WASHINGTON — A new federal investigation revealed Thursday that VA officials in Colorado broke agency rules by using an off-the-books system to track patients who wanted mental-health therapy — a violation that caused veterans to wait for care and one that recalls past abuses by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Investigators with the VA’s internal watchdog found that in three separate facilities — Denver, Golden and Colorado Springs — agency officials did not follow proper protocol when keeping tabs on patients who sought referrals for treatment of conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The practice hindered proper oversight and made it possible for Colorado veterans to fall through the cracks, wrote officials with the VA Office of Inspector General, which examined care at the facilities between October 2015 and September 2016. “Facility and mental health managers did not have access to accurate wait-time data to help make informed staffing decisions and did not have assurance that all requests for care were adequately addressed,” they wrote. One big unknown — even now — is the number of cases affected by the VA’s improper record-keeping.

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