Urgent Appeal to Stop Attacks On Our Veterans and VA Funding

Will we allow this to become a nation that no longer honors the men and women risking their lives to protect it? Will we forget the survivors of combat wounded for their valor? If people like Michele Bachmann get their way, that is exactly what we will become. Veterans were the target of the enemy forces they were sent to defeat. Now they are targets of politicians no longer believing they are worth whatever it takes to repay the debt owed them. After all, all they had to give this nation was their lives, but politicians give speeches.


From Veterans For Common Sense

In 2002, VCS warned Americans against President George W. Bush and his disastrous Iraq War. History proves we veterans were correct.

Today there is a new and very serious danger on the horizon in Washington.

Starting in January 2011, the newly elected House of Representatives took a sinister turn against veterans. Instead of trying to find ways to assist our nation's 23 million living veterans, the new Congress wants to cut funding for our Department of Veterans Affairs.

Exhibit One: Veterans for Common Sense led the "vigorous" national effort to kill U.S. Represenative Michele Bachmann's (R-Minnesota) terrible plan to slash VA spending by $4.5 billion. The stakes are higher because Bachmann is now running for President, and she is a leading contender. Imagine the damage she would do in the White House.

Fortunately for veterans, we have strong allies on The Hill and in the White House. Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington), Chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, will be the co-chair of the new "super" Congressional Committee charged with matching our nation's values to our government's spending and taxes. She recently defeated a proposal by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) to gut Agent Orange benefits for Vietnam War veterans.

Your support of $50 today keeps our experienced veteran advocates in Washington meeting with legislators and reporters to ensure our progressive vision of caring for our veterans remains on their radar.

Our choices are clear. The new "super" committee can do the right thing and end the tax breaks for the rich and corporations and thus make sure our veterans get prompt and high quality care and benefits. As the enormous success of the GI Bill shows, social programs cost money now, yet they create millions of jobs - jobs where people buy houses, go shopping and pay many times more in taxes for several decades. The GI Bill is a fantastic investment in Americans.

The "super" committee might do the wrong thing and leave our veterans twisting in the wind. They could do nothing or even slash VA spending at a time when 10,000 new Iraq and Afghanistan war casualties flood into VA hospitals each month. Abandoning our veterans means sharp rises in unemployment, homelessness, and other serious problems among our veterans.

VCS will fight for our veterans and against cuts in veterans' healthcare and benefits. We believe spending on veterans helps our economy with jobs and prosperity. Please help VCS make sure veterans win in Washington.

James A. Haley VA paid big bonuses in tight 2009 budget

Haley VA paid big bonuses in tight 2009 budget

By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, August 6, 2011

About 87,000 patients get treatment at Haley, ranked 9th among VA facilities nationally. Haley boasts what may be the premier polytrauma unit in the nation, where the most severely wounded veterans are treated.

TAMPA — One of the nation's busiest veteran hospitals found itself in a money crunch in 2009.

Leaders at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center worked frantically to find funds to offset a deficit that, at one point, was projected at more than $25 million, financial records show.

Travel costs were curtailed. Overtime scrutinized. Potential hires prioritized.

But amid the cuts, one budget item nearly tripled:

Employee bonuses.

Haley paid its 175 business office employees $553,000 in fiscal 2009 bonuses, up from $196,000 the year before, according to Haley and budget records. Bonuses largely went up, Haley officials say, because of a new hospital program that rewarded workers who exceeded goals collecting money owed by insurers and veterans.

Collections went up 14 percent that year to $82 million compared to 2008. Bonuses shot up 181 percent. As bonuses climbed, so, too, did billing refunds.

Refunds of veteran co-pays climbed from $426,525 in fiscal 2007 to $1.5 million in 2010, Haley confirmed.

Haley officials describe the refunds as routine for any Department of Veterans Affairs hospital and said they do not point to flawed billing.

Some say the VA needs to be more forthcoming about bonuses in trying financial times.

Haley's 2009 bonuses "stand out like a search beacon in the desert," said Paul Sullivan, a veterans advocate who is the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense in Washington, D.C.
read more here
Haley VA paid big bonuses in tight 2009 budget

Monitor and Care for Our Troops Exposed to Radiation in Japan

Veterans for Common Sense remembers there are US troops stationed in Japan and they are focused on making sure they are taken care of now and tomorrow.

VCS to DoD and VA: Monitor and Care for Our Troops Exposed to Radiation in Japan
Written by VCS
Tuesday, 15 March 2011 09:51

VCS sent the following letter to VA expressing our concerns about caring for our service membes and veterans exposed to harmful radiation while deployed to rescue missions in Japan.
March 14, 2011
The Honorable Eric Shinseki
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
The Honorable Robert Gates
Secretary of Defense
Dear Secretary Shinseki and Secretary Gates:
Veterans for Common Sense writes you regarding the health and welfare of our service members deployed in and around Japan. We support our nation’s military mission to assist Japan in her greatest hour of need in more than six decades.

However, there are new and important developments related to the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011. The situation at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor facility prompt us to present three salient, significant, and urgent points to you.

1. Widespread Radioactive Contamination is Now Confirmed.
Japan and the U.S. now confirm the radioactive contamination of both air and sea water as well as the exposure of both Japanese civilians and U.S. military service members in Japan and off the coast of Japan. Therefore, the entire nation of Japan, the airspace above, and the waters nearby for at least 100 miles must be designated by the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs as a radioactive and toxic environment. The zone can be expanded as the radioactive contamination spreads.

While there is more to what VCS suggests, this one stood out.

