
Jan 14, 2021
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Prescription Drugs:
Department of Veterans Affairs Paid About Half as Much as Medicare Part D for Selected Drugs in 2017GAO-21-111: Published: Dec 15, 2020. Publicly Released: Jan 14, 2021.
Dec 10, 2020
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VA Construction:
VA Should Enhance the Lessons-Learned Process for Its Real-Property Donation Pilot ProgramGAO-21-133: Published: Dec 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 10, 2020.
Dec 9, 2020
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VA Disability Benefits:
Process for Identifying Conditions Presumed to be Service Connected and Challenges in Processing Complex Gulf War Illness ClaimsGAO-21-253T: Published: Dec 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 9, 2020.
Nov 12, 2020
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Veterans Health Care:
Agency Efforts to Provide and Study Prosthetics for Small but Growing Female Veteran PopulationGAO-21-60: Published: Nov 12, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 12, 2020.
Sep 30, 2020
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VA Health Care:
Additional Steps Could Help Improve Community Care Budget EstimatesGAO-20-669: Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020. -
Veterans Community Care Program:
Improvements Needed to Help Ensure Timely Access to CareGAO-20-721T: Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020.
Sep 28, 2020
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Veterans Community Care Program:
Improvements Needed to Help Ensure Timely Access to CareGAO-20-643: Published: Sep 28, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 28, 2020.
Sep 21, 2020
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VA Disability Benefits:
VA Should Continue to Improve Access to Quality Disability Medical Exams for Veterans Living AbroadGAO-20-620: Published: Sep 21, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 21, 2020.
Sep 16, 2020
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VA Acquisition Management:
COVID-19 Response Strains Supply Chain While Modernization Delays ContinueGAO-20-716T: Published: Sep 16, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 16, 2020.
Sep 9, 2020
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Veteran Suicide:
VA Needs Accurate Data and Comprehensive Analyses to Better Understand On-Campus SuicidesGAO-20-664: Published: Sep 9, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 9, 2020.
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