Military Related Headlines 7/14

• 2 U.S. Marines killed in Afghanistan [CNN]
• Auditors: Privacy lacking at some VA hospitals [Newsvine]
• Pot-Smoking Afghan Cops Challenge Marines [ABC News]
• Helicopter reported shot down in Afghanistan [USA Today]
• US general says US ready for NKorean attack [Newsvine]
  

Military Related Headlines 6/24

• Fierce Battles and High Casualties on the Frontlines of Afghanistan [ABC News]
• Gates asks Gulf leaders for more Afghanistan help [Newsvine]
• Top senator calls for structural changes at VA [Newsvine]
• Ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” [Center for American Progress]
• Pentagon: No decision yet on North Korean ship [Newsvine]

Veterans' service groups see cuts

The Assoicated Press reported yesterday that several states are cutting back funding to various veteran groups that assist vets (with the VA).

The following states have either already seen cuts, or cuts are in the works:

• Michigan -- $1 million cut to 11 groups that help vets navagate through bureaucracy and paperwork to obtain pension and disability benefits from the VA.
• South Carolina -- The next budget plans to cut aid to Disabled American Veterans, the VFW and the American Legion.
• Ohio -- After cuts, 13 veterans' groups received 10 percent less than promised.

These veterans' groups, also called veterans' service organizations (VSOs), provide vets and widows of veterans with help filing for benefits. And many rely on these VSOs, particularly in states giving money to them instead of hiring their own employees to assist in filing claims.

As President Obama moves to withdraw troops from Iraq in 2010, many will return with physical and psychological problems. Older vets are also being laid off and losing their health insurance forcing them to seek help from the VA. These troops and veterans may need assistance with VA claims.

Military Related Headlines 4/20

• Justin Reed, US Marine, Arrested At Airport With Gun, Bomb-Making Materials [Huff Po]
  
• CIA Exempt On Torture, But Not Lynndie England [NPR]
• HIV-POSITIVE: Virginia Clinics May Have Infected Patients [Huff Po]

-Dippold

Obama Promises Vets New Record System

President Obama promised a more efficient and effective record system for wounded veterans today, according to the AP.

To help deal with over 33,000 injured military personal from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an electronic system would be implemented to follow a single record for a service member from the military then later into the VA's medical system.

A current six month backlog in disability claims at the VA irks many veterans because of the bureaucratic red tape and long wait associated with transitioning into the VA system.

"It's time to change all that, it's time to give our veterans a 21st century VA," said Obama after hearing from hundreds of vets frustrated with unprovided, needed treatment.

He also said his new VA and military budget sets aside more money for diagnosing psychological disabilities and brain injuries.

The White House said that VA spending will rise by $25 billion within the next five years.

-Dippold

Military Related Headlines 3/27

• Army vet billed $3,000 for war wounds [CNN]
• VA Says 10 Colonoscopy Patients Have Hepatitis [NPR]
• Russian 'Arctic military' plan [BBC News]
• U.S. May Expand Anti-Militant Efforts To Baluchistan [NPR]
• Obama Sounds Cautious Note as He Sets Out Afghan Plan [NY Times]

-Dippold

Military Related Headlines 3/24 - 3/25

• Jet Fighter Crashes In Calif. [CBS News]
• Pentagon exploring robot killers that can fire on their own [McClatchy]
• US: North Korea loading rocket on launch pad [Newsvine]
• Possible contamination at VA facilities sparks call for inquiry [CNN]
• Vet groups: Definition of combat is outdated [Newsvine]
• Pilot 'screamed in horror' after seeing jet slam into house [CNN]
• Obama seeks military savings [Newsvine]
• Pick For NATO Military Leader Rode Navy Fast Track [NPR]

-Dippold

Shinseki wants more VA claims processors, all-electronic claims system

The Associated Press reports today on the new head of the VA, Eric K. Shinseki, and his intentions. Among them:

• Reducing the six month delays in paying out disability claims.
• Quickly implementing an all-electronic claims system to expedite the process, phasing out paper processing, possibly by 2012.
• Hiring 1,100 more VA staff members this year to deal with case backlog.
• Launching a "topdown" review of the Department of Veteran Affairs.
• Submitting a "credible and adequate 2010 budget request" that promises cost-effectiveness while concurrently completely sensitive to vets in need.

That's a lot to deliver.

