FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 10, 2009
http://veterans.house.gov
House Passes Advance Appropriations for Veterans Health Care in Veterans Funding Bill
Enactment of veterans’ funding bill will amount to a 58% increase in the past 2.5 years under Democratic leadership
Washington, D.C. – House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) released the following statement upon House passage of H.R. 3082, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs spending bill:
“Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3028, a bill to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs for Fiscal Year 2010. The bill provides $108.9 billion, the same as the President’s request and $14.5 billion above 2009, for veterans medical care, claims processors, and facility improvements. This is the third budget in a row that exceeds the request of the Independent Budget, which is formulated by a coalition of veterans’ organizations!
“Unlike any veterans funding bill before it, this legislation provides funding for medical-related accounts for the next fiscal year one year in advance. Responding to 19 late budgets over the course of the last 22 years, this bill delivers adequate and timely funding for veterans’ health care and offers a historic new approach to caring for our veterans.
“To be sure, great strides have been made to increase VA health care funding under the leadership of the New Democratic Congress - $17.7 billion provided over the last two years. Regardless of efforts to provide sufficient resources, veterans’ funding continues to get caught up in the political wrangling of the federal budget process. H.R. 3028 provides $48.2 billion in advance appropriations for Fiscal Year 2011 for three medical accounts: medical services, medical support and compliance, and medical facilities. This is an eight percent increase over Fiscal Year 2010 and will allow VA officials to plan spending levels for the coming year, meet the continuing wave of new patients, and maintain operations at VA facilities.
“As Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, I am committed to assisting the VA in its goal of becoming a model 21st Century organization. I want to thank Chairman Edwards for crafting bipartisan legislation and Chairman Obey for his leadership, as well as their Republican counterparts. The House of Representatives joins the Obama Administration’s commitment to improving health care for all veterans, increasing access to mental health services, addressing and preventing homelessness among veterans, and honoring the veterans of previous generations. President Obama has proven that veterans are a top priority by requesting a record veterans’ budget, and the New Direction Congress has answered.”
NEWS FROM…
CHAIRMAN BOB FILNER
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 10, 2009
http://veterans.house.gov
House Approves Filner Amendment to Support Paralympic Program for Injured Vets
Washington, D.C. – Bob Filner (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, announced that the House of Representatives approved a critical funding increase for a paralympic program for veterans and members of the Armed Services. Hundreds of injured veterans now actively participate in paralympic sports and training programs that enhance their rehabilitation and promote healing from the wounds of war.
Last year, Congress authorized $10 million to fund the Office of National Veterans’ Sports Programs and Special Events to oversee rehabilitative adaptive sports programs for severely injured service members and veterans. The severely injured service members and veterans tend to be traumatic brain injury veterans, amputees, paraplegic, and quadriplegic veterans. Today, the House voted to approve Chairman Filner’s amendment to provide full funding for the program in H.R. 3028, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act of 2010.
“When severely injured military began returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States Olympic Committee began offering Paralympic Military Sports Camps at its training facilities, including the USOC training facility in my district in Chula Vista, California,” said Filner. “I strongly believe that providing this dynamic program the needed funding to assist our injured service members and veterans will enrich the quality of life of our severely injured service members and veterans as they explore new limits.”
Friday, July 10, 2009
House Passes Advance Appropriations for Veterans Health Care in Veterans Funding Bill
VA physician fired after investigation
Read VA OIG Report
http://www.va.gov/oig/54/reports/VAOIG-08-02992-162.pdf
The subject [physician] saw 5,879 Veterans during his tenure at the VAMHCS.
We concluded that the VISN and the medical center were initially impeded in this task by an ABI process and product that did not sufficiently address the complainant’s allegations.
Finally, in the course of performing this oversight review, numerous additional concerns regarding the provision of care to veterans were identified.
VA physician fired after investigation
MARTIN J. KIDSTON Of The Independent Record | Posted: Friday, July 10, 2009 12:20 am |
FORT HARRISON - A doctor at the VA Medical Center accused of improperly conducting patient exams and fudging medical records to reflect care that was never provided was fired by the hospital based upon the findings of an investigation that started in 2008.
