On September 23, 2026, the VA Inspector General published reports about two VA hospitals. At the VA New York Harbor system, the IG found that it did not have a process in place for identifying who be responsible for telling patients about their test results. The VA has a policy, which can be read here, that requires the hospital to do exactly this.
The failure to report findings to patients is an easy way for patient’s healthcare to slip through the cracks. Our firm has represented many such patients, where they take a test at the request of the VA healthcare provider and then the results get back to the VA, but no action is taken. This arises in scenarios such as:
- Failure to diagnose prostate cancer: the patient gets his PSA taken and gets abnormal test results. This should cue the provider that action needs to be taken, and the patient should be alerted, but nothing happens or there is a delay.
- Failure to treat kidney failure: sometimes, lab work will show the VA that a patient has a potential kidney injury. In cases that National Trial Law has handled, the patient sometimes is also on NSAIDs, like aspirin. If you read the documentation that comes with these drugs (for example, here is a Bayer aspirin packet insert), it warns against giving these drugs to patients with potential kidney problems.
The failure of the VA to provide test results to patients also has important consequences for litigation. Normally, the patient has two years to file their federal claims against the VA for medical malpractice under the Federal Tort Claims Act. However, if the patient does not know both about their injury and the cause of their injury, then there is a potential that their statute of limitations could be tolled, and they have a longer time to file their claim. However, if you believe you have a claim, you should not wait or rely on tolling. You should consult a lawyer as soon as possible.
You can read the full report from the Inspector General here.