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Archive for December, 2009
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
When the new GI Bill for Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars was passed by Congress last year, people had high hopes. However, the reality of the situation is benefits flowing from the bill have been late arriving resulting in frustration on campuses around the country.
The program rolled out August 1 and focused on giving superior benefits to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Benefits include:
- Full tuition at most public institutions;
- Many more expensive, private school promised to make up the balance of the difference between their school and what the tuition would cost at a public institution; and
- The ability to transfer unused benefits to their dependents.
Normally, fall semesters greet students with a sense of anticipation triggered by the excitement of working toward a college degree. This fall, however, thousands of veterans were met with feelings of aggravation and annoyance as their tuition and living expenses payments were delayed by the federal government. Approximately 20,000 veterans are still waiting for their claims to be processed and their payments to be disbursed. The US Department of VA attributes the issues to:
- Challenges in being a first year program;
- An outdated processing system; and
- Delays in actually receiving paperwork.
While it is bad enough deserving veterans are not getting the money and benefits they are entitled to, some schools are considering telling veterans they will not be able to register for their next semester until funds arrive. In October, the VA authorized advance payments up to $3,000 to allow veterans to at least cover their living expenses for the semester.
Tags: Benefits; Tuition; Living expenses
Posted in Veterans' Benefits | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
The Veterans’ Place is a two-story, refurbished, nursing home turned transitional housing facility. Doors were opened last September and there are already 15 residents working toward turning their life around.
More than just a housing facility, the Veterans’ Place also serves as a counseling center in its own right. All the residents are veterans and the sense of brotherhood that exists in the house has given many of the residents the energy they need to face their issues.
As the old saying goes, “anything worth doing is worth doing right.” The Veterans’ Place was originally funded by a $770,000 federal grant and what amounted to hundreds of hours of people volunteering their time and labor to bring the building up to standard. The fact is, this is a successful veterans-only model, and one viable for duplication.
Transitional housing facilities likes the Veterans’ Place are few and far between and by far, the vast majority of veterans suffering are suffering in silence. Certainly places like this just do not pop up, as is evidenced by the constant search being conducted for grants and donations necessary to keep the doors open. The current VA reimbursements fall short of what is needed to keep the doors open on a monthly basis.
According to the program manager, this model works because of the clientele: veterans talk to other veterans. While only a few months old, the Veterans’ Place has already seen success in its residents and hopefully it will keep it’s doors open long enough to see even more success stories.
Tags: Veterans’ Place; Transitional housing facility
Posted in General | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
A number of veterans blame their current mental health issues on the way they were treated as a result of them participating in a Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) therapy group inside the Loma Linda VA Medical Center. The VA Medical Center hosted two PTSD support groups with 15 veterans in each group. The psychologist that led the two groups ended up leaving the medical center and thereby changed the dynamic of the group.
The VA told the groups they could continue their meetings but a professional facilitator would only be available once a month. The groups, then, would be left to help themselves for three weeks out of the month.
The VA has stated peer-led groups are effective based on the success of other groups at that VA. The patients in the PTSD group, however, believe the VA has more underlying, nefarious motives. The PTSD patients believe the VA Medical Center is attempting to break up the group and at the same time save money.
A sudden shift in the dynamic of a group like that could be construed as misguided, according to experts. Nationwide, the VA is taking two new approaches toward how they treat PTSD:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy, a classroom approach dealing with individual symptoms; and
- Exposure-based therapy, a theory which asks veterans to relive their traumatic experience in a safe environment.
Setting aside the effectiveness of the two approaches, experts believe neither one should be attempted without professional guidance at the group level as there is the risk of doing harm without supervision.
Following PTSD therapy groups being cut last year in other VA medical centers, VA headquarters in Washington, D.C. ordered these groups not be cut; they were subsequently reinstated. The consequences of cutting groups or suddenly removing someone in a leadership role can be dire and can include:
- Increased anger and depression;
- An increase in symptoms generally associated with PTSD such as: Nightmares, Hyper vigilance, Insomnia;
- Increased suicidal thoughts or behaviors;
- Anger towards the VA;
- Relapsing of substance abuse;
- Feelings of not being able to make any progress on their own; and
- General regression;
The VA anticipates a large influx of people in the coming months as more people start to return from Middle East Deployments and as people leave the military. There is going to be more of a need for qualified PTSD groups available in order to incorporate and implement the VA’s new PTSD treatments.
Tags: PTSD, VA medical center
Posted in Disabled Veterans | 12 Comments »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
The Jesse Brown VA Medical Center was honored with a Sustainability Award by the Governor of Illinois. The medical center was presented with the award in recognition of their considerable accomplishments in protecting the environment and at the same time improving the state’s economy.
The VA medical facility was celebrated as being one of the most environmentally conscious medical centers in the United States. The medical center boasts an eco-friendly tower that was completed in May 2008 consisting of:
- Woodwork and flooring made of recycled materials;
- Temperature control thermal windows;
- An insulating roof designed to conserve water run-off; and
- A south facing design to maximize sunlight and conserve energy.
