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Archive for the ‘VA News’ Category
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
When the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reviewed the current vacancy rates of the Port Hudson National Cemetery in Louisiana they estimated that the cemetery would be filled by 2015, prompting quick action to secure new burial sites for our fallen service members. The new site will be known as the Louisiana National Cemetery.
A dedication ceremony for the Louisiana National Cemetery site will be held on March 24 at 11 a.m. CST. When completed in April 2013, the site expects to give burial options to 293,000 veterans and their family members. The first phase will be a 17-acre project and provide 2,500 in-ground crypts and 1,128 regular gravesites as well as a formal entrance, roadways, utilities, and infrastructure.
The second phase will complete the project with an additional 12 acres containing 1,000 columbarium niches and 1,130 cremains sites, as well as the administrative building, maintenance complex, a committal service shelter, and a public assembly area. The water distribution system, landscaping, roads, signage, site furnishings, and utilities will also be completed.
The Port Hudson cemetery will be closed to most new burials starting in July, leaving its gates open only to casketed interments of those with previously buried family members. Interment in the Louisiana National Cemetery will follow general military cemetery guidelines, allowing honorably discharged veterans, their spouses, and qualified dependent children to be buried there. It is also open to active duty military personnel who die in the line of duty, and their spouses and eligible dependents.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veteran’s disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: military cemetery, veterans and their families, Veterans' Benefits, Veterans' Events, Veterans' Resources
Posted in General, VA News, Veterans' Benefits, Veterans' Dependents, Veterans' Events, Veterans' Resources | No Comments »
Friday, February 10th, 2012
There are 2 medical malpractice claims in question regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care sytem, which resulted in the death of Navy veteran Asenath German and the death of the newborn son of active duty military parents Jacqulin and Prather Price. Both of these claims are in the hands of U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard, part of the Middle District of Florida Jacksonville Division.
In the case of German, her husband, an active-duty Navy soldier, is filing the suit after doctors at the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville failed to diagnose a brain hemorrhage. German sought treatment in 2008 but was dismissed with minor treatment for a migraine. A few days later she was experiencing stroke-like symptoms, which brought her to being admitted to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.
The couple filed a lawsuit against the naval hospital and is now fighting against the Federal Tort Claims Act, which blocks lawsuits against the government by active-duty military personnel. German passed away in December 2010, but her husband is continuing the suit.
In the case of the Price family, the parents are alleging malpractice during their son Elijah’s birth that caused him to only survive an hour after delivery. The lawsuit alleges that the medical staff at the same naval hospital didn’t take into account Jacqulin’s difficulty with gestational diabetes and also Elijah’s large size prior to birth. The option for a cesarean section wasn’t allowed, ultimately resulting in Elijah death.
In the Price case, it’s again active duty military trying to file a lawsuit for malpractice against government-run hospitals. Lawmakers are arguing over whether VA hospitals and doctors should share the immunity of the FCTA or not.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veteran’s disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: active duty military personnel, Federal Tort Claims Act, medical malpractice, Military Legislation, VA Health Care System
Posted in General, US Military Legislation, VA News, Veterans' Dependents | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
When a new veteran returns to the states and goes through one of the 61 demobilization sites across the U.S. they are given the opportunity to enroll in the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system. Up until now, this process could take as long as 10 days, but a new online form system is drastically reducing that time.
The first run at Camp Shelby in Mississippi saw the wait time for establishment in the VA health care system drop from 10 days to 3 days by use of the new online VA Form 1010EZ. With the success of this trial, the VA is working on getting the new digital form available at the other demobilization sites within the coming months.
By reducing the time it takes to grant veterans access to the VA health care system it can also potentially speed up the process of applying for veterans’ disability benefits. Once in the system, veterans are eligible for 5 years of cost-free care at any VA facility for conditions related to combat service.
Veterans’ disability benefits are designed to augment this care by providing additional compensation for ongoing treatment and special needs related to service-connected disabilities. The sooner a veteran or disabled veteran can get into the VA health care system, the sooner they can get a disability rating to establish their benefits claim.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veteran’s disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: VA health care, VA Health Care System, Veterans Disability Benefits
Posted in General, VA News, Veterans' Benefits, Veterans' Disability, Veterans' Resources | No Comments »
Monday, February 6th, 2012
A recent count of veterans’ disability claims waiting in queue to be processed stood at 853,831 on January 27, while it was about 100,000 claims lower in 2011 and 500,000 claims lower in 2009. This number is only expected to rise in the coming months.
