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Omaha VA official acknowledges longtime use of waiting lists

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November 20th, 2017 by Ric Hanson

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Officials have acknowledged that secret waiting lists for psychotherapy appointments at Omaha’s U.S. Veterans Affairs Department hospital were used far longer than previously reported.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that a VA investigation dated Sept. 30, 2015, says the lists were used as far back as 2006 and were still used after the VA prohibited them in 2010 and after a 2014 scandal that eventually showed chronic delays, false paperwork and secret lists at VA hospitals across the nation.

The World-Herald reported last month the discovery of a separate, unauthorized Omaha list earlier this year. VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System Director Don Burman told the newspaper the VA made changes after the 2015 investigation. But he says some problems weren’t fixed properly, allowing use of a waiting list to recur.