Veterans Affairs
New GI Bill housing checks flowing but some delays
Sep 2nd
By JUSTIN POPE (AP) 
Facing a rush of last-minute claims, the Department of Veterans Affairs has cut housing checks to tens of thousands of veterans returning to college under the newly expanded GI Bill but officials acknowledge several thousand may get their money later than expected.
With the academic year recently under way, Tuesday was the first day many veterans were due their first monthly housing stipends, which range from under $1,000 to upward of $2,500 depending on factors including location.
Ryan Gallucci of the advocacy group AMVETS said Tuesday he was pleased with the effort, considering the complexity of calculating awards and administering the new benefit.
About two-thirds of the 67,000 remaining unprocessed claims were submitted only in the last 30 days. Claims are taking on average 28 days to be processed, and beneficiaries had been told to get them in at least a month ahead.
However, that still leaves about 20,000 unprocessed claims that are more than 30 days old. Veterans groups said they’ll continue to monitor the backlog and hold the department to its promise to be caught up by next month.
Keith Wilson, the department’s education service director, said much of the paperwork backlog may be from veterans simply filing to determine eligibility and not necessarily due housing checks. Any who are will get the full amount due by the Oct. 1 check period.
“That’s not to say that things are perfect now, and not to say we’re not being aggressive at trying to make it better,” Wilson said. “We’re going to continue to do yeoman’s work in making this better, but taking into account how far we’ve come we are pleased.”
Congress passed the Post 9/11 GI Bill last year, offering veterans the most significant expansion of educational benefits since the original GI Bill in 1944. The new benefits will exist alongside other continuing programs like the Montgomery GI Bill. Altogether, the VA expects nearly half a million veterans to participate in the coming year.
Overall, the department has received 236,000 claims related to the Post-9/11 GI Bill and has completed action on 169,000.
Getting the program up and running was a colossal bureaucratic undertaking. Claims under the new bill are more complicated than under the old, in part because the government is now essentially cutting three separate checks: one to colleges for tuition and fees, and two directly to veterans, one for housing and the other for textbooks and supplies.
Also, it’s a multistage process, with the department certifying eligibility but colleges also required to send in paperwork to certify enrollment.
The University of South Florida in Tampa, with about 1,000 veterans enrolled, is home to a new pilot program placing a VA counselor on campus to help students navigate the GI Bill and other benefits.
At a meeting there Monday with VA officials, Navy veteran Nate Dodge complained he’d applied online and waited six weeks. When he called to follow up, he was told his application had been lost because of the high volume coming in.
Dodge, who is looking to tap into new GI Bill benefits to continue his engineering studies, said he resubmitted his application at least three times, via fax and regular mail. He is still waiting to receive benefits.
“A lot of veterans are really counting on this money to make it through,” he said. VA officials at the meeting pledged to look into the matter.
Patrick Campbell, chief legislative counsel of the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the department initially acted too slowly setting up the new system, but was doing its best to catch up.
“The problems were a year ago,” he said. “They’re doing what they can now.”
The delays some veterans will face underscore the need to simplify the new GI Bill before next year, he said, noting claims must be processed by hand and it can take up to two hours to determine benefits.
Associated Press Writer Christine Armario in Tampa, Fla. contributed to this report.
Popularity: 9% [?]
VA Honors Veterans Who Are Artists, Performers
Sep 2nd
National Veterans Creative Arts Festival Coming to San Antonio
WASHINGTON, More than 120 Veterans from across the country who are medal winners in national music, dance, drama, creative writing or visual arts contests are preparing to attend the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in San Antonio from Oct. 5-11.
“The Creative Arts Festival represents the top achievements of Veterans
participating in VA art therapy throughout the nation,” said Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “Their achievements are a testament to the
outstanding care and rehabilitative techniques used to pave the way toward
recovery for our nation’s most deserving men and women.”
The National Veterans Creative Arts Festival is presented by the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA), Help Hospitalized Veterans (HHV) and the American
Legion Auxiliary. It is hosted this year by the South Texas Veterans Health
Care System in San Antonio.