Lets hope Ralph Waldo Emerson was wrong, (in this case of Shinseki's promises), in saying, "All promise outruns performance."

-Dippold

Military Related Headlines 2/3

• Duckworth nominated to VA post [AP via Newsvine]
• Navy investigating electrocution deaths in Iraq [USA Today]
• Kyrgyzstan Said to Deny Base to U.S. [NY Times]
• US Soldier Seeks Asylum in Germany Over Iraq War [Deutsche Welle]

-Dippold

Bid forcing speedier VA payments turned down by Judge

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton has struck down a lawsuit filed by Veterans of Modern Warfare and Vietnam Veterans of America requiring the VA to expedite the processing of its disability claims.

The veterans groups' lawsuit requested that Walton implement a deadline of 90 days to pay disability benefits. The groups were seeking interim payouts of about $350 monthly if the VA blew the deadline.

On Wednesday, in court, Walton expressed sympathy to disabled vets that must wait out six months or more. But he said speeding up benefit payments was not a role for the courts, rather one for the VA secretary and the courts.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Military Related Headlines 9/25

• Officer: Military Demanded Torture Lessons [CBS News]

• VA doctors tell Mullen that vets need mental health screenings [LA Times]
  

• Military interrogator details new Iraq abuses [USA Today]

• Iraq Suicide Bomber Kills American Soldier In Turbulent Area North Of Baghdad [Huff Po]
  

Military Related Headlines 9/24

• Pentagon Budget Hits New Record [Huff Po]

• VA quadruples payment to vets with brain injuries [AP via Newsvine]

• U.S. Army releases doctored photographs [Boing Boing]

• Gates sees more troops in Afghanistan, with limits [AP via Newsvine]

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

House panel slams VA over destroyed specimens

The AP reports the chastisement of VA health officials by lawmakers Tuesday over their order to destroy biomedical specimens of Legionnaires' disease and other diseases that two researchers had collected over 25 years.

Chairman of the House Science subcommittee on investigations and oversight Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C. said that an investigation has revealed no cogent reason for the destruction of the diseases.

From the article:

A subcommittee report on the Dec. 4, 2006, incident at the VA Pittsburgh Health Service said Congress should consider legislation setting policy on the handling and disposition of biobanks, places where traditional human biospecimens such as blood and tissue are matched to databases with medical records, genomic sequence data and other information.

"It is incomprehensible that there are no policies in place to ban arbitrary and capricious management decisions by administrators without any assessment of the value of the collection and its potential use in other research," the report says.

Michael Moreland who was in charge of the destruction at the VA Pittsburgh Health Service defends the decision by saying the lab had evolved into an unauthorized enterprise which tested water supplies for private companies. He added that specimens that were not labeled or were in open tubes were considered hazardous and were destroyed.

Dr. Victor Yu and Dr. Janet Stout were responable for collecting the samples. The article concludes by explaining how and why the samples came to be destroyed:

According to the report, the order to destroy the material came after a dispute over how Yu was financing his research that led to the shuttering of his laboratory in July, and his firing for refusing to stop processing samples. Yu said he could not in good conscience stop processing samples from hospitals and others concerned that their water supplies were contaminated by legionella bacteria. Stout had been placed on administrative leave and faced removal action.

The report said police unlocked the lab on Dec. 4 and five health service employees spent two hours throwing the specimen collection in biohazard containers and turning them over to a contractor for disposal as biohazards.

The destruction came at the same time efforts were underway to transfer the collection to a laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh for use in further research by Yu and Stout.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Health Care for Women Vets to Improve says VA Secretary

VA Secretary James Peake told women vets Friday that the VA is working hard to get better outpatient care for them, reports the Associated Press.

The AP has learned of an apparent disparity between the health care male and female veterans receive in about one third of the VA facilities offering outpatient care.

An internal VA report acknowledges the need for more doctors trained in women's care and more health equipment to fit the needs of women.

Peake said the VA recognizes that 86 percent of women veterans from the recent conflicts are under age 40, and have health needs related to having children. He said the agency is spending about $32 million for equipment specific to women's health needs.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

A Few Vet/Military Related Headlines

• Officials Warned Against Using Snarling Dogs, Forced Nudity During Interrogations, Senate Investigation Finds [HuffPo], [USA Today version], [WashPo version]
  

• 'Disposable Heroes': Veterans Used To Test Suicide-Linked Drugs [ABC News], [Washington Times version]
  

• Official says Iraq contract dispute cost him job [AP], [New York Times version]

VA Staffer to Testify to Senate Committee about PTSD email

Norma J. Perez, former coordinator of the PTSD program at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Temple, Texas, will go before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs Wednesday morning to answer questions on whether an internal email she sent was an attempt by the VA to circumvent paying benefits to soldiers with PTSD, or just misguided advice from an individual, reports CBS News.