According to Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House VA Affairs Committee, at least half of the disabled veterans, with claims already filed, wait at least 6 months just to get into the initial processing stage. This may be due to the mixed regulations for disability ratings seen in the Department of Defense (DoD) and VA’s application systems, and also the increased eligibility for Agent Orange cases. Furthermore, of the estimated 2.2 million troops from the Iraq and Aghanistan Wars, nearly 624,000 have filed veterans’ disability benefits claims and more are anticipated.
Current efforts to combat the increasing backlog focus heavily on budget increases and switching to a paperless system for claim processing. The system was recently tested in Utah and Rhode Island and is set for a national launch this summer through 2013. For 2012, the VA’s budget was increased 20% to nearly $2 billion to help fund claim processing efforts.
Considering the disability ratings systems hasn’t been modified since it was created, which was at the end of WWII, one of the biggest challenges faced is the discrepancies between disability ratings from the DoD or the VA.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veteran’s disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: disability ratings system, VA Backlog, veterans disability claims, Veterans' Benefits
Posted in Disabled Veterans, General, VA News, Veterans' Benefits, Veterans' Disability | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is offering complimentary credit monitoring for veterans affected by the 2011 privacy breach.
In March of 2011, the VA received a request for personal records, including social security numbers, of deceased veterans. This request was made by the genealogy website Ancestry.com to help improve their family history databases. While the VA was obligated to release this information under the Freedom of Information Act, an error occurred where the information of 2,200 living veterans was also included among the records.
When the information went live in December of that year, the error was brought to the attention of the VA, which immediately launched an investigation into the problem. Meanwhile, efforts have been made to notify all living veterans whose information was released about the mistake and what they were doing to minimize the impact.
Currently, those veterans whose information was compromised can obtain a free year of credit monitoring from any of the 3 main credit bureaus by calling 1-877-322-8228. So far no misconduct has been reported and veterans’ disability benefits have not been affected.
Protecting veterans privacy is important to protecting a soldiers’ rights to benefits. Many programs exist to help disabled veterans manage their affairs and finances if their disability impairs them from doing so on their own.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veteran’s disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: Department of Veterans Affairs, VA privacy breach, Veterans' Benefits
Posted in General, VA News, Veterans' Benefits | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
On Wednesday, January 4, 20 new Mobile Vet Centers (MVCs) left the Farber Specialty Vehicles facility in Columbus, Ohio to travel to their new destinations across the country in order to help bring remote counseling services to veterans and their families in underserved areas.
The vehicles will be established in the following cities:
- Atlanta, Ga.;
- Baltimore, Md.;
- Birmingham, Ala.;
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa;
- Evanston, Ill.;
- Green Bay, Wis.;
- Greensboro, N.C.;
- Indianapolis, Ind.;
- Jackson, Miss.;
- Kansas City, Mo.;
- Lawton, Okla.;
- Lakewood, N.J.;
- Nashville, Tenn.;
- Ponce, Puerto Rico;
- Pontiac, Mich.;
- Reno, Nev.;
- San Diego, Calif.;
- Stark County, Ohio;
- Washington County, Utah; and
- Western Oahu, Hawaii.
Each MVC is equipped with a private counseling area and features equipment to facilitate video counseling sessions with remote professionals. The 50 MVCs already in operation have been able to bring mental health and family counseling to veterans and their families in areas that are either too far from a VA facility or are experiencing a heavy burden of cases.
The expanded access to veteran’s mental health services hopes to help improve the care and support of disabled veterans and help families cope with the stresses of returning to civilian life.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veteran’s disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: va services, Veterans Mental Health, Veterans' Resources
Posted in General, VA News, Veterans' Resources | No Comments »
Monday, January 9th, 2012
In their continuing efforts to increase communication with U.S. veterans and their families, The Department of Veterans Affairs has launched 152 new Facebook pages.
In December of 2011, a new Facebook page was established for every VA medical center. This initiative is designed to help give veterans a better way to communicate concerns and obtain information about the programs, services, and benefits available to them through the VA systems.