The festival is the culmination of a year-long fine arts talent competition
involving nearly 3,500 participants nationwide. It is open to all Veterans
receiving care at VA medical facilities.
“It is truly an honor for the American Legion Auxiliary to support the
National Veterans Creative Arts Festival,” said National President Rita
Navarrete. “This phenomenal event affords our Veterans a unique outlet for
their creative expression and is incredibly inspiring for everyone who is
privileged to attend.”
At this year’s event, these talented Veterans will come to San Antonio for a
week of rehearsals and workshops, concluding on Sunday, Oct. 11, with a visual
art exhibit and gala variety stage show at the San Antonio Municipal
Auditorium.
“The Board of Directors of HHV is again thrilled and privileged to co-sponsor
the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival with VA and the American Legion
Auxiliary,” said Mike Lynch, HHV president and CEO. “HHV wishes to
congratulate all Veterans who entered into this national competition, for you
have shared your fantastic performing and visual arts abilities with America.”
The artists will exhibit their work from 12:15 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday,
October 11, at the San Antonio Municipal Auditorium. At 2 p.m., performers in
music, drama and dance, as well as the creative writing winners, will showcase
their talents in an entertaining stage show backed by a professional
orchestra.
Heloise, from “Hints from Heloise,” will serve as the festival stage show’s
mistress of ceremonies for the first time. Actress Bo Derek, honorary
chairperson of VA’s National Rehabilitation Special Events, is expected to
attend the event again this year.
For further information about the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival,
contact Jeanne Stith at (202) 461-7448, or log on to the festival’s Web site
at: www.creativeartsfestival.va.gov.
SOURCE U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Public Affairs, +1-202-461-7600
Popularity: 11% [?]
VA’s Suicide Prevention Program Adds Chat Service
Sep 1st
New Service Expands Online Access for Veterans
WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Suicide Prevention campaign
of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is expanding its outreach to all
Veterans by piloting an online, one-to-one “chat service” for Veterans who
prefer reaching out for assistance using the Internet.
Called “Veterans Chat,” the new service enables Veterans, their families and
friends to go online where they can anonymously chat with a trained VA
counselor. If a “chatter” is determined to be in a crisis, the counselor can
take immediate steps to transfer the person to the VA Suicide Prevention
Hotline, where further counseling and referral services are provided and
crisis intervention steps can be taken.
“This online feature is intended to reach out to all Veterans who may or may
not be enrolled in the VA health care system and provide them with online
access to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline,” said Dr. Gerald Cross, VA’s Acting
Under Secretary for Health. “It is meant to provide Veterans with an anonymous
way to access VA’s suicide prevention services.”
Veterans, family members or friends can access Veterans Chat through the
suicide prevention Web site (www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org). There is a
Veterans tab on the left-hand side of the Web site that will take them
directly to Veteran resource information. On this page, they can see the
Hotline number (1-800-273-TALK), and click on the Veterans Chat tab on the
right side of the Web page to enter.
Veterans retain anonymity by entering whatever names they choose once they
enter the one-on-one chat. They are then joined by a counselor who is trained
to provide information and respond to the requests and concerns of the caller.
If the counselor decides the caller is in a crisis, the counselor will
encourage the Veteran to call the Suicide Prevention Hotline, where a trained
suicide prevention counselor will determine whether crisis intervention
techniques are required.
The pilot program, which has been in operation since July 3, has already had
positive results. In one instance, the online counselor determined that a
Veteran in the chat required immediate assistance. The counselor convinced the
Veteran to provide the counselor with a home telephone number and then
remained in the chat room with the Veteran while the hotline staff called the
number and talked to the Veteran’s mother. The hotline counselor worked with
the Veteran’s mother to convince the Veteran to be admitted to a medical
facility for further treatment.
“The chat line is not intended to be a crisis response line,” said Dr. Janet
Kemp, VA’s National Suicide Prevention Coordinator at the VA medical center in
Canandaigua, N.Y., where VA’s trained counselors staff the chat line 24 hours
a day, seven days a week. VA’s suicide prevention hotline is also staffed
continuously.