3. Create New Team; Remove Dr. Brix.
The integrity and transparency of VA and DoD on this issue are vital. VCS supports creating a new, joint DoD-VA team to monitor this issue. Independent (non-government) experts should be advising our government, not the current staff assigned. Our U.S. service members, veterans, and the public are not served well with the continued involvement in any manner of Dr. Kelly Brix and her Department of Defense Force Health Protection staff. Specifically, any ties between VA and Dr. Brix on this and related matters must be severed immediately.
Dr. Brix, her staff, and prior DoD efforts on Gulf War illness, Iraq War burn pits, and other toxic exposures are not credible in the eyes of our veterans. This issue of our troops' health after radioactive and toxic exposures is far too urgent and important for her and the same Gulf War illness office to be involved with recent events in and around Japan.
During nearly two decades, she and her staff concealed, delayed, and denied the existence of Gulf War toxic exposures and multi-symptom illness.
read more here
Monitor and Care for Our Troops Exposed to Radiation in Japan

How is this still going on and who will do something about it to make sure our troops are taken care of today and tomorrow when they become veterans?

Patients with PTSD from Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Hits Record High

The numbers hit a record high, but as VCS points out, that number was hit seven months ago!

Count of Veteran Patients with PTSD from Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Hits Record High
Written by VA
Wednesday, 02 March 2011 11:08

VA Report Obtained by VCS Using FOIA Reveals 182,147 OEF/OIF Veterans Treated for PTSD
December 2010, Washington, DC - Veterans for Common Sense used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the following VA report counting the number of Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans treated for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Please note the counts are seven months old.

Consequences of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
Updated March 2, 2011
625,384: U.S. Veteran Patients Treated at VA 537,550: U.S. Veteran Disability Claims Filed Against VA
2,158,015 deployed into the war zone with 973,766 still in the military.
read more here
Count of Veteran Patients with PTSD

VA Releases New Gulf War Report

Veterans for Common Sense sent out an update on what is going on with Gulf War Veterans. The news isn't good but what is good is that VCS is staying on top of all of it.

VA Releases New Gulf War Report

On February 23, VA released the agency's most recent report on "Pre 9/11 Veterans". Huh !? That's VA's new term for troops who deployed to Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991.

VA neglected to provide totals on many pages, and many terms and definitions are very confusing, even to experts. The net result is another VA fiasco in urgent need of an editor. VCS offered to help, but VA never called us.

Not mentioned in the report is the billions of dollars spent on healthcare and benefits for hundreds of thousands of veterans disabled, injured, or ill after deploying to a war that should have never been fought.

This was included in the report from the VA. If you think you just forgot what happened, it isn't your fault. The media just ignored it.

Al Jubayl: On or about January 19, 1991, U.S. Servicemembers reported an incident involving a “loud noise,” “bright flash,” and possible “Iraqi chemical warfare agent attack” that occurred in and around Al Jubayl, Saudi Arabia. DoD concluded that the chemical attack was “unlikely.” This and additional information regarding these events may be accessed by clicking on the following DoD website: http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=2835. Structure: It is composed of all unique deployed Veterans in the Desert Storm cohort who were identified by DoD as being present at Al Jubayl for the above incident. Both Al Jubayl and Non-AlJubayl are immediate subsets of the Desert Storm cohort. (page 13)

Khamisiyah: On March 4, 1991, and on March 10, 1991, U.S. Servicemembers destroyed Iraqi “chemical warfare agent rockets,” possibly exposing military personnel to very low levels of chemical warfare agents, at the Khamisiyiah Army Supply Depot, Iraq. This and additional information regarding these events may be accessed by clicking on the following DoD website: http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=3322. Structure: It is composed of all unique deployed Veterans in the Post-Desert Storm cohort who were identified by DoD as being present at Khamisiyah for the above incidents. Both Khamisiyah and non-Khamisiyah are immediate subsets of the Post-Desert Storm cohort.(page 14)

read more of this report here
VA Report Pre 9-11
Also from Veterans For Common Sense

CIA Still Hides Important Gulf War Documents

Twenty years ago this week, U.S. troops invaded Iraq and Kuwait. The offensive U.S. military action came in response to events in July 1990, when U.S. diplomats gave a green light to Iraq's Saddam Hussein signaling he could invade Kuwait without any political, military, or economic consequences.

After two decades, there is still no accounting of the human and financial costs of this clearly preventable war. Our government still hides behind "secrecy," leaving too many Gulf War veterans without answers and without medical care.

Former CIA analyst Patrick G. Eddington's new book, "Long Strange Journey: An Intelligence Memoir" reveals how our CIA is "sitting on" millions of documents relating to widespread chemical exposure relating to Gulf War Illness. VCS thanks Mr. Eddington for his outstanding diligence in the face of so much opposition.

According to top scientists, as many as 250,000 Gulf War veterans remain ill and without treatments due, in part, to CIA, military, and VA stonewalling. Our strong message to the CIA Director Leon Panetta: Come clean now. With hundreds of thousands ill and disabled, have you no conscience for your fellow Americans, Mr. Panetta?

read more of this here
CIA Still Hides Important Gulf War Documents

Veterans for Common Sense Lawsuit on Veteran Suicide on KGO/ABC

VCS Lawsuit on Veteran Suicide on KGO/ABC
Written by Dan Noyes
Saturday, 12 February 2011 10:44

Two Part KGO News Investigation Reveals VA Turned Away Suicidal Veteran in California in 2010

Part One: Veteran's suicide reveals problems in VA system
February 8, 2011, San Francisco, California (KGO ABC 7 News) - Three hundred thousand of the military veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to a recent study. But many are not getting the care they need and the results can be tragic.