The facility also put a recycling program into operation. So far, the results of the program have been very impressive and the medical center has
- Saved more than 1.4 million kilowatt-hours of electrical energy;
- Saved more than 2.5 million gallons of water;
- Recycled 170 tons of cardboard and paper; and
- Appreciably reduced the amount of medical waste produced.
This state-of-the-art facility helps veterans, the environment, and the state’s economy all at the same time. The entire award ceremony was part of a holiday salute to veterans and was followed by a tour of the facility.
Tags: Award, Environment
Posted in VA News | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Three years ago, Congress passed the Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006. This act established an educational assistance program (EAP) for information security at the VA.
To date, not $1 has been disbursed for scholarships or loan repayments. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the initial grant the VA needs to disburse the funds isn’t even expected until 2011.
Under the act, the VA was to establish an EAP for doctoral students in computer science and doctoral students in computer and electrical engineering in order for the VA to expand their ability to recruit individuals with specific information security skills.
The program, as designed, has 2 distinct parts:
- A debt-reduction program for VA employees recently having earned their doctoral degrees ($16,500 per year up to a total of $82,500 for 5 years); and
- A full tuition scholarship program including a monthly stipend for individuals qualified enough who agree to work for the VA upon completion of their academic programs.
The GAO told the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees that the VA has taken some initiative in implementing the Information Security Education Assistance Program.
According to the GAO, the VA has:
- Drafted governing regulations;
- Begun reviewing the regulations internally; and
- Developed a budget impact analysis.
After the internal review is complete, additional steps will be required prior to issuing the regulations.
If the funds do become available, the VA will begin to seek candidates in January 2011 for this EAP. The soonest the VA would be able to hire a doctoral program graduate would be around January 2012. Therefore, if the candidate is just beginning their doctoral studies, it could be a significant amount of time before the VA is actually able to benefit from the education they would be, for the most part, financing.
Tags: EAP, Veterans' Benefits, veterans' educational assistance program
Posted in VA News, Veterans' Benefits | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Houston’s VA medical clinic has had the number of outpatient visits spring from 474,901 in 2000 to 815,605 in 2009; almost doubling the amount of veterans treated. The increase has been attributed to the vast amount of veterans returning from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In response to the flood of veterans the main VA medical center has experienced, 4 new VA outpatient clinics will open in the suburbs. Houston’s VA medical clinic treated about 1,500 veterans in 2006. Comparably, it treated more than 8,000 this year.
The VA medical centers have also become popular and are therefore treating more veterans because of the state of the economy. VA health care is much more affordable than most hospitals and the level of care is on par with any other medical clinic.
The Richmond and Lake Jackson VA outpatient clinics will occupy very similar 10,000-square-foot-facilities. Richmond will open next summer and the Lake Jackson facility will open next fall. Both of these VA medical centers will offer:
- Primary health care;
- Mental health Care;
- Laboratory services; and
- X-Ray services.
The other 2 VA outpatient clinics, which will open in Katy and Tomball, will be much larger. Those two facilities will both be 30,000 square feet but will not open for another 3 to 4 years. The Texas City VA Outpatient Clinic will also open in 2010.
All of these clinics serve one purpose: to bring primary health care closer to where veterans live.
Tags: Outpatient VA clinics, VA health care, VA medical centers Houston
Posted in General, VA News, Veterans' Benefits | No Comments »
Monday, December 21st, 2009
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has charged the VA with violating 8 regulations in the medical use of radioactive materials. Philadelphia VA medical center officials as well as VA officials vehemently denied these charges but did apologize for giving incorrect radiation doses to veterans for 6 years as part of a prostate-cancer program.
A 4 hour hearing was held to allow the VA to explain the problems it had with its prostate-cancer program. Until the hearing, the VA admitted incorrect doses of radiation had been given to 97 veterans. At the hearing, however, the VA changed the number of affected veterans to 19.
The difference between the 2 numbers is due to the VA’s new criteria for determining if a mistake was made. Previously, the standard the VA was using was based on the size of the dose delivered to the patient’s prostate. Their new criteria, however, examines where the seeds (radiation treatment) are placed in proximity to the cancerous prostate.
While the VA admits their prostate-cancer program had problems, they will not admit those problems are as voluminous as previously reported. To date, the amount of veterans with reoccurrences of their prostate cancer is within the accepted range for this type of treatment.
Over the years, at the Philadelphia VA medical center, there have been numerous episodes of improper implantation of the radiation. These incorrect procedures result in subsequent procedures necessary to remove the errant implants. 31 veterans or wives have already filed claims against the VA totaling $58 million. The mistakes made at the Philadelphia VA medical center lead to several separate investigations to include one by the VA’s inspector general.
The NRC cited the VA for 8 violations last month to include
- Failing to train doctors and other staff on how to identify bad implants;
- Lacking procedures to guarantee safe implants; and
- Not reporting mistakes as quickly or fully as required.
