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By: FEDweek StaffAn inspector general report has said that just above half of tablet devices the VA loaned to veterans for telehealth appointments were not used for that purpose.
As a response to the pandemic and the increase in demand for virtual appointments, the VA distributed some 41,000 devices in the first three quarters of fiscal 2021 but only 20,300 of them were used for such appointments, a report said. The rest were about evenly split between veterans who never scheduled a telehealth appointment and those who scheduled appointments but did not keep them for various reasons.
The audit – “Digital Divide Consults and Devices for VA Video Connect Appointments” – also found that: while each veteran was authorized only one such device, more than 3,100 received more than one; the VA did not initially retrieve unused devices as its policy required; and that as of early this year there was a backlog of nearly 15,000 returned devices awaiting refurbishment so that they could be issued to others but despite having them on hand the VA continued to order new ones.
Earlier this year the IG found that some of the value of service time – and prepaid data plans – on mobile devices the VA purchased in 2020 for homeless veterans to use for telehealth was wasted as devices sat in storage before being distributed. That report said that using money from one of the pandemic relief laws, the VA in 2020 purchased 10,000 iPhones and nearly 81,000 iPads, at a total cost of some $71 million.
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