New data shows that veterans are more than twice as likely as other Californians to commit suicide.

William Hamilton enlisted in the Army at 19 and served two tours in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division. His mother Diane says he loved the discipline and camaraderie.

"Every time he came back the commander said he did such a wonderful job," she said. Hamilton was guarding a rooftop in Mosul in 2005 with his best friend Christopher Pusateri when insurgents attacked.

"His best friend was killed, his very best friend, and I remember the day he called me, and he said, 'Mom,' it was his second tour and he says, 'Mom, I've never been in battle without him,'" Diane Hamilton said.


Back at Fort Bragg, Hamilton was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He got a general discharge from the Army, but his problems got worse. He developed an eating disorder and started taking drugs.

"He was tormented by it; when he first came home he didn't sleep, I could hear him crying at night," Diane Hamilton said.

Doctors at the VA hospital diagnosed Hamilton with schizoaffective disorder and he was hospitalized nine times at the Palo Alto VA's psychiatric ward, often for weeks at a time.

That is what his parents thought was going to happen last May when his father called local sheriff's to take Hamilton in on a 51-50 involuntary psychiatric hold. Staff at the Calaveras County hospital, where Hamilton was taken, wrote that he was "delusional" having "hallucinations...speaking of demon women and flashes of light." They attempted to contact the Palo Alto VA, but were told "they do not start transfers this late in the day."

Veterans' rights advocate Amy Fairweather says that is not acceptable.

"If a vet is in that kind of need of care 24-7, we've got to get it to them," Fairweather said. "The idea that after 4:20 in the afternoon you will not accept transfers of our soldiers who have been deployed repeatedly is absurd. It's absolutely absurd."

Hospital staff attempted admits at three VA hospitals before they finally found Hamilton a bed at David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. His parents say they asked the hospital to extend Hamilton's stay to two weeks, as the Palo Alto VA had done at least four times before. But the hospital discharged Hamilton after just three days.

"That's the last time I saw him," Diane Hamilton said.

That night, Hamilton stepped in front of a train in Salida. The coroner's report says he died instantly.
read more here
VCS Lawsuit on Veteran Suicide on KGO ABC

Navy Vet gets claims letter addressed to another veteran

Navy vet worries Bay Pines 'typo' confuses him with another veteran

By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Monday, February 7, 2011
ST. PETERSBURG — Navy veteran Thomas Calahan never claimed he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

And a doctor has never diagnosed him with PTSD, either.

After all, Calahan did not experienced the crucible of combat.

So it was with some surprise that Calahan, 60, recently opened a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs and read that the VA wanted to discuss a medical claim he had filed.

It wanted to discuss his PTSD.

Then Calahan noticed the name atop the letter. It wasn't his.

In what Calahan said may be an odd breach of patient privacy, the St. Petersburg man thinks the VA mistakenly sent him information on another veteran's PTSD.

And he wonders if that man, in turn, got medical information about Calahan.

VA officials say that did not happen and patient privacy was not violated.

The letter was intended for Calahan, even if he does not have PTSD, the VA says.

"That doesn't make sense to me," Calahan said. "Why can't they keep this stuff straight?"

Critics have hammered the VA over breaches of patient privacy through the years, from boxes of records found on street curbs to stolen computers with data on millions of veterans.

Veterans file a million medical claims a year nationally.

"In the rush to process a huge backlog of claims, VA does make mistakes in claim decisions and other areas of veterans' claims," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, an advocacy group.

His group has urged the VA to hire more employees to handle the high volume of claims.
read more here
Navy vet worries

Rep. Michele Bachmann tells veterans you are not worth the money

UPDATE 7:03 est
The more I think about this the more angry I get.
Let Bachmann tell him that he doesn't deserve the funds from Social Security he paid into while he recovers along with losing both his legs in service to this country.

Or tell Carmelo Rodriquez who died of cancer after exposures in combat that he didn't earn the funds.

Or to Joshua Cope

Tell that to the men and women in this video that while the rest of us pay into the system with our money and expect to get help when we need it, they don't have the same right. Tell them that while we do a lot of talking about how much we love this country, these men and women loved it so much they were willing to die for it.

Wounded and Waiting

Posted to Great Americans by NamGuardianAngel on September 14, 2009

Click to Play | View Details

This is from Social Security

How Workers’ Compensation And Other Disability Payments May Affect Your Benefits
http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10018.html
SSA Publication No. 05-10018, March 2010, ICN 454500 (En Español) [View .pdf] [Audio.mp3]
Disability payments from private sources, such as private pension or insurance benefits, do not affect your Social Security disability benefits.
However, workers’ compensation and other public disability benefits may reduce your Social Security benefits. Workers’ compensation benefits are paid to a worker because of a job-related injury or illness. They may be paid by federal or state workers’ compensation agencies, employers or by insurance companies on behalf of employers.
Other public disability payments that may affect your Social Security benefit are those paid by a federal, state or local government and are for disabling medical conditions that are not job-related. Examples are civil service disability benefits, state temporary disability benefits and state or local government retirement benefits that are based on disability.
If you receive workers’ compensation or other public disability benefits and Social Security disability benefits, the total amount of these benefits cannot exceed 80 percent of your average current earnings before you became disabled.

Some public benefits do not affect your Social Security disability benefits
If you receive Social Security disability benefits and one of the following types of public benefits,
your Social Security benefit will not be reduced:
Veterans Administration benefits;
State and local government benefits, if Social Security taxes were deducted from your earnings; or
Supplemental Security Income (SSI).


