VA Inspector General Must Investigate PTSD Misdiagnoses
May 29th, 2008
Yesterday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and VoteVets.org sent a letter to the General for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) requesting an investigation into the process and manner by which the VA makes a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans.
Earlier this month, the two groups exposed an internal VA e-mail advising VA mental health staff in Texas to consider a diagnosis of adjustment disorder in place of a PTSD diagnosis as a cost-cutting measure, which stated the staff should “refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out” and they should “R/O [rule out] PTSD” and consider a diagnosis of “Adjustment Disorder” instead. Read the e-mail here.
Since that disclosure, there have been calls for investigations by members of Congress. VA Secretary James Peake has repudiated the email as not reflecting VA policy.
Also, since we exposed that email, both of our organizations have received new information from VA employees and veterans attesting to the fact that this practice is actually widespread and systemic:
the VA has adopted incentive programs that, by rewarding those employees and hospitals that distribute lower levels of compensation to veterans, encourage adjustment disorder diagnoses rather than the most appropriate but also more costly diagnosis of PTSD;
the VA’s internal computer system also permits medical files to be changed by health professionals who did not conduct the initial examinations, which has resulted in changed diagnoses from PTSD to adjustment disorder, even where there is no additional medical evidence to support the downgraded diagnoses; and
VA employees suffer retaliation for their failure to support these practices.
It is unconscionable that the VA would actively encourage its staff, through monetary incentives, to misdiagnose our veterans’ mental health. Add to that the mind-boggling disclosure that medical files can be altered to downgrade service members’ conditions, and we have a VA that is betraying those it is supposed to serve.
For the health and safety of veterans, the VA Inspector General must immediately begin an investigation into these abhorrent practices.
Our letter to the VA is available here.
Melanie Sloan is the executive director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
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