VCCP Patient Safety Data

Dear Mr. Craven, Attached to this message is VHA’s acknowledgment of your FOIA Request. Your request has been assigned to me for processing. I would kindly appreciate your confirmation of receipt of this email.  A hard copy of the attached letter will not follow in postal mail unless specifically requested by you. If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact me at rhonda.cross@va.gov. Sincerely, Rhonda Cross , VHA FOIA Officer

Mr. Craven,

This email is to notify you, your FOIA request is being transferred to another office for review and response. Please refer to the attached letter.

Sincerely,
Amber Heim

Jasper Craven,

Please review the attached for a formal extension of your Freedom of Information Act request.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding your request.

Thank you.

Michael D. Hartmann
Government Information Specialist
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Health Administration
Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC) (16)
Office of Internal Review and Oversight (IRO) (44254)
Department of Privacy and Information Management (DPIM)
Denver Location Ste 510, Office 7
Tel: 303-780-4753
Fax: 303-398-7176
VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV>
VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV>
"Doing the Right Thing(s) for the Right Reason(s)"

This e-mail is protected under the Privacy Act of 1974 (as Amended) and maintained under the Records Management Program. Confidentiality Note: This e-mail is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. Dissemination, distribution, or copying of this e-mail or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail, phone, or fax, and destroy the original message and all copies. Thank you.

MuckRock News (Jasper Craven),

In review of your FOIA request we have determined that we need further clarification and scoping to continue processing it. In accordance with VA's implementing regulations, found at 38 C.F.R. § 1.554(d)(4), I am providing you with 30 calendar days to reply to our clarification on your request. If our office has not heard from you by October 13, 2023, we will assume that you are no longer interested in pursuing the FOIA request and will take the appropriate measures to administratively close it. Please keep in mind that the timeframe which we must respond to your FOIA request stopped, while we are waiting your response.

In your request you sought the following:

1. All complaints, reports, and patient safety data -- including Serious Reportable Events, Hospital Acquired Conditions as reported to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Patient Safety Indicators -- for provider associated with the VA's Veteran Community Care Program (VCCP). Much of this data is collected through the department's third-party administrators, including TriWest and Optum.

2. Please also provide the Clinical Quality Monitoring Plans implemented by the TPAs, which are required to include quality monitoring activities for patient safety, clinical quality assurance, clinical quality improvement, and peer review.

3. Finally, please provide all information, mandated under federal contracts, that TPAs collect in their efforts to identify, track, trend, and report interventions to resolve any potential or identified quality issues. (The creation and collection of this information is detailed in recent Congressional testimony here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/VR/VR03/20220714/114988/HHRG-117-VR03-Wstate-LaPuzM-20220714-U1.pdf).

In response to item #1 while it describes the requested records, your request is too broad and imposes an unreasonable burden on the office searching for responsive records. Specifically, the portion of item #1 stating "All complaints, reports and patient safety data... for provider(s) associated with the VA's Veteran Community Care Program (VCCP)" is overly broad as those requested items can be submitted to multiple VA programs and offices (such as, but not limited to: VA Office of General Counsel, Veteran Crisis Hotline, all VA Medical Centers, White house VA Hotline etc.) as well as encompassing multiple complaints/reports/patient safety data record types.

Based on the aforementioned factors, your request falls under the category of not reasonably described, and therefore we ask that you modify your request to begin search with reasonable parameters, thereby ensuring a manageable processing time. A suggestion is the limitation of the search, within the purview of the Office of Integrated Veteran Care, is a request for complaints/reports/patients safety submitted to the Office of Integrated Veteran Care by the Third-Party Administrators (TriWest and Optum).

If you select this option, please note that the current identified documents (for the period of June 6, 2019, to August 16, 2023), under the possession of the VHA/IVC would result in an estimated final production of January 15, 2024, please consider scoping the timeframe to a one-year period or documents submitted via one of the two TPAs (vice both TPAs).

If you have further questions or would like to request a meeting to discuss your request, please let me know.

Thank you.

Michael D. Hartmann

Government Information Specialist

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Veterans Health Administration

Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC) (16)

Office of Internal Review and Oversight (IRO) (44254)

Records Management and Information Access (RMIA)

Denver Location Ste 510, Office 7

Tel: 303-780-4753

Fax: 303-398-7176

VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV>

VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV>

"Doing the Right Thing(s) for the Right Reason(s)"

This e-mail is protected under the Privacy Act of 1974 (as Amended) and maintained under the Records Management Program. Confidentiality Note: This e-mail is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. Dissemination, distribution, or copying of this e-mail or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail, phone, or fax, and destroy the original message and all copies. Thank you.

Jasper Craven (MuckRock News)

Please review the attached for a formal extension of your Freedom of Information Act request.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding your request.

Thank you.