Thank you Veterans For Common Sense!
An email from them came with news from Michele Bachmann's site saying the plan is to cut off veterans and turn them over to Social Security. This at the same time the Republican folks are talking about wanting to make Social Security cuts and privatize it.

Bachmann

Cap increases in Department of Veterans Affairs health care spending, and reduce disability compensation to account for SS disability payments. Reduce Veterans’ Disability Compensation to account for Social Security Disability Insurance payments. $4.5 Billion

What Bachmann doesn't seem to understand is that troops are sent to war by politicians and act on behalf of the nation. THEY ARE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THIS NATION no matter if she likes it or not. If she doesn't think they are worth taking care of, then this woman shouldn't be where she is. How do the people of Minnesota feel about having her in congress when they have had so many serving in Iraq and Afghanistan while she wants to deny them care?

From the Disabled American Veterans
News Release - Disabled Veterans Decry Wrongheaded, 'Heartless' Budget Cuts

From Army Times

Bachmann plan would cut veterans benefits
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 28, 2011 5:30:31 EST
Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits.

Her proposed VA budget cuts would account for $4.5 billion of the savings included in the plan, posted on her official House of Representatives website.

Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said cutting veterans’ health care spending is an ill-advised move at a time when the number of veterans continues to grow as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Sullivan said he finds it difficult to see how VA could freeze health care costs without hurting veterans.

“It is really astonishing to see this,” he said.

In a statement, Bachmann said her plan is intended for discussion purposes as an example of ways to cut federal spending to make it unnecessary to increase the current $14.3 trillion limit on the amount the U.S. government can borrow.


The debt ceiling will be reached sometime in March, according to economic forecasts, but many lawmakers — especially members of the tea party movement — have been talking about cutting federal spending either instead of, or as part of, a move to increase the debt limit.

Her list of cuts doesn’t explain the impact of freezing veterans’ health care funding, but the Congressional Budget Office said in a report issued in October that health care costs have been quickly increasing. VA’s health care budget was $44 billion in 2009, $48 billion in 2010 and is at $52 billion this year. The report forecasts a health care budget of $69 billion or higher by 2020 if trends continue, the report estimates.

Bachmann’s idea of cutting costs by reducing veterans’ disability compensation by the amount received in Social Security Disability Income is not new. The proposal, which would affect more than 150,000 veterans, has long been on a list of possible budget options prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, which describes the option as a way to “eliminate duplicate payment of public compensation for a single disability.”

VA already treated 565,000 first-time Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran patients

Do you want to know why you are needed to help our veterans? Do you want to know why you should pay attention to what is happening to them? If you already know these answers, then read what Veterans for Common Sense has been up to. If you don't know the answer, then you haven't been paying attention all along and wouldn't know that had it not been for the President and what this congress has been doing, it would have been a lot worse. Too many people just want to slam President Obama and they attack Democrats in congress, especially down here in Florida but the truth is there for anyone who wants to know the facts. Start with their voting records and know who has voted against veterans especially when most of them want your votes again. If they can't support veterans or the troops then what chance do you as an average citizen have?

VCS Advocacy in Action - VCS Government Relations Advocacy On September 30, after nine years of endless war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Congress held a hearing on "The True Cost of War."  VCS thanks Chairman Bob Filner for holding this vital oversight of VA's long-term needs and obligations. VCS testified with Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes. Because of our VCS research, for the first time, the Associated Press reported the facts. What is the tragic human cost?  VA already treated 565,000 first-time Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran patients, and VCS estimates the total will hit one million by the end of 2014. What is the enormous financial cost?  Pushing toward one trillion dollars for healthcare and benefits for our disabled veterans for the next 40 years.  The total financial cost of the wars to Americans?  Up to $6 trillion, and escalating.  Please read our testimony and watch the official Congressional video clip (click on "Multimedia Link') where VCS speaks at 1 hour, 45 minutes. VCS Public Relations Advocacy VCS was quoted in three major news stories this week: Boston Globe - The Prudential Scandal Grows Austin American-Statesman - Improper Military Discharges Often Block VA Benefits Houston Chronicle - Escalating Military Suicide Epidemic

Advocacy comes with a price tag

Advocacy comes with a price tag

Asking for donations is one of the least favorite things to do for advocates. It is not just that it is hard to ask people for money, but it is more the idea they have to do it at all. When you work as hard as an advocate does, it should be assumed by others they need financial support to keep going. But this does not happen.

I used to put in 70 hours a week on this blog alone, plus volunteer work with the emails and phone calls, training and meetings. Now I do about 40 hours and I can tell you it is getting harder and harder to justify doing that emotionally. I can't pay my own bills and no matter how many times I ask for donations that are tax deductible, no one pitches in to support the work I do. I have a free online book that hundreds of people have read and thanked me for but no one feels it is worth kicking in any money for. I used to travel a lot going wherever I was asked to go and paying the cost of it by myself. When I asked for the trip to be funded, the requests stopped coming in. I worked countless hours on making over 30 videos to provide a great understanding of what PTSD is and to support the troops, but few seem to find them of monetary value. Now while I am sure this is what God wants me to do, and I will keep doing it as long as I can, I wonder why I do more often than just knowing why I do it. The price to pay is just too high when I have to suffer emotionally and financially. When an advocate is not supported, they go away for this reason more than any other. It is not that the love or commitment ends, but they just can't carry the burden alone anymore.

I wanted to share that with you for a reason. I am one person and if I am going through this much hardship, I want you to think about the need for financial support a large organization has. They fight for others, reporting what is happening to them and coming up with solutions. They provide awareness to things few others know about but touch the lives of thousands of people. When it comes to advocates for veterans, often it is the only voice that can be heard for the sake of over 24 million veterans and their families. If their voice goes away because they cannot find financial support, who will fight for the veterans?

