A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that although the Department of Veterans Affairs might have provided inadequate care or benefits to some veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, the department had not done so systematically.
Veterans had sought a court order to compel the VA to improve services. U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti agreed that some veterans experienced "significant" delays in trying to untangle problems with their benefits but said he could find no "systemic violations" that compelled court intervention.
The authority to fix problems at the VA, he wrote, "lies with Congress, the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the adjudication system within the VA and the Federal Circuit."
The VA was "pleased with the decision," said Phil Budahn, a department spokesman in Washington, D.C. But "we're not going to go beyond that right now," he said.
Wayne Seward, 53, of Carlsbad, a Navy veteran, echoed the sentiment of several veterans when he said he was angry with the decision. Seward said he attempted suicide five years ago after the VA said he needed to wait five months to see a mental health professional.
"We keep saying we support the troops," Seward said. "Well, gee, we've missed that one."
But Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, one of the groups involved in the lawsuit, was not entirely disappointed.
"We consider this a very loud and bright warning shot over the bow for VA and Congress to fix the VA now, because the judge actually agreed with many of the allegations in our lawsuit," Sullivan said.
His Washington, D.C.-based group and the other plaintiff, Santa Barbara's Veterans United for Truth, plan to appeal.
The class-action case, filed in July on behalf of all veterans suffering from the disorder, accused the VA of "shameful failures" in providing medical and mental healthcare and building up an enormous backlog of benefits claims and appeals.
During the trial in April, the veterans groups showed an internal VA e-mail that counted about five suicides a day by veterans under the department's care. They also showed an e-mail from a program coordinator in Texas that discouraged doctors from diagnosing the disorder quickly, "given that we are having more and more compensation-seeking veterans."
The veterans groups cited an inspector general's report that showed 25% of appointments had waiting times of more than 30 days. They also counted more than 400,000 benefits claims pending in the system in April.