“Chat responders are trained in an intervention method specifically developed
for the chat line to assist people with emotional distress and concerns,” Kemp
said. “We have procedures they can use to transfer chatters in crisis to the
hotline for more immediate assistance.”
Both Veterans Chat and the VA’s Suicide Prevention Hotline have been
established under the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which was
established through collaboration between VA and the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the Department of Health and
Human Services.
Since becoming operational in July 2007, VA’s Suicide Prevention Hotline has
received more than 150,000 calls, resulting in 4,000 rescues.
SOURCE U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
VA Office of Public Affairs: +1-202-461-7600
Popularity: 17% [?]
Secretary Shinseki Announces $7.2 Million Grant to Virginia
Aug 27th
Commonwealth to Build Third State Veterans Cemetery
WASHINGTON, Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki has announced Veterans living in southwestern Virginia will soon have a final resting place that honors their service to the nation. The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded $7,218,366 to the Commonwealth of Virginia to establish the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Dublin.
“VA and the Virginia Department of Veterans Services have a strong partnership and work together to provide Veterans the benefits they have earned,” Secretary Shinseki said. “This new state cemetery will forever commemorate their service and sacrifice.”
The grant funds the first phase of construction on approximately 24 acres. The cemetery was created after the transfer of an 80-acre parcel from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant to Virginia last year.
Construction plans include full-casket and cremation burial areas, columbaria for cremation remains, a memorial garden and scattering site, an assembly area, a committal service shelter, a maintenance building, roads, landscaping and supporting infrastructure. Burial areas will include 5,167 standard burial plots; 2,750 pre-placed crypts; 500 in-ground cremains and 625 columbarium niches.
The cemetery will serve 60,000 Veterans and their families in southwestern Virginia. The nearest national cemetery is Mountain Home National Cemetery in Mountain Home near Johnson City, Tenn., approximately 134 miles away. The nearest state cemetery is Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Amelia, approximately 178 miles away.
Virginia has one other state veterans cemetery, the Albert G. Horton Jr. Memorial Veterans Cemetery in Suffolk.
VA’s State Cemetery Grants Program is designed to complement the department’s 130 national cemeteries across the country. Since 1980, the program has awarded grants totaling more than $389 million to establish, expand or improve 74 Veterans cemeteries in 38 states or territories, including Guam and Saipan. VA-funded state Veterans cemeteries provided nearly 25,000 burials in 2008.
Residents of Virginia who are Veterans with a discharge issued under conditions other than dishonorable, their spouses and eligible dependent children can be buried in the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery. For more information about Virginia state Veterans cemeteries contact the Virginia Department of Veterans Services by phone at 804-561-1475 or visit its Web site at www.dvs.virginia.gov/cemetery_services.htm.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 800-827-1000 or from the Internet at www.cem.va.gov.
| SOURCE U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs |
Popularity: 8% [?]
VA apologizing for mistaken notices
Aug 26th
CHARLESTON, W. Va. – The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department will apologize personally to 
veterans who received erroneous letters saying they had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, agency spokeswoman Katie Roberts said yesterday.
VA employees were still trying to determine exactly how many veterans mistakenly received letters intended to inform people with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, of benefits available to them or surviving spouses and children.
Roberts said the VA mailed more than 1,800 letters last week and had been notified by fewer than 10 veterans who received them in error. But the National Gulf War Resource Center, a veterans group, said at least 1,200 veterans received the letters by mistake. Roberts did not say whether the VA determined how the error occurred. - AP
CHARLESTON, W. Va. – The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department will apologize personally to veterans who received erroneous letters saying they had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, agency spokeswoman Katie Roberts said yesterday.
VA employees were still trying to determine exactly how many veterans mistakenly received letters intended to inform people with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, of benefits available to them or surviving spouses and children.
Roberts said the VA mailed more than 1,800 letters last week and had been notified by fewer than 10 veterans who received them in error. But the National Gulf War Resource Center, a veterans group, said at least 1,200 veterans received the letters by mistake. Roberts did not say whether the VA determined how the error occurred. - AP
Popularity: 6% [?]
Veterans forsake studies of stress
Aug 25th
Stigma impedes search for remedies
By Bryan Bender, Boston Globe Staff | August 24, 2009
WASHINGTON – Researchers testing ways to treat the psychological wounds of war among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are encountering a serious roadblock: a shortage of willing study participants.
A strong stigma in the military associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is blamed for the reluctance of combat veterans to take part in a pair of treatment programs being evaluated by staff from the Veterans Administration in Boston at facilities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, study directors said.
The VA and the Pentagon hope the studies will lead to a standard intervention when veterans and returning soldiers exhibit signs of post-battle stress, reducing domestic abuse and other violence. In one study, they are measuring the effectiveness of intensive couples counseling; in another, they are schooling veterans in anger management.
But since recruiting began at the beginning of the year, only 10 couples have signed up for the first study, far short of the 440 needed, according to officials. Out of 135 male veterans needed for the second study, mean while, only 13 have been accepted so far.
“The problem is that part of PTSD is not really wanting to talk about your PTSD – not wanting to talk about anything that might bring up traumatic memories,’’ said Dr. Casey Taft, a psychologist who is overseeing the work at the National Center for PTSD at the VA Medical Center in Boston.
Researchers are expanding their outreach, meeting with military and veterans groups several times a week, distributing fliers at VA hospitals across the region, and placing ads in military outlets. A new website, www.strengthathome.com, has also been launched to drum up more participation in the studies, which are supported by $3.5 million in grants.
The Pentagon is sponsoring the research into treatments for individual service members, and the Centers for Disease Control is backing the work with veterans and their spouses.
PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to threatening situations or physical harm. It generates emotional detachment and a propensity to be easily startled, often resulting in aggressive behavior and violence. The government estimates that at least one-third of all service members who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from some form of mental trauma after their tour of duty. Those who have served repeat tours have been found to be more prone to psychological problems.
The disorder was found to be a major contributor in as many as 11 murders in 2007 and 2008 allegedly committed by members of an Army unit that returned from its second tour in Iraq, according to a recent Army study of the brigade based at Fort Carson, Colo. Soldiers in the unit were also found to be involved in a rash of other crimes, including beatings, rapes, DUIs, drug abuse, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnappings, and suicides.
While the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs have made significant strides educating service members about stress disorders and encouraging active duty service members and veterans and their families to seek help from a variety of new counseling programs, officials say there remains stiff resistance in the ranks to acknowledging mental wounds from combat.
Such resistance is seen as a major impediment to tackling the traumatic stress problem.
In some of his most expansive comments on the subject, President Obama recently said he has instructed top veterans officials to focus on “making sure that we are doing the screening that’s necessary so that problems don’t fester, and eliminating the stigma that may have historically existed when somebody is showing symptoms of PTSD, particularly if they’re still in [Iraq or Afghanistan], or still on active duty.’’
One of the Boston-area studies is looking specifically at the effects of PTSD on families and ways to prevent psychological problems brought on by combat from escalating into domestic violence, Taft said. The 10-week program begins with sessions to educate couples about the ailment and how it can lead to confrontation.
Taft said a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder tends to disconnect emotionally from his or her partner even as the spouse wants to return to the intimacy they enjoyed before deployment. Combined with the veteran’s ability to be easily irritated and inability to sleep, “that can really lead to problems,’’ he said.
Subsequent phases of the couples study introduce new combinations of techniques to manage conflict in the home better and improve communication skills.
The second study, a 12-week program, is designed only for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and focuses heavily on anger management.
Taft said his researchers have done a lot of work on therapies to help veterans overcome what he called a “heightened level of threat perception.’’
Due to the nature of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan – where an innocent-looking bystander can be a suicide bomber or enemy insurgent – service members must be constantly aware of their environment, scanning their surroundings for the smallest sign of a threat. That vigilance can be hard to turn off at home, sometimes leading to the false impression that a family member or other person wants to cause harm.
But getting veterans to agree to treatment is proving to be the toughest part, Taft said. And, he warned, “the more they avoid seeking help the worse their symptoms will get.’’
Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com. 
Popularity: 8% [?]
At V.A., Scrutiny Over Abuses and $24 Million in Bonuses
Aug 22nd
Even as their office struggled with a large budget deficit, managers in the technology office of the Department of Veterans Affairs awarded $24 million in bonuses to thousands of employees in 2007 and 2008, according to a new investigative report.
The report, by the department’s Office of Inspector General, concluded that the managers “were not fiscally responsible in administering awards” and that one senior manager in particular, Jennifer S. Duncan, “acted as if she was given a blank checkbook to write unlimited monetary awards.”
The report was one of two sharply critical reviews of the department’s Office of Information and Technology that were issued this week by the inspector general. The reports document evidence of widespread nepotism, abuse of authority and improper hiring under a former assistant secretary, Robert Howard.
The investigators found that Mr. Howard, who left the department in January, had “an inappropriate relationship” with one of his subordinates, Katherine Adair Martinez, who remains a deputy assistant secretary. Ms. Martinez is also accused in one report of abusing her position to help a friend get a job and to transfer her own job to Florida, even though she spent 60 percent of her time in Washington.
The two reports were first reported by a Web site, vawatchdog.org.
In a statement, the department’s press secretary, Katie Roberts, said: “We are extremely concerned by the descriptions of alleged improper conduct by V.A. staff. The department is aggressively pursuing a thorough review of the situation and will continue to work with the appropriate authorities.” The department will take appropriate corrective actions against policy violators, she said.
The reports, heavily redacted, conceal the names of most beneficiaries of improperly allocated jobs and bonuses. But one includes a long list of abuses by Ms. Duncan, the former executive assistant to Mr. Howard.
The inspector general found that Ms. Duncan: violated anti-nepotism rules by advocating the hiring of relatives; authorized federal money to pay for graduate courses for relatives and friends; and approved bonuses she lacked the authority to give. From 2007 to 2008, she herself got $60,000 in bonuses; the average for her pay grade was less than $15,000 for the period.
Ms. Duncan, who retired in April, Mr. Howard and Ms. Martinez did not reply to calls for comment.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Army Using Extreme Sports to Help War Veterans
Jul 28th
Army Using Extreme Sports to Help War Veterans 
FORT LEWIS, Wash. (AP) — Sgt. Sylvia Portillo went first.
Secured with elastic cords to a railroad bridge more than 200 feet over a gorge south of Mount St. Helens, Portillo’s mission was to dive over the edge. She pretended to throw up, getting a nervous laugh out of the troops behind her. Then, keeping her own anxiety in check, she bungee-jumped into the lush green below.
Dozens of soldiers in the 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment and the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team took the plunge that day last fall. Most had been recently deployed in Iraq. Few had bungee-jumped before.
As he stood at the edge, Sgt. Steve Damron felt a mix of trepidation and adrenaline that he likened to patrols through Baghdad. ”It’s a chance to calm our brothers down,” he said, ”to push that adrenaline out.”
That’s the idea.
More than 323,000 Army soldiers have served more than one deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to Defense Department statistics entering June, and the Army had the highest rate of suicides on record last year. Researchers reported this month that 37 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking care at Veterans Affairs clinics for the first time are being diagnosed with mental health disorders.
The situation has the military searching for ways to supplement and redefine its counseling and self-awareness evaluation programs, and now, for ways to bring the thrilling terror of war home through safe outlets.
The battle-weary 4th Stryker Brigade based at Fort Lewis, outside Tacoma, was picked for the third and final trial of a new Army program called Warrior Adventure Quest. It sends soldiers just back from war on outings of paintball, mountain biking, scuba diving, sky diving, whitewater rafting, alpine skiing, snowboarding and rock climbing.
Army officials say they’ve learned that soldiers who are used to life in a war zone suddenly find life at home to be moving at a glacial pace. The theory is that extreme experiences such as thrill sports can help troops overcome what one soldier in the 4th Stryker Brigade called ”the Rambo syndrome” — the emotional need for some of the tension and fear-tinged excitement of combat.
”If they want adrenaline, let’s give them adrenaline. Let’s give it to them in a manner in which they are going to survive,” said John O’Sullivan, the Army’s program manager for outdoor recreation and the Warrior Adventure Quest.
Damron said bungee jumping worked on an emotional level.
”It’s like your first time going in a house” in Iraq, he said. ”You have no clue what’s on the other side. You hit one room, awesome sweep. Now, OK, you’ve got to hit another room. You’re walking in the middle of the night. You have no clue what’s out there — like bungee jumping.”
Warrior Adventure Quest is really a post-deployment extension of an emotion-based battlefield assessment the military has developed for small-unit leaders. It goes beyond the traditional review of tactics to include immediate assessments of soldiers’ reactions and the acknowledgment of the need for ‘’self and buddy aid.”
The team that began developing Warrior Adventure Quest recommended debriefings after each activity. The sessions are aimed at helping soldiers realize the connection between the extreme sport experience and challenges of reconnecting to their daily lives back home.
”It’s a final reset” before returning to society, said Lt. Col. Ed Busher, the deputy director of the behavioral health department in the Army’s Office of the Surgeon General, who traveled to Fort Lewis for the program’s final test.
”It’s been unanimously well received,” he said. ”Every iteration, there’s been this experience of, ‘Oh, this reminded me of Iraq.”’
The Army began implementing Warrior Adventure Quest into platoon-sized units of 30 to 40 soldiers in January, at Grafenwoehr and Ansbach in Germany, and then at Fort Drum, N.Y., Fort Stewart, Ga., Fort Campbell, Ky., Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. and Fort Bragg, N.C.
By this fall, the Army will have started Warrior Adventure Quest at 26 posts worldwide.
Dr. Dan Blazer is intrigued by the program but cautions not to put too much faith in its effects for the long term. A professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center who works with World War II veterans still struggling with their experiences, Blazer said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that ”the premise is both interesting and in some ways sound (just as vigorous exercise can in theory relieve anxiety).”
However, Blazer — who served on a military mental health task force in 2007 — cautioned that, ”I do have one opinion about such approaches: The stress of war is unlike anything else that we can imagine or imitate. I suspect that as long as we have war, especially war such as in the two theaters currently, we are going to see PTSD,” or post-traumatic stress disorder.
The program is being funded through September by the Army’s Family Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command. The cost is estimated to be a minimum of $7 million for every 80,000 soldiers who participate. The Army is still exploring how to pay for it beyond this fiscal year. It is also collecting data from these early months of the program to see if it works.
The half-dozen Fort Lewis soldiers who joined Damron to discuss how bungee jumping related to their missions in Iraq think it does.
For them, the aggression of war remains fresh. Sounds of the urban night they used to sleep through — sirens, squealing tires — keep them on full alert. Garbage-strewn alleys in Tacoma and Seattle bring flashbacks to Baghdad.
Most at the bungee-jumping site had been home for less than four months. Some had done multiple tours in Iraq, completing nightly missions in Black Hawk helicopters and sleeping through days back as bases such as Camp Speicher, near Tikrit, north of Baghdad. Others’ missions were more sporadic, causing as little as two hours of uninterrupted sleep a night.
Now home, some go on runs at midnight because they can’t wind down to sleep.
”I just had to keep telling myself to slow down,” Damron said. ”I wanted to be active at all times of the day.”
Popularity: 26% [?]
Vets affected by VA hospital errors to file claims
Jul 27th
By BILL POOVEY (AP) 
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — An attorney is preparing to ask the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to pay disability benefits and damages for hospital mistakes that may have exposed veterans to infectious body fluids — a complaint that he said could ultimately multiply into many more such demands.
The attorney, Mike Sheppard of Nashville, said he is preparing to file claims with the VA for about 60 veterans, including three women.
Among them are veterans who have tested positive for HIV and hepatitis and others who suffered emotional distress after the VA provided them with initial positive blood tests for infections that turned out to be wrong.
Sheppard also said other veterans among the roughly 10,000 affected former patients at VA hospitals in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Miami and Augusta, Ga., are likely to seek compensation beyond the VA’s offer of free medical care.
“I’ve gotten calls from all over the country,” he said.
Sheppard said he will file medical malpractice and emotional distress claims with the VA within 30 to 45 days. He said veterans and veterans’ relatives who have contacted him by phone from Florida and elsewhere likely have sought out other attorneys.
The claims process differs from a traditional malpractice lawsuit because the VA is a federal agency. The first step is to have the patient’s claim reviewed by a VA regional attorney.
“A regional attorney will look at it and decide yea or nay,” Sheppard said. “There is one level of appeal internally then you have a right to file a lawsuit in federal court.”
The VA’s regional counsel in Nashville, Tammy Kennedy, did not return telephone messages Friday and Monday seeking comment.
Records show that between fiscal year 2004 and March 2009 the VA denied 11,299 veterans’ claims for compensation related to hospital and medical care, while granting 3,229 claims.
The VA denied 813 such claims filed by veterans’ dependents, while granting 261 in the same period, records show.
The VA has offered free medical care to the affected veterans — but Sheppard said that’s no more than they already expected. He said the requested compensation will vary greatly, depending on the veteran’s age, ailments and other factors.
“It’s a case by case basis,” he said.
Updated records show that among the patients who have heeded VA warnings to get follow-up blood checks, eight have tested positive for HIV. Twelve former patients have tested positive for hepatitis B and 37 have tested positive for hepatitis C.
VA records show 9,141 veterans have received follow-up blood test results among the 10,320 former patients who were warned they might have even minimum risk of exposure.
The VA has said the errors were limited to the three facilities, but a report released by the agency’s inspector general showed some more widespread problems. Investigators conducting surprise inspections in May found that only 43 percent of the agency’s medical centers had standard operating procedures in place for endoscopic equipment and could show they properly trained their staffs for using the devices.
The VA has said for months that there is no way to prove that the positive tests for infectious diseases stem from exposure to improperly cleaned or erroneously rigged equipment while getting colonoscopies at Murfreesboro or Miami or while getting treatment at the ear, nose and throat clinic in Augusta.
In a statement, the VA expressed regret for the mistakes but also said the agency has aggressively dealt with them, including warning former patients who in some cases were treated five years ago to get follow-up blood tests. The statement also said veterans have been informed of their legal right “to submit disability claims on account of VA negligence.”
The law that governs claims for compensation includes a “benefit of doubt” provision that in disputed cases give the claimant a favorable decision if there is an “approximate balance of positive and negative evidence.”
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Al Franken’s first order of Senate business: more service dogs for veterans
Jul 23rd
Not Specific to Virginia but who would have thought?
While many thought that Al Franken’s bid for Senate was something of a joke, the former 
Saturday Night Live comedian is starting his freshman term with a very sobering bill: a program designed to give service dogs to wounded veterans.
“As someone who’s spent time with our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on USO tours and met wounded warriors at Walter Reed and Bethesda, I feel a deep obligation to the men and women who have risked life and limb on our behalf,” Franken explained in an op-ed piece in Sunday’s Star-Tribune.
But after meeting Iraq war veteran Luis Carlos Montalvan, Franken was impressed with Tuesday, Montalvan’s golden retriever. According to Montalvan, a 36-year-old ex-intelligence officer who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, attending the event and meeting Franken would have been impossible for him without the help of Tuesday, who assists not only with his physical needs but with his emotional comfort as well. “Tuesday is just extraordinarily empathetic,” Montalvan told the Wall Street Journal. “In bad moments, he’ll lay his head on my leg, and it’ll be like he’s saying, ‘You’re OK. You’re not alone.’ ”
According to Franken, most veterans cannot afford service dogs; the cost to train each one and place it with the proper soldier is about $25,000. “Luis got Tuesday from one of the nonprofit agencies around the country that trains service dogs,” Franken wrote. “I visited one of them, Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota, and saw dogs opening doors and answering phones. I saw a German shepherd named Pepsi pick a nickel off a tile floor and give it to a young woman in a wheelchair.”
Franken’s plan is to start a pilot program that will “help train a statistically significant number of dogs to measure the benefits to veterans with physical and emotional wounds. The program would be monitored and refined over a three-year period to optimize its effectiveness.”
– Tony Pierce
Popularity: 23% [?]
