VA Omaha Leaders Rig Consult System to Deny Veterans Access to Community Care 

The VA’s manipulation of wait-time data isn’t just a scandal—it’s a betrayal of veterans’ right to timely care. A recent investigation by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG) confirms what veterans, whistleblowers, and Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s previous investigations have been sounding the alarm on for years: VA leaders are deliberately rigging the system to block veterans from accessing Community Care. 

According to the OIG’s damning report, between March and April 2024, Omaha VA officials set a default 29-day “clinically indicated date” on specialty, primary, and mental health care consults—the key date that determines whether a veteran qualifies for Community Care under VA standards: 

The OIG substantiated the hotline allegations that the Omaha VA Medical Center manipulated the clinically indicated date field by implementing a default date in the electronic consult setup that providers use to make referrals. From March 7 through April 11, 2024, facility leaders implemented a prohibited 29-day default for the clinically indicated date field that applied to referrals for specialty care and for some primary and mental health care. 

This wasn’t a paperwork mistake or a system glitch. This was a policy decision, made after internal warnings that it would violate VA guidelines and federal law. 

The Result? Thousands of Veterans Denied Their Legal Right to Community Care 

Under the VA MISSION Act, veterans are supposed to be referred to Community Care if VA can’t provide an appointment within 20 days for primary or mental health care and 28 days for specialty care. But by artificially backdating the clock by nearly a month, Omaha VA leaders ensured that consults appeared to fall just under the eligibility threshold—even when real wait times stretched far longer: 

While a clinically indicated default date should not have been implemented in the first place, without clearly notifying staff and providers about the default and how to override it, the facility’s director and the chief of staff put veterans at risk of not getting the care they needed at the appropriate time. This risk was heightened because providers or those entering consults, such as nurses, were not made fully aware of the default date or how to override it. (emphasis added) 

The OIG found that this scheme potentially impacted more than 6,000 veterans. The true number may never be known, because the Omaha VA failed to track how many consults were altered by the default setting versus those set appropriately by providers. What we do know is that veterans who needed timely care were left waiting—or forced to navigate a VA bureaucracy determined to keep them trapped in a system that couldn’t meet their needs. 

Leadership-Driven Manipulation, Not an Accident

This wasn’t a rogue employee or a misunderstanding of the rules. The OIG’s investigation makes clear that the 29-day default was intentionally implemented by leadership—even after the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) and VA’s own Office of Integrated Veteran Care told them it was inappropriate: 

Both the medical facility director and the chief of staff were notified that default dates were not allowed, yet they intentionally disregarded both policy and direction from the VISN when they proceeded to implement the default date… When made aware of the prohibited default, the VISN group practice manager directed facility leaders to remove the default. However, facility leaders did not immediately do so and, instead, removed the default 19 days later. 

Why? Because Omaha leadership didn’t like that providers were marking clinically indicated dates that would qualify veterans for outside care. They believed too many consults were going to Community Care. 

Rather than working to provide timely VA appointments—or giving veterans the options they’re entitled to under the law—they rigged the system to pad their numbers and keep veterans in the dark. 

Veterans Deserve Better

The OIG’s report underscores that VA’s internal culture remains one where bureaucratic self-preservation is more important than veterans’ well-being. And it proves once again that without real accountability and transparency, veterans will remain at the mercy of a system incentivized to keep them waiting. New VA Secretary Doug Collins is trying to change that by “[p]roviding veterans the health care choices they were promised under the MISSION Act.”

Congress gave veterans the right to Community Care because it recognized that the VA alone can’t always meet their needs. But rights on paper mean nothing if the agency responsible for ensuring them plays games with the rules. 

It shouldn’t take an Inspector General investigation to uncover these schemes. Veterans deserve a VA that honors their service and follows the law by providing them choices—not barriers.