Daily Chronicle / Daily-Chronicle.com • Saturday, March 5, 2016
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STATE
Probe finds no secret wait lists 1 at VA hospital By JASON KEYSER
The Associated Press CHICAGO – An internal watchdog for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found patients faced delays accessing care at a suburban Chicago veterans’ hospital, but its report uncovered no evidence supporting a whistleblower’s claim of a scheme to hide the long wait times. The VA’s Office of Inspector General is releasing reports on its investigations at dozens of veterans’ facilities across the country over the next few months after pressure from members of Congress to improve transparency. Some of the other reports detail falsified records covering up the long waits. Intentional misconduct was substantiated in 51 of 77 completed investigations. The report on the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital, just west of Chicago, was released Thursday, although it was completed in January 2015. It uncovered no evidence to support the whistleblower’s claims that secret patient wait lists were used to hide long waits for treatment so supervisors would get bonuses. It did find that appointment schedulers, responding to direction from supervisors, made changes in a computer system that reduced the appearance of patient wait times. But it did not determine that data was manipulated intentionally to make the numbers look better. Investigators’ interviews with employees revealed uncertainty about how appointment data was supposed to be logged in “antiquated confusing scheduling software.” As a result, some of the data changes appeared meant to fix genuine clerical errors, the report said. Some employees told investigators that separate spreadsheets with appointment data had to be kept because the official software was so limiting, but they were not secret lists, as alleged. In a statement Friday, Hines said it has worked to correct scheduling
“Our most important mission is to provide the high quality health care and benefits veterans have earned and deserve.” Jane Moen
Assistant to the director at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital problems through training and regular audits. “Our most important mission is to provide the high quality health care and benefits veterans have earned and deserve,” said Jane Moen, an assistant to the Hines director. U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk has been especially critical of the Hines hospital and the VA in general. He rejected the report’s findings, citing a review by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel that called the investigation inadequate. Kirk, who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the VA, first brought attention to Hines during a scandal over veterans’ health care that emerged nearly two years ago after complaints that as many as 40 patients died while awaiting care at a VA hospital in Phoenix. “At the hearing I held last year, whistleblowers from Hines, Phoenix and Louisiana said nothing had changed – the culture of corruption still thrives at their hospitals and veterans wait months and years for appointments, often dying as they wait,” Kirk said in a statement Friday. Kirk also sent a letter to Deputy Inspector General Linda Halliday expressing concern at how the investigation was handled and demanding the release of all investigation documents and supporting material. The investigation at Hines included interviews with staff and a review of 245,000 emails. None of the emails pointed to an intentional falsification of wait time data.
ILLINOIS ROUNDUP
News from across the state Online sales set to expire for Illinois Lottery tickets
SPRINGFIELD – The state could miss out on funding if lawmakers don’t take action on a test program that allows Illinois Lottery tickets to be sold online before it expires March 25. The state likely will lose out on money for education and construction projects unless the measure to make online lottery sales permanent moves in the House, the Chicago Tribune reported. Lawmakers aren’t scheduled to return to the Capitol until April 4. Since Illinois became the first state to sell lottery tickets online in 2012, online ticket sales have brought in $68 million for education and construction projects, lottery spokesman Steve Rossi said. The amount the state stands to lose will depend on how long the program is inactive. But Republican state Rep. Ed Sullivan of Mundelein, who’s sponsoring the bill to make online sales permanent, said the state can’t afford to lose any money amid the state budget crisis.
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Alvarez asks for help on child support enforcement
CHICAGO – Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has asked a federal court to force the state of Illinois to pay $18 million the county says it’s owed for a child support enforcement program. A Friday statement from her office said the action is a response to the state budget impasse in Springfield that’s left Illinois without a budget for fiscal 2016. The 13-page motion to intervene was filed this week in a related case dating back to 1992. It led to a consent decree on state payments. A hearing on the motion is set for March 17. Alvarez argues the state and the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services haven’t reimbursed the money it costs to operate the program.
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Sanders’ message resonates at SIU
EDWARDSVILLE – Sen. Bernie Sanders’ call for free higher education is resonating on an Illinois college campus facing deep cuts in state funding amid an eight-month budget impasse.
The Democratic presidential candidate spoke Friday morning at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, where the primarily student audience packed a 4,000seat campus basketball arena, including on the gym floor and outer hallways. Sanders touched on familiar campaign themes, calling for campaign finance reform, marijuana decriminalization and increased corporate taxes. Southern Illinois is among the schools that have had to front scholarship money to students to cover expenses in the current school year. The Illinois governor and lawmakers remain unable to agree on a budget for the fiscal year that began in July 2015.
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Illinois boosts incentives for federal spy agency site
MASCOUTAH – The state of Illinois agreed Friday to commit an additional $60 million in road projects and for public transportation to help lure a federal spy agency considering a move from its longtime home near downtown St. Louis. Gov. Bruce Rauner disclosed the new commitment after a private meeting with National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Director Robert Cardillo at the St. Clair County site near Scott Air Force Base. U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk and other state and federal elected officials also participated. The added incentives, which the governor said as capital improvement projects can be promised despite a state budget impasse now in its ninth month, come as neighboring Missouri similarly jostles for the coveted $1.6 billion federal project.
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Company faces fines for lost radioactive device
SPRINGFIELD – A radioactive container that went missing last fall hasn’t been found, Illinois Emergency Management Agency officials said, and they want the company that lost it to pay $25,500 in penalties. Authorities started searching for the container in Illinois and Indiana in October after Wayne County Well Surveys Inc. of Fairfield notified the agency that it couldn’t locate the “radioactive well logging source holder.” It contains americium, a highly radioactive metal. On Thursday, the Agency said it issued a preliminary order seeking to impose the $25,500 penalty on the southeastern Illinois company. IEMA licenses the company’s possession and use of the device.
– Wire reports