“…In April 2017, the VA Secretary ordered an internal review following concerns reported by Congress and in the media that veterans and their caregivers were being inappropriately discharged from the Family Caregiver Program…”
“The OIG conducted its audit from June 2017 through June 2018. The audit team selected a random sample of 250 unique veterans from the 1,822 veterans approved to participate in the Family Caregiver Program, and a random sample of 250 unique veterans from the 1,604 veterans who were discharged from the program from January 1 through September 30, 2017…”
“VHA failed to effectively run the Family Caregiver Program because it did not establish governance that promoted accountability for program management. As a result, medical facility directors operated the Family Caregiver Program without performance goals to evaluate application processing timeliness, the accuracy of initial program eligibility determinations, and the consistency of monitoring enrolled veterans and their caregivers. Furthermore, there were no requirements that veterans’ program eligibility and need for care were reassessed as a result of the routine monitoring sessions that CSCs are required to perform four times a year. In addition, some Veterans Integrated Service Network directors suffered a compromised ability to effectively monitor the consistent operation of the program across their networks. These directors assigned the CSP oversight and monitoring duties to facility CSCs. These assignments poorly positioned program leads who were responsible for providing oversight across the network through quality assurance audits, but were also responsible for operating a facility-level Family Caregiver Program in the same network. In addition to these governance issues, VHA did not establish a staffing model to ensure medical facilities were well equipped to manage the program’s workload, including processing veteran and caregiver applications and routine monitoring of the veteran and their caregiver…” Read the full report here.
Source: Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers: Management Improvements Needed – August 16, 2018. VA OIG.
