By Walter F. Roche Jr.
An audit of the Veterans Administration Pittsburgh regional office has found substantial improvements but still identified $496,000 in improper payments from 2008 to 2014.
The 19-page audit by the VA Inspector General was issued Wednesday and while it acknowledged improvements, found that further corrections are needed.
"Overall 10 of the 84 (12 per cent) claims reviewed contained processing inaccuracies that resulted in approximately $496,000 in improper payments made from Feb. 2008 to Sept. 2014," the report states.
In addition to those regular claims errors, the auditors found that 8 of 30 claims for temporary assistance were not properly handled.
The report did cite a significant improvement in the handling of claims for traumatic brain injuries with all 30 claims reviewed found to be handled correctly.
"We noted significant improvement in the number of processing errors from 2011," the report concludes.
The Pittsburgh regional office serves some 500,000 veterans residing in 27 western Pennsylvania counties plus four counties in West Virginia. The staff processes disability claims from area veterans.
According to the audit one veteran was improperly paid $216,392 over six years while another got $98, 277 over a two year period.
Six errors occurred when VA staffers failed to take "timely action" to schedule required medical exams.
Other errors included continued payments to prostate cancer victims when they no longer met medical qualifications for assistance.
The IG reported that Pittsburgh VA officials generally concurred with the findings though they argued that some of the errors should have been classified as "workload issues" rather than quality issues.