While individual medical questions are not allowed to be discussed via social media, the medical centers can monitor feedback from the Facebook pages and connect interested veterans to their center’s services and medical care. The VA also plans on expanding these offerings to Twitter for all centers.
The move to social media began in 2008 with the first Facebook page for the Veterans Health Administration. Their social media campaign has expanded to Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and the Vantage Point blog. The VA hopes to follow in the same path for each VA medical center.
Currently, the VA’s combined Facebook pages have a total of over 345,000 subscribers and the medical centers are already making up nearly 20% of that total.
These new pages may be sources of great information to disabled veterans looking for treatment or help with obtaining a disability rating for benefits.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veteran’s disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), VA medical center, Veterans Disability Benefits, veterans services, Veterans' Resources
Posted in VA News, Veterans' Benefits, Veterans' Resources | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
An article in Reuters detailed how a veteran who underwent surgery discovered that his surgeons left 2 towels inside of him, causing several more surgeries.
The veteran was 47-years-old and originally went into his local Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital for cancer-related kidney surgery in May of 2008. He complained of pain in his abdomen following the surgery and eventually had to return to the VA hospital.
When he returned doctors performed a scan on his abdomen and found 2 11×14 surgical towels had been left inside of him when he was sewn up following his original surgery. He was forced to undergo a second surgery to have the towels removed.
That second surgery, however, did not happen until August of that same year, which was more than 3 months after the initial surgery. Possibly related to the towels being left behind, a third surgery was necessary to repair a hernia, which is also common for many people after undergoing abdominal surgery.
The entire ordeal caused the veteran to lose almost a year’s worth of work due to health issues. He was awarded 275,000 by a federal court for his troubles, and the VA did admit their surgeons breached their surgical standard of care through their actions.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veterans disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: Department of Veterans Affairs, medical malpractice, Surgical Mistake, Veterans disability, veterans healthcare
Posted in Disabled Veterans, General, VA News, Veterans' Disability | No Comments »
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
According to an article in Stars and Stripes, there are fewer homeless veterans than there were last year. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently issued a report claiming that there are 12% fewer homeless veterans across the nation.
VA Sec. Eric Shinseki and HUD Sec. Shaun Donovan both referred to this as a trend and praised President Obama’s effort to end homelessness among U.S. veterans in the near future. The results came from the “point-in-time” count, which occurs every year. The count last year was 76,329, whereas only 67,495 were counted this year.
A deeper look into the numbers shows that there were more homeless veterans not living in shelters no longer on the streets. The study shows there were 17% fewer veterans regularly sleeping in public places, such as streets, as compared to veterans who considered homeless living in transitional housing and shelters.
Sec. Donovan attributed much of the change to a shift in focus on the government’s end. Taking a more pro-active approach to preventing homelessness before veterans become homeless seems to be producing better results than attempting to fix the problem once it has already happened.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veterans disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: homeless veterans, Transitional Housing, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Posted in General, VA News | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
A recent report from the Huffington Post states that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plans on spending $100 million to prevent homelessness among U.S. veterans. More specifically, the VA is granting the money to local and community organizations that can help veterans stop from becoming homeless in the first place.
Local and community organizations will be able to apply for a share of the $100 million so they can get involved and help U.S. veterans before they lose their home. The VA believes prevention is the key to eliminating homelessness among veterans. It’s much easier, and takes less effort, to prevent veterans from becoming homeless than it does to establish housing once the homelessness has occurred.
VA Sec. Eric Shinseki hopes to help 35,000 veterans and their families with this grant program. The grant money will be used to offer the necessary services to prevent homelessness, such as education, counseling, and training.
There are over 100,000 homeless veterans, and the VA has already stated that by 2015 they plan on lowering that number to zero. Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will need help on many levels from many different organizations. While some needs may be much more severe than others, no veteran should return to this country and not have a roof over his or her head.
If you are a disabled veteran who has been denied disability compensation or have not yet applied for benefits from the VA, a South Florida disability attorney from LaVan & Neidenberg is ready to help. To learn if you are entitled to certain programs and benefits contact our veterans disability rights firm today – 1-888-234-5758.
Tags: Department of Veterans Affairs, homeless veterans, U.S. veterans, Veterans disability, veterans prevention programs
Posted in Disabled Veterans, General, Iraq-Afghanistan War, VA News, Vet Groups & Networking, Veterans' Disability, Veterans' Resources | 1 Comment »
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