There are many fine groups out there fighting for veterans but they do not try to fight for all veterans. Veterans for Common Sense fights for the troops serving today and all of our veterans. The advocacy work of the entire group has managed to raise awareness on the suffering of millions, gaining media attention and thus, the attention of congress to create bills and come up with the funds to take care of veterans. They keep pushing and will keep pushing until this nation finally gets it right. The American public would have no clue what was happening if their voice was not heard.

Paul Sullivan has been a great champion in all of this. He has traveled across the country, been interviewed by news organizations and has been a voice for veterans. He is also a friend of mine. I don't know what I would do without his hard work on many of the issues you read about here all the time. What I often wonder is, what this nation would do if Veterans for Common Sense went away. We know that their work is important but what we don't think about is how they need support to do their work and yes, encouragement knowing their work is valued. While it is wonderful to say thank you to them, it does not pay their bills. Please read the following and then think of the work they do but don't stop there. Wonder what it would be like if they cannot find financial support to keep doing it.

Special Summer Message from VCS Executive Director

Dear VCS Supporter:

Thank you for working with us as we continue to win several important, new policy victories for our veterans. Together, we advocate for the needs of our veterans with Congress, VA, and reporters.

If you like what we're doing, then VCS asks you to please make a special one-time Summer 2010 donation of $50 today.

We need your help because next month Veterans for Common Sense, along with other advocates, will testify before Congress about how the military continues improperly discharging thousands of our service members -- in some cases our new Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are losing vital VA benefits.

In the past month, here are two solid victories for our veterans - -

Government Relations:

* VCS succeeded in advocating on behalf of veterans to have VA's disability claim form shortened from 26 pages to 6 pages, a very important improvement for our veterans who suffer from TBI and/or PTSD.

* VCS successfully advocated for streamlining how VA processes PTSD benefit claims, making it easier and faster for our veterans to receive needed care and compensation.

Public Relations:

* VCS was interviewed live on CNN after President Barack Obama's Saturday morning radio and video broadcast about veterans and PTSD claims. VCS supports the President's strong anti-stigma message encouraging veterans who need care to seek help.

* VCS was interviewed by McClatchy News about the military's tragic and escalating suicide epidemic, a story VCS helped publicize for the past three years on CBS Evening News and on PBS News Hour. We continue pressing for more doctors and post-deployment exams so our veterans get prompt and high-quality care.

VCS Asks for Your Help:

VCS keeps the heat on VA to continue overhauling the agency so our veterans don't wait to see doctors or get disability benefits.

That's why VCS asks you to please make a special, one-time Summer 2010 donation of $50.


VCS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit formed by war veterans in 2002, and we focus on improving VA policies so our veterans receive prompt and high-quality medical care and disability benefits.

You've seen our advocacy in action - before Congress, working with VA, and raising veterans' needs in the press so Americans know about and support our veterans.

Please take the time and ask your friends assist VCS with a donation at our secure web site.

We are able do this because of your generous support !

Sincerely,

Paul SullivanExecutive Director
Veterans for Common Sense

Stop Unconstitutional Proselytizing

If it were up to me, I would want to see Christ everywhere, but not the way He has been used. I want to see Him reflected in the way we act and treat each other. I want the love of God, the way we were told by Christ He loved us to be reflected in all we do for the sake of someone else. I want to see Him the way other people manage to forgive someone even though everyone tells them they are wrong to forgive. I want to see Him when I look into someone's eyes and see love there. I want to see Him when I see people looking for nothing in return other than the feeling they get back when they do.

To have what's been going on happening is not about Christ. It is about something much deeper. There is nothing wrong with Chaplains being of on denomination or another and holding to their beliefs but there is something wrong when the spiritual needs of the men and women in the military are secondary to what the Chaplain wants. It's not their job to get converts but it is their job to be there for the spiritual needs of the troops.

Too many times I've heard Chaplains say they don't know anything about PTSD yet they are being asked to fill in for mental health professionals. This piece points this out and I can tell you that it is happening. While many of my friends say this is a Christian nation, none of them have managed to explain which Christian nation they believe it is. They think all Christians are alike until they actually sit down and talk to someone who happens to belong to a different denomination. A Presbyterian is different from a Methodist and different from a Baptist and they are different from Catholics and they are different from Orthodox. None of them agree on everything. So exactly what part would you want to see happen if one of your own kids was admonished for being part of the wrong Christian faith?

Let's say you were Catholic and there was an Evangelical Chaplain he had to go to see for a troubled soul. Would you want to hear that your son was sent away because he wouldn't put up with being told his faith was wrong? I doubt it. It's nice to live in a nation where there is a place for everyone. Where we can all walk into any church we want and decide for ourselves where we belong, or into a synagogue or a mosque. It's nice to think the troops have the same luxury but that's all that is. A thought. There are not enough Chaplains to go around anymore than there are mental health workers. The troops should not have to worry about being pushed away instead of helped. They shouldn't have to worry about being assaulted emotionally with a bible as a weapon to use against them.

I want to see more military chaplains and I want to see better ones but I want them to stop acting as if getting converts means more than saving the life of a soldier willing to lay down their lives for the sake of all others. Veterans for Common Sense is right on this issue and this practice needs to stop. These Chaplains deserve support and we should value their courage but to allow them to keep doing this is not serving the troops or Christ. This isn't even touching the fact that this nation was supposed to be about freedom of religion. In a perfect military there would be Chaplains from every walk so that all these men and women could be comforted by the faith of their own choosing. But that won't happen. They are no less deserving of comforting than any other no matter what faith they call their own and yes, no matter if they have no faith at all. Chaplains are supposed to have enough faith to be able to help everyone no matter what. Like I said, I'd like to see more of Christ in all of this when people are taken care of as people.

