A whistleblower claims a Department of Veterans Affairs contractor
that was paid millions of dollars to review Vietnam veterans' medical
files ended up cheating veterans out of benefits.
In Sunday's edition of "Full Measure,"
host Sharyl Attkisson takes a look at QTC Medical Services. The company
is owned by Lockheed Martin, and a former employee who said he was
fired after sounding the alarm over misconduct thinks QTC was too
focused on its own bottom line rather than veterans' health.
David Vatan's role was to review Vietnam vets' files to determine if
they were eligible for additional health benefits stemming from their
exposure to the Agent Orange chemical. Some of his co-workers did not
take the proper time to review the files, which led to a large number of
vets being denied benefits.
Vatan, who has a background in medicine, confirmed that QTC was paid
$300 to $350 per file. He said that led to management setting goals as
to how many files the staff could get through.
"I noticed that some of my co-workers are reviewing claim folders a
lot faster than I did, and then I realize some of them do not have the
necessary background to review and understand the highly complex medical
records," Vatan told Attkisson. "And, much to my surprise, some of them
had only high school education."
Vatan said he took his time and got through five or six files per
day. Some of his co-workers, however, would plow through 50 or even 60.
No comments:
Post a Comment