VA doesn't know how many calls its answering or how long veterans are waiting to get through

VA has boasted that wait times for mental health appointments were under six days for established patients and 19 days for new patients in fiscal 2025. Congressional Democrats and some VA employees have disputed those numbers. Kevin Carter/Getty Images

The Veterans Affairs Department is failing to track how many calls from its patients it is answering and what is happening with those calls, according to a flash report from the agency’s watchdog, which said the failures are putting vulnerable veterans at risk. 

In 13 of the 15 medical facilities the inspector general reviewed, key data including caller hang up rates, answer rates and average wait times were not being tracked. At those facilities, around 1 million of the 2.1 million calls received in the one-year period ending July 31, 2025, were not tracked. 

The situation was particularly acute for “high-risk” patients seeking radiology or mental health services ...