VCS and MRFF to Secretary Gates: Stop Unconstitutional Proselytizing
Written by VCS
Tuesday, 10 August 2010 15:27
Veterans for Common Sense and the Miltiary Religious Freedom Foundation sent the following letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, urging him to stop religious proselytizing, especially of mental health patients.

August 9, 2010

Dear Secretary Gates:

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has learned on numerous occasions over the past several years about blatantly sectarian Christian religious programs and Christian proselytizing in the military. The proselytizing is unconstitutional and we demand you issue an order to stop it now.

Our letter addresses a particularly pernicious subcategory of proselytizing that must also cease immediately. The military often substitutes evangelical chaplains in the place of professional mental health care for service members suffering from mental health conditions, especially post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These reports have recently become increasingly frequent and alarming.

Among the many types of shocking incidents and illicit and dehumanizing practices reported to MRFF have been the military's teaching of creationism as an actual bona fide means of suicide prevention; the use of a parachurch military ministry's evangelical Christian program to treat PTSD; service members seeking help being sent to and proselytized by chaplains instead of being sent to mental health professionals; articles in official military publications stating that finding Jesus if the only solution to the mental health problems faced by members of our armed forces; mandatory mental health training inside chapels, plus countless "Spiritual Fitness" events and programs being promoted as mental health solutions.

Perhaps the most alarmingly repugnant stories are those coming in from our recent war veterans regarding the widespread practice of "battlefield Christian proselytizing." When, on active duty, our service members sought urgently needed mental health counseling while on the battlefield and with the gun smoke practically still in their faces, they were instead sent to evangelizing chaplains, who are apparently being used with increasing frequency to provide mental health care due to the acute shortage of mental health professionals. Chaplains are not certified, professional mental health experts.

read more here
Stop Unconstitutional Proselytizing

Fallen soldiers' families ripped off by Prudential Financial?

UPDATE
A Fallen Hero: How an Insurance Company Profited
Katie Couric Reports on One Family's Experience with Dead Soldier Benefits and a Giant Insurance Firm
By Katie Couric

(CBS) In nearly a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, 5,620 Americans have died. Survivors of these fallen heroes are entitled to a life-insurance payment and the government uses a private company to handle it. What happened to the mother of 24-year-old Ryan Baumann of Great Mills, Maryland when she tried to collect serves as a lesson to every military family.

According to a Bloomberg Markets Magazine investigation, insurance companies have been profiting off of the death-benefits of fallen heroes.

"Ryan was a neat kid," said Cindy Lohman - Ryan's mother. "He really wanted to join the Army after 9/11 because he saw that, you know, there were things he could do."

CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric reports Sgt. Ryan Baumann was as proud of his mission in Afghanistan as his mother is of him. A soldier with the 101st Airborne, he was stationed in eastern Afghanistan - protecting villagers from the Taliban and providing critical services - like repairing pumps supplying water.

"One of the things that he said to me," Lohman said, "he said 'if anything happens to me, just let the world know we're making a difference over here.'"

But on August 1, 2008, Ryan was riding in a Humvee when he spotted an improvised explosive device, an IED.

"He told his driver, 'go left,' and that placed the IED directly under him," Lohman said.

Baumann was killed instantly. The driver, gunner and medic with him all survived.
read more here

How an Insurance Company Profited

VCS in the News: Fallen Soldiers' Families Denied Cash as Insurance Companies Profit
Written by David Evans
Wednesday, 28 July 2010 09:52
Top VA Officials Unaware of Scam; VCS Blasts "Secret Profits" for Prudential and MetLife

July 28, 2010 (Bloomberg News) - The package arrived at Cindy Lohman’s home in Great Mills, Maryland, just two weeks after she learned that her son, Ryan, a 24-year-old Army sergeant, had been killed by a bomb in Afghanistan. It was a thick, 9-inch-by- 12-inch envelope from Prudential Financial Inc., which handles life insurance for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Inside was a letter from Prudential about Ryan’s $400,000 policy. And there was something else, which looked like a checkbook. The letter told Lohman that the full amount of her payout would be placed in a convenient interest-bearing account, allowing her time to decide how to use the benefit.

“You can hold the money in the account for safekeeping for as long as you like,” the letter said. In tiny print, in a disclaimer that Lohman says she didn’t notice, Prudential disclosed that what it called its Alliance Account was not guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its September issue. Lohman, 52, left the money untouched for six months after her son’s August 2008 death.

“It’s like you’re paying me off because my child was killed,” she says. “It was a consolation prize that I didn’t want.”

*** Stephen Wurtz, deputy assistant director for insurance at the VA, who has overseen the insurance program for 25 years, has been kept in the dark by Prudential. ***

*** “It’s shameful that an insurance company is stealing money from the families of our fallen servicemen,” says Paul Sullivan, who served in the 1991 Gulf War as an Army cavalry scout and is now executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington. “I’m outraged.” ***

read more here
Fallen Soldiers Families Denied Cash

Call Congress Today - Our Veterans Need Treatment

You've read the reports on burn pits on this blog since they were first reported. You know how serious this is. You've read about Gulf War veterans suffering and waiting for help. If you didn't care about these issues, didn't care about our veterans, you wouldn't be reading this blog. Since you care so much, please do what you can to help by making the calls to help our veterans.