The VA Medical Center at Fort Harrison declined to confirm the doctor's name, but a spokesperson with the hospital said veterans once under the doctor's care were notified of the findings and assigned to another practitioner.
The doctor was terminated in March.
"If veterans are concerned about their individual care, and they would like to talk to someone, they can speak to our patient representative," said Teresa Bell, the hospital's spokeswoman. "We've been very proactive in this. We pride ourselves in giving the highest care to our veterans."
A report released Wednesday by the VA's Inspector General's Office said the allegations first appeared in a letter dated April 13, 2008. A complainant accused the doctor of providing poor care to veterans and engaging in irregularities when documenting treatment in their medical records.
This falsely documented treatment, the complainant added, led to misdiagnoses, prompting delays in treatment and prolonged suffering by patients.
"At best, I believe that you will find gross incompetence on the part of the" physician, the complainant wrote. "At worst, some cases will lead you to believe that sham examinations are performed and therefore fraud is taking place."
The complainant, who is not identified in the report, provided the VA's Inspector General's Office excerpts from the medical records of 28 hospital patients.
Bell said the physician's patients were notified that their doctor had come under investigation.
On April 17, 2008, two senior physicians from the Office of Healthcare Inspections reviewed the allegations and brought them to the attention of the VA Central Office in Washington, D.C.
A panel known as the Administrative Board of Investigation, or ABI, was created to review the allegations while the physician was placed on administrative leave.
"Through our internal ongoing review process, we discovered the potential that one of our providers may not have met standards of care," Bell said. "The provider was removed from patient care and an action plan was put in place."
The review by the ABI "did raise patient care concerns," the report notes. It adds, however, that the evidence reviewed by the panel "largely did not substantiate the allegations."
Of the 38 cases reviewed, the ABI found evidence supporting the allegations in just three of the cases. In those three cases, the panel wrote, "all appear to be missed diagnoses by" the physician.
But additional allegations surfaced against the doctor. The report said the ABI's own investigation had failed to sufficiently address the complainant's allegations.
The hospital hired an external doctor practicing in the same field to re-examine one of three cases. It was this external doctor and not the ABI who "identified serious quality of care deficiencies by the subject physician."
Bell could not say how many patients the doctor was seeing at the Helena-based hospital. Nor could she release the physician's name, saying instead that the VA's Inspector General's Office did not include the doctor's name in its report and, therefore, the hospital was only following the Inspector General's lead.
The Inspector General reached several conclusions in Wednesday's report, saying the hospital's managers complied with current policies in pursuing its actions.
It also noted that the ABI impeded the task by failing to fully address the complainant's allegations.
The report suggested that the undersecretary of health create a panel of specialists and administrators to review the care in the specialty once filled by the terminated doctor.
Bell would not confirm the doctor's specialty, saying again that such information was not included in the Inspector General's report.
Veterans concerned about their individual care at the Montana VA should call patient representative Susanne Corbette at 447-9770, or toll free at 877-468-8387.
VA physician fired after investigation
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Residential Mental Health Care Facilities
CONGRESSIONALLY MANDATED NATIONAL REVIEW OF VA DOMICILIARIES RELEASED; VA AGREES REFORM NEEDED
Chairman Akaka championed law requiring the review
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, issued the following statement today on a newly released congressionally-mandated national review of VA’s residential mental health care facilities, dedicating the effort to a young Iraq war veteran who died in a VA domiciliary facility while receiving care for PTSD and a substance abuse disorder:
“The tragic death of Justin Bailey after he came home from Iraq demonstrated the need for a national review of VA mental health care facilities. This report indicates what we and the Bailey family feared – some VA facilities still have not corrected the errors that may have contributed to his death, more than two years after his passing,” said Senator Akaka. “I am encouraged by the Administration’s full agreement with the report’s recommendations, and I stand ready to assist in implementing these needed changes.”
Akaka championed Public Law 110-387, the Veterans’ Mental Health and Other Care Improvements Act of 2008, a sweeping veterans’ mental health care bill which included a tribute to Bailey and required this national review.
