[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]
The 20 October 2015 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 revealed that "wait times inside many V.A. health facilities are growing longer, not shorter. Right now, a half million veterans are...waiting, in many cases, more than 90 days to see a doctor." Drew Griffin uncovered documents that "just this past August in Phoenix, there were more than 8,000 appointments waiting more than 90 days." Griffin pointed out that this is " the same Phoenix V.A. where last year, CNN uncovered the fact that veterans were dying while waiting for care."
The correspondent also spotlighted that in Los Angeles, "the largest V.A. facility in the nation, this document obtained by CNN shows an August average wait time for new patients in mental health was 43 days. Publicly, the V.A. claims the wait was less than four days. How can there be two different numbers? The V.A. changed the way it calculates wait times." Griffin also revealed that some V.A. managers were still targeting whistleblowers for investigation; and that since the original scandal, only three senior executives at the executive branch have been fired.