Call Congress Today - Our Veterans Need Treatment !

Issue: Call Congress and voice your support for full funding for the Gulf War illness research program of the Department of Defense. The military program is called the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, or CDMRP. Veterans for Common Sense urges funding at the full $25 million level.

Background: Earlier this year, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recognized the chronic multisymptom illness suffered by 250,000 Gulf War veterans due are to toxic exposures during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illness (RAC) reached the same scientific conclusion in 2008. The IOM and RAC support research programs to develop treatments and hopefully preventions for both our veterans and our troops deployed overseas now.

Why is this important? Many of these toxic exposures exist today. By calling both the Washington and local offices of the senior Democratic and Republican members of the Appropriations Subcommittee deciding CPMR funding, you let them know that this illness is a huge problem suffered by real people who served our country.

You've heard of the Iraq War Burn Pits? We can't let another generation of veterans wait a decade for medical care. Tell Congress to do the right thing for our veterans so we can have medical treatments for toxic exposures.

Who do I call? Please call two important Congressmen who will decide if Gulf War, Afghanistan War, and Iraq War veterans get the research and treatment they urgently need.

1. Chairman Norm Dicks, Washington, DC 202-225-5916; Tacoma, WA 253-593-6536.

2. Congressman Bill Young, ranking member, Washington 202-225-5961; St. Petersburg, FL 727-893-3191.

Thank you for calling today !

Veterans For Common Sense

PTSD: VCS In the New York Times

PTSD: VCS In the New York Times

Today's New York Times features Veterans for Common Sense discussing VA's new (and hopefully better) PTSD benefit regulations. VCS advocated for this science-based change starting in 2007. VCS encourages veterans with mental health conditions to seek VA care and benefits. Earlier treatment, we believe, can mitigate long-term adverse social consequences such as unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, homelesness, and suicide.

VCS thanks President Barack Obama and VA Secretary Shinseki for their leadership on this vital issue. We thank our members for your support for our advocacy. VCS advocacy hopes to ensure VA is ready, willing, and able to provide prompt and high-quality care and benefits.

However . . .

Here is very distressing news about VA's continuing failure to handle PTSD claims properly and quickly.

St. Petersburg Times reporter William Levesque tells the story of a World War II veteran who has been waiting for proper PTSD benefits from VA for more than 65 years now.

No veteran should ever fight for 65 years for a valid claim ! Times have changed since 1945. Today, veterans discharged from active duty with PTSD automatically receive a 50 percent VA disability rating. VCS plans to closely review VA's new PTSD regulations, and we plan to monitor how VA implements the new regulations.

VCS Urges You to Attend Two VCS Events
On July 27, VCS will testify before Congress about Gulf War Illness. Based on your input, we will be demanding action from VA so our veterans obtain the healthcare and benefits we need based on scientific research. Please attend and show Congress you support our Gulf War veterans.

On August 5 - 8, VCS will be attending at the Gulf War Health Fair in Dallas, Texas, sponsored by the National Gulf War Resource Center. Key speakers include VA Chief of Staff John Gingrich, Texas philanthropist Ross Perot, and Gulf War illness Researcher Robert Haley. VCS strongly urges you to attend both events. These are our rare public opportunities to raise our voices to Congress, top VA officials, top researchers, and the press.
The more voices calling for improvements in research, healthcare, and benefits, then the more VA must listen and act for our veterans.
National Security News - Military Suicides Remain a Crisis

Kelly Kennedy of Army Times reports that despite prevention efforts, the suicide rate among troops and veterans continues to rise.

The sad failure of the military to prevent soldier suicide is reflected in the tragic account of a young army veteran, as reported by Hal Bernton for the Seattle Times.

Fighting two wars with no end in sight and with repeated re-deployments undermines soldier morale. A biting op-ed piece by Bob Herbert for the New York Times puts into words the feelings many of us have about the hopeless Afghanistan war:
The difference between [the Afghanistan War] and a nightmare is that when you wake up from a nightmare it's over. This is all too tragically real.

VA to Issue Science-Based PTSD Regulations

This woman is not a friend of veterans and has been wrong on PTSD for so long that we really need to wonder why on earth anyone asks her anything at all.

“I can’t imagine anyone more worthy of public largess than a veteran,” said Dr. Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy group, who has written on P.T.S.D. “But as a clinician, it is destructive to give someone total and permanent disability when they are in fact capable of working, even if it is not at full capacity. A job is the most therapeutic thing there is.”

Common sense proves her wrong. Look at it this way. Would you join the military thinking that if there is a war, all you have to do is risk your life to end up with a check from the VA every month? If you survive at all? Hell no. If you are granted 100% disability from the VA you are making less money than if you were able to work. Aside from the turmoil you go through with PTSD, the ravages on your personal life with everyone you know, nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, panic attacks, short term memory loss plus a long list of others, you also have to face being on medication that comes with their own set of problems.

This is what it breaks down to.

Dependent Status
Veteran Alone (Per Month)
30% $376
40% $541
50% $770
60% $974
70% $1,228
80% $1,427
90% $1,604
100% $2,673
go here for more
Dependent Status

Would you want to go through combat to end up with $192.50 a week with a 50% disability rating? How about $668.25 for 100%? If you end up with 100% you have to be suffering a lot and watch your life fall apart. Some may say that kind of money a week is good but they forget that a lot of people make more than that, especially trades people, and the VA doesn't pay overtime or give merit raises. Take a heavy equipment operator in a state where it snows. They make most of their yearly income plowing snow for days on end and they make overtime. Take them off their jobs because of medications they have to be on and there goes that money, plus the difference they would have made just on a regular paycheck alone.

