Independent Review of VA’s Special Disabilities Capacity Reports for Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018

The OIG conducted an independent review of the VA reports on special disabilities capacity for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. The reports focus on VA’s capacity to meet the specialized treatment and rehabilitative needs of disabled veterans in five areas: (1) spinal cord injury and disorder, (2) traumatic brain injury, (3) blind rehabilitation, (4) prosthetics and sensory aids, and (5) mental health. VA is required to submit the reports to Congress, and the OIG is required to report to Congress on report accuracy. The review team found nothing that caused the OIG to believe the capacity reports for fiscal years 2017 and 2018 were not fairly stated and accurate in all material respects, with the exceptions noted in the OIG report. These exceptions included material errors, inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and material changes. For example, at a long term care center the review team visited, the count of operational beds was 30, compared to the 34 that VA reported in its capacity reports. The review team also noted inherent data limitations with some of the data sources used for the capacity reports. One limitation was that administrative data can be reported differently by medical facilities and are prone to data entry and coding errors. The OIG believes VA is no longer able to fully meet the statutory requirement to compare the capacity for the reporting year to the 1996 capacity because of changes in areas such as medical diagnoses, treatments, treatment settings, infrastructure, information technology, data systems, and terminology. The OIG also believes Congress is better positioned to assess VA’s current capacity by requiring alternative methods for VA, for example by reporting on its capacity from year to year and by considering the extent to which VA can meet the demand for health care and services from veterans affected by special disabilities.