Still working on this VA page.
In general, the culture of the VA is corrupt and has been corrupt for many years.
Cooking the books on their service measurements to make bonus goals is just the tip of the problem. Since the books were cooked for bonuses all bonuses were canceled for the VA. Since they thought they were entitled to more money, some senior administrators arranged musical chair transfers around the country and made substantial “bonuses” by abusing the very generous moving allowances. They were caught and slapped on the wrist.
Current plans for limited vouchers for veterans health care is just a band-aid. What is needed is an amputation. We now have a well developed hospital infrastructure. We no longer need a parallel hospital system for veterans. We should transition all VA paid health care to vouchers with a high reimbursement rate to make them sought by providers anywhere. Then we should shut down the hospitals and clinics leaving only a skeleton crew at the Veterans Health Administration to make determinations of benefits and hand out vouchers. We should then take a hard look at the rest of the VA to see how far the corrupt culture has penetrated. This is a very big agency with around 250,000 employees.