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The Veterans Affairs Department has taken little to no action on more than 100 recommendations it has received to help improve the quality of healthcare it offers veterans, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released late Wednesday. The recommendations, dating as far back as 2000, were made by the GAO. The consequences of continuing non-action could be severe, the agency warned. “We have found that this ambiguity and inconsistency may pose risks for veterans' access to VA health care, or for the quality and safety of VA health care they receive,” the GAO stated. (Dickson, 2/12)

Prescriptions for narcotic painkillers had skyrocketed, patients were overdosing and pharmacists who balked at filling prescriptions were fired or quit in disgust. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin, had been dubbed “Candy Land” by veterans and staff and was being investigated by the agency’s inspector general. Despite all these issues, the facility’s director, Mario DeSanctis, received an $8,025 bonus for 2013, a 5 percent bump atop his $160,000 annual salary. (Glantz, 2/12)