The report, by VA’s Office of Inspector General, found the following based on a national survey and random review of 20 sample sites:
· Less than half of the sites visited had appropriate policies for screening patients to be admitted into the VA residential mental health facility programs,
Post-discharge monitoring was not evident for nearly 3-out-of-10 residents based on residential patient records, and
An estimated 11 percent of VA Self Medication Policy patients on narcotics received more than a 7-day supply of medication.
The IG made 10 recommendations based on the review, all of which were accepted by VA.
The full report, which includes a list of the locations and programs visited during the inspections, is available here.
Residential Mental Health Care Facilities
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
1 in 8 combat troops needs alcohol counseling
1 in 8 combat troops needs alcohol counseling
Military testing pilot programs to erase stigma of seeking help
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 29, 2009 13:27:53 EDT
One in eight troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan from 2006 to 2008 were referred for counseling for alcohol problems after their post-deployment health assessments, according to data from the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.
Service members complete their initial health assessments within 30 days of returning home.
The authors of the study, published in the Medical Surveillance Monthly Report, compared numbers of active-duty service members who had an alcohol-related medical encounter with those who received counseling for alcohol, noting that studies have shown troops with post-traumatic stress disorder are more likely to be substance abusers.
Defense officials said they are aware of the data. “Substance misuse/abuse is a psychological health issue, and thus one we are actively involved with,” said Navy Capt. Edward Simmer, Senior Executive Director for Psychological Health Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health.
In recent years, a number of soldiers and Marines have been discharged because of a “pattern of misconduct” stemming from alcohol abuse. Earlier this month, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli ordered military leaders to do a better job of getting treatment for soldiers or discharging offenders if they have received help and still have problems.
In an internal memo, Chiarelli wrote that “a growing population” of soldiers with substance abuse problems — identified either through urine tests or through “alcohol-related actions” — have not been referred to the Army Substance Abuse Program by their commanders.
Joyce Raezer, executive director of the National Military Family Association, sees a deeper issue.
Troops “fear seeking help, so they self-medicate,” she said. “You’ve got competing stigmas going on here.”
In other words, troops may use alcohol to numb themselves from thinking about friends they’ve lost or people they’ve shot because they’re afraid to seek mental health counseling. But they also don’t seek help for the alcohol issues because, again, they’re afraid doing so might hurt their careers.
Simmer said the military is testing two new policies to address the problem. In one, a service member’s command will not automatically be notified if the member seeks treatment. Simmer said the hope is that this will lead more people to seek treatment.
In a second pilot program, if a service member screens positive for alcohol issues on a post-deployment health assessment but is not referred for counseling by a health care provider, the provider must document why.
“It’s quite possible that when the provider talks with the member, the provider finds, very appropriately, that a referral is not clinically indicated,” Simmer said. “By having this documented on the form, however, we will be able to track these reasons and make better-informed decisions to increase the number who receive needed interventions for alcohol use.”
Simmer said identifying an alcohol problem also could help military doctors dig up combat-stress issues, so each person who comes in on an alcohol referral is also screened for PTSD.
According to the new report, 61 percent of soldiers who receive an alcohol-related diagnosis are treated within a year.
Only 42 percent of Marines and 59 percent of sailors receive treatment within a year. For airmen, 63 percent receive treatment within a year.
The report said further research is needed to see whether troops referred for alcohol problems after deployment get appropriate counseling and treatment.
When service members return from Iraq or Afghanistan, where they are not allowed alcohol, they are briefed about the dangers of using alcohol to deal with stress. However, younger service members often celebrate their return home with a boozy night out at the bars — and for many, the practice lingers.
Researchers found that 65,269 service members — including those who hadn’t deployed — had at least one alcohol-related medical encounter over the three years studied, and 7,188 people had at least one acute alcohol-related hospitalization. Of those with medical encounters, 50,296 were in paygrades E-4 and below, 6,526 were female and 31,320 were ages 21 to 24.
“The services should target alcohol and other substance-abuse programs to the youngest and most junior female members — beginning in recruit training,” the report states.
For all active-duty service members — including those who haven’t deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan — the Army still had the highest rate of medical encounters, with about one out of 44 soldiers with an alcohol-related clinic or hospital visit.
The figures were one out of 115 for the Air Force; one out of 60 for the Marine Corps; and one out of 77 for the Navy. About one in 150 service members had three or more acute alcohol diagnoses separated by at least 30 days.