In an email, sent on March 20, she wrote the following to the social workers and psychologists
under her supervision: "Given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I'd like to suggest you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out."

Instead she said for clinicians to "consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder."

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a watchdog group based in Washington, obtained and distributed the email, along with VoteVets.org, a veterans lobbying group.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers are pushing for an investigation. They want to make sure PTSD is being properly diagnosed at VA facilities.

Perez was recently reassigned to a VA hospital in Austin, TX. She works there as "Mental Health Integration Specialist."

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Disabled Vets' Costs to Surge while Number of Vets Decrease

The AP has obtained internal documents from the VA showing that despite the declining number of vets, the government expects to spend $59 billion a year in 25 years to compensate injured troops, up from today's $29 billion.

Today's total vets number nearly 24 million. The VA expects that number to drop to below 15 million by 2033.

Reasons for the spike in cash include:

• Inflation
• More vets are aware of their benefits and are quick to file
  
• Modern medicine returns troops with injuries that may have killed them in past wars
• Certain medical conditions may worse with age and require higher payments

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Hearing on Vet Suicides

CBS News reports on a congressional hearing titled, "The truth about veteran suicides."

There is talk of a "cover up" within the VA over veteran suicide data. A congressional committee is looking into the matter.

Internal emails by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's head of Mental Health, seem to have landed the VA in hot water. In a email to his top media adviser Katz says, "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our medical facilities."

Katz's e-mail was written shortly after the VA provided public data showing there were only 790 attempted suicides in all 2007.

Katz later said, "There is no epidemic in suicide in VA."

Sarabeth of 1115.org has no sympathy for Katz:

Why address the problem, and try to reduce the number of actual suicide attempts, when it’s so much easier to just perform a radical numerectomy on the official statistics? Especially when you can achieve much more dramatic results by number-fudging than you ever could through providing adequate mental health services.

This guy is surely the perfect combination of criminal negligence and criminally stupidity? What kind of mental defective do you have to be to a) think you can get away with claiming that attempted suicides are 15 times lower than they actually are, and b) to openly put it all in writing in an email like that?

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

VA Disability Disparity

According to the AP and Cleveland.com there is significant disparity between states in average annual disability payments to veterans.

For example, veterans in Ohio receiving disability payments rank second to last in the amount of money they get, $4,800 less than those in New Mexico.

Federal lawmakers are looking into the matter, questioning why certain states collect thousands of dollars more. Rep. Zack Space of Ohio, introduced the Veterans Disability Fairness Act last week, which calls for increased scrutiny of the VA's compensation program.

One of the reasons for the disparity is each state's veterans' system has its own standards for disability. A veteran in one state may be deemed only be partially disabled and eligible for a small payment while in a different state that same vet could be considered a more serious case resulting in a larger payment.

Terri from A Soldier's Mind feels this issue needs a remedy:

This is a problem that definitely need to be fixed. Our veterans, regardless of the state they reside in, should be compensated the same for their injuries. Each state should have the same rating system in place and follow the exact same guidelines. Training is a must, for those who are making those decisions. I look at it this way … our veterans have given a portion of their lives to serve our country and they should, each and every one of them, be shown the respect, by compensating them in the same manner. That’s the least they deserve.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

VA Roadblocks Voter Registration for Injured Vets

Alternet and Raw Story reported Thursday that VA Secretary James B. Peake told two Senators that his department will not help injured vets register to vote before the 2008 election.

In a letter to Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and John Kerry, D-Mass, on April 8th Peake said, "VA remains opposed to becoming a voter registration agency pursuant to the National Voter Registration Act, as this designation would divert substantial resources from our primary mission." Peake is referring here to a 1993 law allowing government agencies to host voter registration efforts.

Raw Story explains:

What this means is that many injured veterans still in VA hospitals who can't find means to register outside of their facilities will effectively lose their right to vote. Wounded veterans who have moved must re-register at their "new addresses" or file for absentee ballots in order to participate in the presidential and other elections.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation