‘Systematic lying’ and ‘cooked schedules’ push VA secretary to resign

The Veterans Administration medical system was overwhelmed with new cases from America's recent wars and the needs of a generation of Vietnam vets well into their highest-need years of life. There were optimistic reports coming out of the Department of Veterans Affairs, showing reduced waiting time, cleared-out backlogs for patient care and high levels of satisfaction from the vets. 

Then bad news started to seep out. 

First, that some VA hospitals with chronic backlogs were faking their new numbers. The waits were really much longer, we were told. Now it turns out there were plenty of other problems: systematic lying, untreated medical conditions, managers getting big bonuses for reaching goals never actually achieved.

The flaws were not confined to a few "bad apple" hospitals, but widespread. On Friday, with the rising drumbeat of calls for heads to roll, the department’s secretary, Gen. Eric Shinseki, resigned. 

Is there a culture problem at the VA?

The American Legion has said it called for Shinseki’s resignation only when he could not name people he would fire at the agency. Was he too late in making those calls, or in proposing a reform policy overall?

What will it take to fix it all?

We consulted a panel for the Inside Story.