People who have a medical encounter for alcohol use before they deploy are 2.5 times more likely to mark at least one item on their post-deployment screening for alcohol issues.
Researchers speculated that because a person is unlikely to succeed in the military if they have an alcohol problem, older officers and enlisted troops may be avoiding counseling.
“In turn, prevalences and rates of alcohol and other substance-abuse problems are likely underestimated from diagnoses and procedures documented on standard medical records — more so among officers and senior enlisted members than other military members,” the report states.
Who’s having problems
Rates of alcohol-related medical encounters were highest among junior service members, according to a recent report.
Acute alcohol diagnoses (per 1,000)
Army, 22.7
Overall, 16.0
Female, 11.1
Male, 16.8
E-1 to E-4, 28.6
E-5 to E-9, 8.6
Officer/warrant, 2.4
Hospitalization with acute diagnoses (per 1,000)
Army, 2.6
Overall, 1.8
Female, 1.6
Male, 1.8
E-1 to E-4, 3.1
E-5 to E-9, 1.0
Officer/warrant, 0.3
Source: Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
How quick they forget the lessons of Vietnam but at least the military isn't buying the booze anymore, I still remember the company parties where the Army bought the beer, Bosses Night at the NCO Clubs and right arm night at the Officer Clubs, drinking was expected back then, kind of like church attendance is required now. If you want to get promoted you have to play the game the way the system mandates.
VA Releases HUD-VASH Handbook
VA Releases HUD-VASH Handbook
Posted: 6/30/2009
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has released a handbook on the VA portion of procedures for the Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) Program. The handbook sets forth the national authority for the administration, monitoring, and oversight of HUD-VASH services. This new handbook clarifies the admission process and procedure for homeless veterans into the HUD-VASH Program and the duties of those assigned responsibilities under the program. The handbook also addresses staffing changes associated with implementing and monitoring HUD-VASH-funded programs nationally and addressing program enhancements as a result of recent program expansion. This resource is available online by clicking here.
http://www1.va.gov/vhapublications/ViewPublication.asp?pub_ID=2040
__._,_.___
Helpful sites for Information on Social Security Claims
Helpful info for disabled indivs filing a claim for disability
http://www.socialsecuritylaw.com/the-book-on-social-security-disability.pdf
Social Security Disability And The SSI Programs
Also see: appeals process
http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10041.html
also see: http://tinyurl.com/ceq7vd
http://www.disabilitysecrets.com/dnewsblog/2009/04/social-security-disability-for-mental.html
Vets get benefits they didn't know they had
How does this compute with the Iowa Story recently sent?
http://www.qctimes.com/news/local/article_421e3cf6-6900-11de-b675-001cc4c002e0.html
Vets get benefits they didn't know they had
By Kyung M. Song
Seattle Times staff reporter
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003271974_veterans23m.html
Every month for most of the past decade, Benjamin "Frank" Jordan has forked over as much as $2,000 of his Social Security and veterans benefits to help Medicaid offset the cost of his nursing-home care.
What Jordan didn't know was that he shouldn't have paid a cent.
Jordan, a Navy veteran with a service-connected disability, should have gotten his nursing-home care free from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Now Jordan, 71, who uses a wheelchair, has his room at a Mercer Island nursing home completely paid for from nearly $40,000 a year in newfound veterans benefits, thanks to a state program that matches poor veterans with thousands of dollars in federal benefits they've missed.
"My husband keeps saying we can spend money now, but I'm still in shock," said Jordan's wife, Loretta, 68, who lives in the couple's home in Bellevue.
The Veterans Enhancement Project, which began in Clark County in 2001, was the first in the nation to use a database, originally created to catch welfare cheats, to stretch Washington's Medicaid budget by finding people eligible for VA benefits instead.
So far it has boosted benefits for more than 300 Medicaid nursing-home patients in Western Washington, officials say. Nearly 40 of those have left Medicaid completely. Another 2,000 vets and their dependents have been enrolled in military health plans.
Are you eligible for VA benefits?
