Federal Reports

The audit objectives were to determine whether program funds were managed in accordance with the ARC and Federal grant requirements.

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Healthcare Facility Inspection program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the care provided at the VA Altoona Healthcare System in Pennsylvania. 

This evaluation focused on five key content domains:
     •    Culture
     •    Environment of care
     •    Patient safety
     •    Primary care
     •    Veteran-centered safety net

The OIG issued two recommendations for VA to correct identified deficiencies in two domains:
   1.    Patient safety
     •    Service-level workflows for test result communication
   2.    Primary care
     •    Standardized process to obtain documents from community providers

An Amtrak communications and signals trainee based in Baltimore, Maryland, resigned from employment on December 3, 2025, prior to his administrative hearing. Our investigation found that the former employee violated company policies by creating and submitting false treatment records to the company to obtain leave under the Family Medical Leave Act. The former employee is not eligible for rehire.

The VA Home Loan Guaranty program is meant to help veterans finance the purchase of homes with favorable loan terms. Veterans typically pay a funding fee to defray the cost of administering the program; however, veterans who receive VA service-connected disability compensation are exempt from paying it. If veterans receive a disability determination with an effective date for receiving benefits before their loan closing date, they are entitled to a refund of any funding fee. As a result of the PACT Act, many veterans became eligible to receive refunds for the funding fees they had paid on home loans before receiving their disability compensation.

The audit team found deficiencies with funding fee refunds for veterans using dual entitlement (two or more veterans using some or all of their combined eligible loan benefits) on joint loans and also noticed that some veterans exempt from paying funding fees were inappropriately charged at their loan closings. The team estimated that 250 veterans were entitled to a funding fee refund due to either lenders’ errors at closing or retroactive disability determinations between October 1, 2021, and September 30, 2024. The estimated average for the refunds for the 250 veterans was $6,100, totaling $1.5 million during the review period. In the OIG’s sample, the range for these refunds was about $2,200 to $10,800 per veteran. The OIG determined that the Loan Guaranty Service’s automated system improperly charged a funding fee.

The VA Office of Inspector General made two recommendations to improve processes. The acting principal deputy under secretary for benefits, performing the delegable duties of the under secretary for benefits, concurred.