releases: https://web.archive.org/web/20140919062410/http://coffman.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/new-evidence-va-inspector-general-made-false-report-on-veteran-deaths-in
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
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| https://web.archive.org/web/20140919062410/http://coffman.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/new-evidence-va-inspector-general-made-false-report-on-veteran-deaths-in | NEW EVIDENCE: VA Inspector General Made False Report on Veteran Deaths In Phoenix | 2014-09-18 | 2014 | 2014-09 | Republican | House | CO | Mike Coffman | C001077 | web.archive.org | legacy | The Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Veterans Affairs briefed congressional staff with numbers on veteran deaths in Phoenix that were much higher than the ones included in the official OIG report. New evidence obtained by The Daily Caller further discredits a widely-publicized OIG report which stated that no conclusive evidence can prove that exam delays from secret waiting lists at the Phoenix VA Medical Center caused veteran deaths. VA leaked the somewhat-favorable OIG report to the press before it was published. But OIG staff did a veritable 180-degree turn at a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday. Assistant Inspector General for Healthcare Inspections Scott Daigh admitted that he could not conclusively assert that wait lists did not contribute to veteran deaths, that he did not include that information in the OIG report, and that secret wait lists did, in fact, contribute to veteran deaths. OIG also admitted that it did not review all veteran case files to look for instances of delayed care resulting in death. “We don’t know how they died or why. Nor do you,” VA Acting Inspector General Richard J. Griffin snapped at Rep. Mike Coffman during one divisive point in the hearing. Prior to the hearing, OIG briefed congressional staff with numbers on veteran deaths that differed significantly from the ones presented in the report. OIG slides shown to Capitol Hill staff, obtained by TheDC, showed that 293 Phoenix-area veterans died while awaiting care on official and unofficial lists. But the OIG report said merely that “up to 40″ veterans may have died, and did not mention any deaths beyond 40. The slides also report that 44 patients died while on the VA’s electronic waiting list (EWL). But the OIG report only mentioned 40 EWL deaths at Phoenix, identifying the patients as those “who died while on the EWL during the period April 2013 through April 2014.” | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |