During a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing before the Congressional Recess, Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) asked Chief Human Capital Officer Tracey Therit about quality control updates at the Veterans' Health Administration.
00:00Round of questioning, and we will do two minutes for an additional round of questioning.
00:05Mr. Ritt, do you anticipate the BHA will develop the necessary guidance regarding quality control checks by the OIG's recommended completion date in September?
00:15Chairwoman Kegans, I do, and I know Mr. Perry has additional information on that.
00:19Thank you. Can you please tell us how business leadership will be involved in monitoring the 95% compliance rate?
00:24Yes, Chairwoman. As I previously stated, we are working now on shifting the responsibility of the oversight to the compensation side of the VISN to hold that accountability line to make sure that the proper documentation, technical review, and approvals are in place.
00:41So that will be done by the end of this year.
00:43And how long do you anticipate it will take for the majority of VISNs to meet that 95% target?
00:48We've already started that now, and that includes my team rolling out the additional training and oversight to ensure that they do come into compliance by the end of this fiscal year.
00:56Okay, thank you.
00:58And Ms. Theret, do VHA officials have the authorization to approve exceptions to limitations placed on incentive payments?
01:06VHA officials, through the delegation of authority, are able to approve incentives up to a certain threshold.
01:14And then those, depending on the incentive, may have to come up to the office of the secretary, depending on the position.
01:20Who is responsible for approving the exception, and who provides a check on this person?
01:26My office conducts an oversight review of those incentives, and would also be able to work with Mr. Perry's team to make sure that they are following policy and proper procedures.
01:36And in your experience, are those exceptions more frequently approved for administrative positions or clinical positions?
01:42Chairwoman Kagan, they are more frequently approved for clinical positions.
01:47Mr. Steele, I was shocked to hear that the VHA could not provide OIG evidence for recertification for those recurring incentive payments.
01:54Do you believe this is an issue with HR Smart, or a result of inadequate oversight by the HR servicing teams?
02:00We saw a breakdown of both systems and people.
02:02HR Smart lacked the automation to halt the process if certain requirements were not met.
02:08In that situation, it does put more onus on people to enter data correctly and conduct back-end oversight to ensure that the process ceases when it should.
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