Bush: Panel Will Study DoD, VA Healthcare

Bush: Panel Will Study DoD, VA Healthcare

By Kelly Kennedy
Staff writer

March 5, 2007
   
In his weekly radio address Saturday, President Bush announced an 
independent commission will be formed to investigate the entire 
process for treating wounded service members, from the time they 
are wounded all the way through their transition to the Department 
of Veterans Affairs.

Bush also touted the VA budget plan he has submitted for fiscal 
2008, which totals more than $86 billion.

"Some of our troops at Walter Reed have experienced bureaucratic 
delays and living conditions that are less than they deserve," 
Bush said, referring to recent reports in the Military Times and 
other media about wounded troops who have faced problems with 
living conditions and medical evaluations as outpatients at Walter 
Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

"This is unacceptable to me; it is unacceptable to our country; 
and it's not going to continue," Bush said.

The commission, he said, would look at how troops are treated from 
the time they are wounded all the way through to their treatment 
by VA.

But some veterans' advocates say yet another study of the problems 
could push solutions further into the future, and that even with 
the planned increase in its budget, VA still won't have enough 
resources to take care of veterans returning from the wars in Iraq 
and Afghanistan.

"I'm reading the president's speech and I'm frustrated," said Ron 
Smith, deputy general counsel for Disabled American Veterans. 
"They're going to speed up the process so [soldiers] will get a 
bad decision sooner. There is a multitude of mistakes that are 
being made by the physical evaluation boards at Walter Reed."

Smith said he feared concentrating on reducing delays to make sure 
soldiers make it through the process faster would not ensure that 
they receive proper ratings for their disabilities.

Smith said he wrote a letter two weeks ago to Lt. Gen. Kevin 
Kiley, the Army surgeon general, to outline his concerns, but he 
hasn't heard back.

"I hate to say it, but we're really good at having commissions 
give reports," he said. "The Army has not yet acknowledged that 
they have a problem with the Physical Disability Agency and the 
physical evaluation boards."

Mike Hayden, deputy director of government relations for the 
Military Officers Association of America, said a commission that 
makes sure the problems seen at Walter Reed aren't showing up at 
other military hospitals could be a bonus.

"To me, it's a great thing to have a tip-to-tail review," he said. 
"There are other complaints."

For example, such a review could determine if the "seamless 
transition" process that moves injured service members from the 
military health care system to VA is working, and could also 
review problems with delays in getting care through VA.

But Gerald Manar, deputy director of national veterans' services 
for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, feared the commission could 
cause more delays.

"Commissions can be wonderful things," he said. "They can really 
delve into problems. They can also be a mechanism by those in 
political life to shove problems off into the future by diverting 
attention until the results come out."

The problems that have surged to the fore in the wake of the 
Walter Reed scandal have been reported  and fixes have been 
suggested  before.

One year ago, for example, the Government Accountability Office 
asked the Defense Department to:

* Monitor compliance of all services with DoD regulations
  regarding medical disability evaluations.

* Review disability cases to ensure consistent decisions.

* Oversee training for staff in the disability system.

GAO reviewed the disability evaluation systems for all services 
from 2001 to 2005.

"GAO did provide information," Hayden said. "But a review could 
allow the president to see where fixes have been put in place."

Last fall, Congress approved some provisions that called for 
better training and better documentation of disability decisions 
as part of the 2007 Defense Authorization Act.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., responded to Bush's radio address 
with a speech of his own asking for immediate attention to the 
problems at Walter Reed, and asked that Bush and Congress hold the 
Army chain of command responsible for the problems.

"It is our responsibility to take care of our service members not 
only when they are serving our country, but for their entire 
lives," Lieberman said.

In his speech, Bush noted that his proposed VA budget for fiscal 
2008 would, if approved, "amount to a 77 percent increase [in VA 
funding] since I took office  the highest level of support for 
veterans in American history."

But it's still not enough to deal with the current waves of 
injured and wounded service members returning from the wars in 
Iraq and Afghanistan, along with all the other older veterans in 
the system, veterans' service organizations say.

"The budget has increased, but certainly not enough to meet the 
need," Smith said. "Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan get 
priority, but that certainly doesn't change how many people are in 
line."

VA has a backlog of 400,000 disability benefits cases.

"We feel very strongly that there should be mandatory funding for 
VA medical care," Smith.

Manar agreed. "It's true that the budget has increased and we 
appreciate what this administration has done," he said. "But it's 
been underfunded for so many years that there's a lot more 
catching up that needs to be done. We believe that a lot more 
money and attention needs to be put into the VA than the president 
has put in this year."

Manar said that even if the VA were overstaffed for the next three 
or four years, it would still be digging out from under its 
massive case load three years from now.

"If they don't get ahead of the personnel issue now, they never 
will," he said. "It takes three years to train a counselor in the 
VA system. It takes three years to train an adjudicator. This is 
not a Ford assembly line where three or four days from now they 
can put cars together."

In his speech, Bush also cited a specific soldier, Army Spc. 
Eduardo Leal-Cardenas, who was left with shattered bones in both 
legs, and broken ribs, back and neck. He walked again after care 
from Walter Reed. "I was proud to be with him at Walter Reed when 
he took his citizenship oath. If you ask Eduardo what American 
citizenship means to him, he answers with just one word: 
'Freedom.'"

"A wonderful story," Smith said. "But what you don't see is how 
long he was waiting for his discharge, what he was rated and if he 
was rated fairly. I think that story is more remarkable for what 
it doesn't say."

The president's speech is available here: 
www.whitehouse.gov/radio.
 
Source: Military Times
________________________________________________________________

For more Veterans with Disabilities news issues, see:
http://www.aapd.com/News/veterans/indexvets.php

# # #

MODERATOR, Anne Sommers, JUSTICE FOR ALL -- A Service of the
American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). To
contact Anne, please email her at JFAmoderator@aol.com. To
respond to a JFA alert or to submit an article, please see
http://www.aapd.com/JFA/JFAcontent.html.

DISCLAIMER: The JFA Listserv is designed to share information
of interest to people with disabilities and promote dialogue
in the disability community. Information circulated does not
necessarily express the views of AAPD. The JFA Listserv is
non-partisan. 

JFA ARCHIVES: All JFA postings from 1995 to present are 
available at: http://www.jfanow.org/jfanow/

JOIN AAPD! There's strength in numbers! Be a part of a national
coalition of people with disabilities and join AAPD today at 
http://www.aapd.com.

                  Justice-For-All FREE Subscriptions
                     To subscribe or unsubscribe,
                send an email to majordomo@JFAnow.org
            with subscribe justice OR unsubscribe justice
                 in the body of your email message.