Defenders of the Philadelphia VA Medical Center claimed their staff was fully trained, proper procedures were in place, and that proper procedures are being put in place to handle issues like not having enough peer review available for the program to operate as it should.
Tags: improper implantation of radiation, Philadelphia VA medical center, VA prostate-cancer program, VA Radiation Errors
Posted in General | No Comments »
Monday, December 21st, 2009
A new study performed by the Army’s Sixth Mental Health Advisory Team found soldiers returning from Iraq deployments have needed at least three years at their home base to recapture their level of pre-deployment mental health. The military calls this time spent at home bases between deployments “dwell time.”
Currently, soldiers spent approximately 1 year at home between deployments. While the Army planned on extending the current dwell time to 2 years, it seems unlikely given President Obama’s recent commitment to deploy more troops to Afghanistan.
According to the study, the more time soldiers spent at home between deployments, the less likely they were to report signs of:
The study concluded it took a soldier 3 years being stateside to make a full mental health recovery. Essentially, the greater the amounts of dwell time, the better the mental health of the soldier.
Outside of having proper dwell time, the other major contributing factor to mental health issues was the intensity of the combat the individual soldier experienced while deployed. This is coupled with the increased number of soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan not only suffering from PTSD, but a growing suicide rate.
This is not to say there is a positive link between being repeatedly deployed and committing suicide, but soldiers with PTSD are more likely to commit suicide. The Army is attempting solve these issues in a number of ways:
- By eliminating stop-loss and offering bonuses for soldiers to stay deployed instead;
- Drawing down in Iraq next year; and
- Developing a soldier fitness program designed to aid soldiers in strengthening their mental health.
Despite these measures, some say the only way to solve the problem is to drastically increase the size of the Army and that is just not a viable solution at this point in time.
Tags: PTSD, Soldier dwell time
Posted in General | 2 Comments »
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Over the last 5 years, 110 people have been arrested as a result of 254 VA-led criminal investigations focusing on fraudulent contracts. The investigations revealed what amounted to favoritism and kickbacks granted to regional and local vendors. Many of these crimes could have been detected at a much earlier stage or even prevented had the VA included more accountability and oversight in their acquisition plan.
The VA is completely devoid of any centralized purchase tracking database. This means there is no way for the VA to have any idea about:
- What they bought;
- Who sold it to them;
- How much the VA paid;
- If the products were even received; and
- If the prices were reasonable.
The database the VA currently maintains only tracks purchases worth more than $25,000. One investigation found only 17% of required procurements were actually logged into the database and any procurement made for the VA by a 3rd party are not reported to the database anyway, making them non-existent for auditing purposes. The VA’s lack of oversight is the bases for the criminal investigations regarding procurement fraud over the last 5 years.
The VA also awarded contracts to firms not eligible for contracts with the VA. For example, there are a certain amount of contracts to be awarded only to service-disable veteran-owned businesses. Because of the lack of oversight, contracts like these were being awarded to firms not owned by service-disabled veterans. A recent case study revealed 10 firms received $100 million in contracts that were supposed to go to service-disabled veterans. The firms awarded the contracts were not even eligible to receive them at the time.
In an effort to rectify these issues, the Department of Veterans Affairs Acquisition Improvement Act was introduced. Should this Act pass, it would create a modernized and effective acquisition plan for the entire VA.
Tags: VA Acquisitions, VA Fraud
Posted in VA News | No Comments »
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Last year the Pentagon surveyed more than 28,500 U.S. troops regarding their illegal drug abuse and the results were startling. Approximately 25% of soldiers admitted to abusing prescription drugs; mostly pain relievers. Approximately 20% of Marines also admitted to abusing prescription drugs in that same time period.
The survey further revealed the most abused drugs in the military are pain relievers and that they are abused at a rate three times that of the other 2 most abused drugs:
- Marijuana; and
- Amphetamines.
The last time a survey of this nature was conducted was 2005, although results cannot be fairly compared as different questions were used in the 2008 survey; the 2008 survey asked more pointed questions than earlier years. The comparison between the 2 studies is both discouraging and disappointing. In 2005:
- 4% of soldiers reported abusing painkillers in the 30 days prior to the survey; and
- 10% of soldiers reported abusing painkillers abuse within the last year.
In 2008, the results were much different:
- 13% of soldiers reported abusing painkillers in the 30 days prior to the survey; and
- 22% of soldiers reported abusing painkillers within the last year.
Other survey findings to note:
- In 2005 the percentage of troops reporting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was 7% and in 2008 it was 11%;
- The 2 branches with the largest increases were the Army and the Marine Corps; the 2 branches doing the majority of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan;
- Almost 60% of Marines confessed to binge drinking; and
- Thoughts of suicide among service members during the prior year jumped from 1% to 2% from 2005 to 2008.
The Army is expanding programs focusing on education and treatment of drug abuse. The few available counselors currently on staff, however, prevent the program from being as effective as necessary.
Tags: illegal drug abuse, soldiers abusing prescription drugs
Posted in General | 1 Comment »
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