More than 1.5 million medical orders were canceled by the Department of Veterans Affairs without any guarantee the patients received the treatment or tests they needed, the Washington Examiner has found.

Since May 2013, veterans' medical centers nationwide have been under pressure to clear out 2 million backlogged orders for patient care or services.

They were given wide latitude to cancel unfilled appointments more than 90 days old. By April 2014, the backlog of what the agency calls "unresolved consults" was down to about 450,000.

What happened to other 1.5 million appointments is something that no one, including top officials at the veterans' agency, can answer.

"We found they closed consults but there was no evidence as to why it was closed," Debra Draper, health care director for the GAO, told the Examiner.

"By not having that independent verification or any other controls, there isn't any way of knowing whether they were appropriately closed out," Draper said.

"You don't know whether people received the care or if they received it in a timely manner. There's no audit trail. There's no way to know whether they were appropriately closed," she said.