When these problems first came to light the Federal government investigated some of the problems and there was no accountability for the people that were not doing their jobs. There were also bonuses being given out when people were not doing their jobs. There have been many policy’s put in place such as "Department of Veterans Affairs Management Accountability Act of 2014". This should help many of the problems that the VA is having in the healthcare division alone. The largest problem that they are currently having is a large backlog of patients just awaiting to be seen, as well as being understaffed for the amount of staff needed for the large amount of veterans now being seen.
Recently the secretary of the VA, Eric Shinseki, resigned from his position and the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Sloan Gibson took his position for a short period until a new secretary could be chosen. The new Secretary of Veterans Affairs is Robert McDonald. He has proposed many different ways to help get veterans the benefits that they have been waiting for. The backlog is still over 750,000 veterans with almost one third of them still being from the backlog. Some of the more recent problems have been that the Department of Veterans Affairs has caught employees discarding, through burning and shredding, the files of some of the veterans that have applied for benefits.
There are other plans being put into place, one by the President, and this is the "Veterans Choice Card". This new program will allow veterans to visit other