• Generally, honorably discharged veterans who had at least two years of active service can apply to receive medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA may also pay for nursing-home care for veterans with at least 70 percent service-connected disability. Also, veterans who meet income limitations and served at least 90 days of active duty, with at least one day during a period of war (including the beginning of the Gulf War in 1990 to the present) and who are totally disabled or 65 or older can apply to get a VA pension.
• The VA also may pay tax-free disability compensation to veterans who were injured while on active duty or whose conditions were made worse by active military service.
In addition, military retirees and their spouses and children, along with widows or widowers of veterans who died or were disabled by service-related conditions, may be eligible for health-care coverage.
For more information, contact the Veterans Project at the state Department of Health and Social Services, 800-280-0586 or www.aasa.dshs.wa.gov/topics/paris; or contact the state Department of Veterans Affairs at 800-562-2308 or www.dva.wa.gov.
The project, which is now reaching into Eastern Washington and being emulated in other states, saved Washington Medicaid an estimated $3.5 million last fiscal year.
Medicaid, a health-insurance program for the poor, is funded equally by Washington state and the federal government. Medicaid patients can pay certain living expenses with their monthly incomes, but must use any remainder to cover the cost of their nursing-home care. And state law requires Medicaid to recover remaining long-term-care costs — on which it spends more than $1.2 billion a year — from the beneficiaries' estates after they and their spouses die.
Veterans, on the other hand, do not have to repay VA benefits because they earned them by serving in the military. Yet VA officials admit they have failed to contact many eligible veterans or their dependents about billions of dollars in unclaimed pensions and disability payments.
Loretta Jordan had worried for years that the couple's assets would be used to repay Medicaid. Frank Jordan bought his house near Clyde Hill for $65,000 in 1979. The house is now paid off and assessed at $445,000. In 1995, Frank Jordan deeded the house to Loretta to keep the house out of reach of Medicaid estate recovery. Even so, Medicaid could go after any other property, vehicles, savings and assets owned jointly by Frank and Loretta Jordan after their deaths.
Many others share the Jordans' situation. Roughly 670,000 veterans live in Washington — more than 10 percent of the state's population. When spouses and dependent children are considered, the total number of people potentially eligible for veterans benefits could be more than twice that. But only 5 percent of all Medicaid patients currently receiving long-term care are collecting VA benefits, said Bill Allman, who launched the new program as a manager for the state Department of Social and Health Services.
"That number should be higher," he said. "A lot of veterans don't know they have veterans benefits."
Allman, a Vietnam veteran, said he started the program partly as a personal quest to use the welfare database to help both vets and the state save money.
For many veterans, financial gains have been unexpected.
Charles St. George Jr. is a Navy veteran who suffered a stroke in 2002. St. George, 73, who lived in a studio apartment near SeaTac and has never married, applied for Medicaid after depleting all but $2,000 of his savings.
Until this year, the retired Delta Air Lines reservations agent was paying about $1,200 a month, most of his veterans and Social Security income, for a room at a Federal Way nursing home and later at an Auburn adult home.
Then on May 1, his longtime friend, Loretta Abel, who has power of attorney to care for St. George, discovered that his bank account was suddenly nearly $20,000 richer.
"I was flipping out there," Abel said.
But it turned out the money was a lump-sum pension payment from the VA.
Allman had discovered that St. George had become entitled to a full VA pension of $1,397 a month when he moved from the nursing home to the adult home.
Veterans in nursing homes receive only $90 a month. But those residing in adult homes, assisted-living facilities or their own homes can get their full pensions. The $19,595 deposit was a 15-month retroactive payment.
St. George's $1,300 in extra VA benefits now go to Medicaid, reducing the state's expense. Allman said few veterans notify the VA when they move out of a nursing home because they don't know the rules.
Abel said she was happy to have the extra money for her friend — once the shock wore off.
"If someone's going to give me $19,000, it would have been nice if they'd called me" first, she said.
As for the Jordans, they say they're grateful that the VA is finally paying the pension and all the nursing-home costs.
But elation is mixed with rue. Because of their particular situation, the Jordans are unlikely to collect on their missed benefits.
"All those thousands of dollars we paid over the years," Loretta Jordan said. "We could have had that for our savings."
Kyung Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com
