An employee at a Wyoming clinic for the Department of Veteran Affairs was placed on administrative leave after investigators obtained an email indicating that employees were told to manipulate heath care appointments, VA officials told CNN.
The email, released to investigators by a Navy Chief Hospital Corpsman, was allegedly written by a Cheyenne clinic employee telling other employees to alter the appointment system.
They were to conceal the fact that veterans were made to wait months for an appointment, Lisa Lee, a scheduler who works at a Fort Collins, Colorado clinic that manages the Wyoming one, told CNN.
Employees were told to manipulate the system "because it made Cheyenne look good," according to the email obtained by CNN.
"Yes, it is gaming the system a bit. But you have to know the rules of the game you are playing, and when we exceed the 14 day measure, the front office gets very upset, which doesn't help us," the employee allegedly wrote. "Let me now if this doesn't make sense."
The employee has been placed on leave and removed from patient care duties, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told CNN. The unfolding scandal is to be investigated by the inspector general.
"VA takes any allegations about patient care or employee misconduct very seriously," Shinseki told CNN. "If true, the behavior outlined in the email is unacceptable."
But according to Representative Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the VA department knew about the intentional appointment delays "since last year."
"In fact, according to a Dec. 2013 VA Office of Medical Inspector report, clerks at the Fort Collins clinic were actually taught how to cook the books," Miller told CNN in a statement. "Yet until today, department officials had not taken any steps whatsoever to discipline any employees or request an independent investigation- nor did they plan to do so."
The committee subpoenaed Shinseki to testify next week, CNN reported.
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