I ve heard this several times, that the VA contracted with a health insurance actuary company to study certain medical issues of veterans and plot the expected life span of a veteran with that medical issue.

VA then uses this data to plan their denials and delays.


Is there any truth to this?


Paul

I have no way to tell if that is what they used the data for. If if is then get a rope, no, get a bunch of ropes!

But, to address the question of whether they contracted for a study for actuarial data, if they didn't, they should. Any other heathcare provider/insurer would have such people on staff on a full-time basis.

With the millions of Veterans that VA treats they don't need anything else. I do not believe that the VA is that cold I just think that they are inefficient and don't really care all that much. Its not personal with the VA they treat us all like dogs.

I dont think the VA "Plans" anything...the VA management style is "Management by putting out fires", and involves no planning. If they did "plan" anything, why would there be massive delays of VA education benefits, when they had more than a year to "plan" for it? Another example of "planning" is the VA's failure to plan the IT projects, which wind up costing Veterans $342 million. This money, which wont be deducted from VA management bonuses, comes directly out of monies that was supposed to find its way to Veterans.
The "VA" and "planning" are like "military" and "intelligence", that is, they are oxymorons and cant be used in the same sentence.

Au contraire (that's French)! They do the "studys", they are big on "studies"/"research"/etc. They spend millions on different studies. I worked for a company once upon a time. They did "studies" for the U.S. Army Crops of Engineers! The company I worked for was owned by this West Point Grad and retired Army General (three star, if I remember correctly). We were always doing "studies"--------he was always running around with his golf clubs and his plane......goin' to see ol General Whats-it, to see if we could get some more "study" work. Always had plenty of work. Never saw anything actually HAPPEN because of our "studies"! But, HEY, they were paying me out the wazoooooo.

They have used actuaries for years. The main purpose has been from what I can tell and my ex-wife is one is that they have been using the data to justify the budgets that they have requested. It is useful to have the information so that they can at least make an argument to congress. The VA employees love em or hate em have a vested interest in keeping the whole thing afloat.