Michael D. Hartmann
Government Information Specialist
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Health Administration
Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC) (16)
Office of Internal Review and Oversight (IRO) (44254)
Department of Privacy and Information Management (DPIM)
Denver Location Ste 510, Office 7
Tel: 303-780-4753
Fax: 303-398-7176
VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV>
VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV>
"Doing the Right Thing(s) for the Right Reason(s)"

This e-mail is protected under the Privacy Act of 1974 (as Amended) and maintained under the Records Management Program. Confidentiality Note: This e-mail is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. Dissemination, distribution, or copying of this e-mail or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail, phone, or fax, and destroy the original message and all copies. Thank you.

Jasper Craven (MuckRock News),

Thank you for the response. We will update your request based on your selection and forward for search and processing of responsive IVC records.

Michael D. Hartmann
Government Information Specialist
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Health Administration
Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC) (16)
Office of Internal Review and Oversight (IRO) (44254)
Records Management and Information Access (RMIA)
Denver Location Ste 510, Office 7
Tel: 303-780-4753
Fax: 303-398-7176
VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV>
VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV>
“Doing the Right Thing(s) for the Right Reason(s)”

This e-mail is protected under the Privacy Act of 1974 (as Amended) and maintained under the Records Management Program. Confidentiality Note: This e-mail is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. Dissemination, distribution, or copying of this e-mail or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail, phone, or fax, and destroy the original message and all copies. Thank you.

Jasper Craven (MuckRock News),

Good afternoon. Due to the scope and complexity of the request, we ask the records owner to submit the records incrementally and hoping to receive all the information/data o/a third week of November 2023. Thank you.

v/r
ELLER PAMINTUAN, Security+
Supervisor, Government Information Specialist
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
VHA Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC)
Office of Internal Review and Oversight (IRO) (44254)
Records Management and Information Access (RMIA)
Station – 135KH
Denver Location Ste 510, Office 7
Tel: 303-331-7512
Fax: 303-398-7176
VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV>
VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV>

“Doing the Right Thing(s) for the Right Reason(s)”

This e-mail is protected under the Privacy Act of 1974 (as Amended) and maintained under the Records Management Program. Confidentiality Note: This e-mail is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. Dissemination, distribution, or copying of this e-mail or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail, phone, or fax, and destroy the original message and all copies. Thank you.

Jasper Craven,

As a follow-up to the previous email, our current estimate for response is January 15, 2024 (based on the owning record’s office estimate of records). Please see our September 13, 2023, email in the second to last paragraph, located on page 3.

We are continuing to work this request and will either provide you a response on/before the estimated date of January 15, 2024, or provide you notification of any delays.

Thank you.

Michael D. Hartmann
Government Information Specialist
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Health Administration
Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC) (16)
Office of Internal Review and Oversight (IRO) (44254)
Records Management and Information Access (RMIA)
Denver Location Ste 510, Office 7
Tel: 303-780-4753
Fax: 303-398-7176
VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV>
VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV>
“Doing the Right Thing(s) for the Right Reason(s)”

This e-mail is protected under the Privacy Act of 1974 (as Amended) and maintained under the Records Management Program. Confidentiality Note: This e-mail is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. Dissemination, distribution, or copying of this e-mail or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail, phone, or fax, and destroy the original message and all copies. Thank you.

Jasper Craven,

We are continuing to work this request. At this stage we are working the search and production of records with a due date of November 24, 2023. Once the complete response has been provided our office will begin review. We are still working towards a response (estimated) of January 15, 2024. We will notify you in the event of any additional delays.

Thank you.
Michael D. Hartmann
Government Information Specialist
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Health Administration
Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC) (16)
Office of Internal Review and Oversight (IRO) (44254)
Records Management and Information Access (RMIA)
Denver Location Ste 510, Office 7
Tel: 303-780-4753
Fax: 303-398-7176
VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV>
VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV>
“Doing the Right Thing(s) for the Right Reason(s)”

This e-mail is protected under the Privacy Act of 1974 (as Amended) and maintained under the Records Management Program. Confidentiality Note: This e-mail is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. Dissemination, distribution, or copying of this e-mail or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail, phone, or fax, and destroy the original message and all copies. Thank you.

Jasper Craven,

At this time we do not have an updated response date, but we are continuing to process your request. At this stage we are in the review and redaction phase for the large volume of documents that were provided.

Thank you for the inquiry.

Michael D. Hartmann
Government Information Specialist
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Health Administration
Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC) (16)
Office of Internal Review and Oversight (IRO) (44254)
Records Management and Information Access (RMIA)
Denver Location Ste 510, Office 7
Tel: 303-780-4753
Fax: 303-398-7176
VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.PO@VA.GOV>
VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV<mailto:VHA.IVC.FOIA@VA.GOV>
“Doing the Right Thing(s) for the Right Reason(s)”

This e-mail is protected under the Privacy Act of 1974 (as Amended) and maintained under the Records Management Program. Confidentiality Note: This e-mail is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. Dissemination, distribution, or copying of this e-mail or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail, phone, or fax, and destroy the original message and all copies. Thank you.