VA Pittsburgh Mail Room Functions Probed

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Notices to some 14,000 area veterans of upcoming medical appointments have been delayed by two factors sparking an ongoing internal investigation of mail room practices .
Beth Miga, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh regional office of Veterans Affairs acknowledged Wednesday that an investigation was underway.
According to Miga some delays of up to three weeks were caused by a computer crash, while other shorter delays stemmed from the switching of contractors for mailing services.
As a result of the contract switch, she said, some 10,000 notices had to be mailed from VA facilities in Butler.
 "Due to a change in our mail metering services in June 2015, VA Pittsburgh used mail meter services at VA Butler Healthcare. This issue was not due to a lack of funding, but was an alternate way to send mail and continue to communicate with veterans about their VA care while we brought our new system online," Miga wrote in an email.
She said the mailings were "roughly one to two days" behind our usual schedule and "did not negatively impact the care we provide to veterans."
She said a new contractor, Pitney Bowes, was selected through a competitive process to replace Neopost USA which had the old expiring contract.
As for the computer crash, Miga said that while notices normally arrive several weeks before a scheduled appointment, the delayed notices arrived only a week ahead of the scheduled date.
"We did not have to cancel or reschedule any appointments due to recent mailing delays," she said in an email.
"The delay was due to an unexpected crash in the computer hardware that we use to generate these letters,"she added.
The scheduling of medical appointments and delays in treatment have been major issues in an ongoing review of VA care across the country.
Sparked by congressional inquiries and investigations by the VA's Inspector General charges have also surfaced that in some VA facilities, though not in Pittsburgh, records have been changed to hide lengthy delays in veterans getting needed services.
Former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned earlier this year in the midst of revelations about delayed health care for veterans.