But we're not talking about 100% disability rating for the most part because the percentages awarded at usually 50% or lower. Would you risk your life and end up with PTSD to make less than you could make at your local grocery store?

This ruling does not make it easier to live with PTSD but only takes out having to prove which time your life was on the line ended up being the straw that broke your life.

When work finally started to happen on PTSD, veterans were sent to the VA because they had the best programs and resources. Veterans had to file a claim just to be able to have PTSD covered so they wouldn't have to pay for it.

But Rick Weidman, executive director for policy and government affairs at Vietnam Veterans of America, said most veterans applied for disability not for the monthly checks but because they wanted access to free health care.

“I know guys who are rated 100 percent disabled who keep coming back for treatment not because they are worried about losing their compensation, but because they want their life back,” Mr. Weidman said.

Private health insurance companies refused to cover the treatments because the diagnosis was connected to military service. Once this happened, mental health care coverage would not cover anything to do with PTSD. If the veteran still had an income, they had to pay for their care without a disability rating from the VA. So they filed claims. A service connected disability rating assured them of being taken care of. Medications and therapy were taken care of.

More than two million service members have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001, and by some estimates 20 percent or more of them will develop P.T.S.D.

More than 150,000 cases of P.T.S.D. have been diagnosed by the veterans health system among veterans of the two wars, while thousands more have received diagnoses from private doctors, said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, an advocacy group.

But Mr. Sullivan said records showed that the veterans department had approved P.T.S.D. disability claims for only 78,000 veterans. That suggests, he said, that many veterans with the disorder are having their compensation claims rejected by claims processors. “Those statistics show a very serious problem in how V.A. handles P.T.S.D. claims,” Mr. Sullivan said.

This will also encourage a combat veteran to seek help in healing PTSD. That is what the goal is supposed to be. Isn't it? We want them to recover from what happened to them while they were risking their lives. Right? We want them to seek help as soon as they show signs of PTSD so they get better. Right? Isn't that the part that is missing from all this debate?

Look at all the different programs going on across the country. Are they trying them to heal? Yoga? Martial Arts? Group therapy? Reaching out on their computers to find support and help to heal? If given a choice between recovering their lives or getting a check worth less than $200 a week, the would take healing any day. The goal has not been reached because too many have had their claims denied, which is like a knife in their backs after being told by a VA psychologist their condition is related to their service in combat but the claim has been denied over paperwork issues.

Do we want to stop them from ending up homeless? This helps in that area because when you have a veteran with PTSD and they cannot work, with no income at all, they can't pay to keep that roof over their heads. We talk a lot about homeless veterans but we hardly ever mention the "couch homeless" sleeping on the couch in a friend's home because they have nowhere else to go. Families have kicked them out of the house they used to live in, usually because they just didn't understand what was going on. When the VA is denying their claim, the family ends up doubting the suffering of the veteran. After all, the American public has been conditioned to believe the VA takes care of veterans injured in combat. They don't want to believe any veteran is being turned away.

Bing search Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and you get 5,190,000 results. Bing PTSD and you find 1,840,000 results. Google Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and you find 2,400,000. For PTSD the result is 1,110,000. These results are there for a reason. People want to learn so they understand but above that, they want to heal.

Encouraging them to seek help leads them to healing. Making them fight to prove a claim, adding more stress to their lives, discourages them allowing mild cases of PTSD to get progressively worse to the point where when they are finally helped, they are only stabilized instead of healed.

PTSD still has to be proven but this is a step in the right direction.

VCS in the New York Times: VA to Issue Science Based PTSD Regulations
Written by James Dao
Wednesday, 07 July 2010 20:01
Veterans Affairs to Ease Claim Process for Disability

July 7, 2010 (New York Times) - The Federal government is preparing to issue new rules that will make it substantially easier for veterans who have been found to have post-traumatic stress disorder to receive disability benefits for the illness, a change [based on scientific research] that could affect hundreds of thousands of veterans from the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

The regulations from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which will take effect as early as Monday and cost as much as $5 billion over several years according to Congressional analysts, will essentially eliminate a requirement that veterans document specific events like bomb blasts, firefights or mortar attacks that might have caused P.T.S.D., an illness characterized by emotional numbness, irritability and flashbacks.

For decades, veterans have complained that finding such records was extremely time consuming and sometimes impossible. And in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, veterans groups assert that the current rules discriminate against tens of thousands of service members — many of them women — who did not serve in combat roles but nevertheless suffered traumatic experiences.

Under the new rule, which applies to veterans of all wars, the department will grant compensation to those with P.T.S.D. if they can simply show that they served in a war zone and in a job consistent with the events that they say caused their conditions. They would not have to prove, for instance, that they came under fire, served in a front-line unit or saw a friend killed.

The new rule would also allow compensation for service members who had good reason to fear traumatic events, known as stressors, even if they did not actually experience them.

There are concerns that the change will open the door to a flood of fraudulent claims. But supporters of the rule say the veterans department will still review all claims and thus be able to weed out the baseless ones.

“This nation has a solemn obligation to the men and women who have honorably served this country and suffer from the emotional and often devastating hidden wounds of war,” the secretary of veterans affairs, Eric K. Shinseki, said in a statement to The New York Times. “This final regulation goes a long way to ensure that veterans receive the benefits and services they need.”
read more here
VA to Issue Science Based PTSD Regulations

WWII vet waiting 65 years to have VA claim honored!

When innocent people are locked up but it is later found they were innocent, society demands they be paid for the injustice they received. Millions of dollars are paid to them because they didn't deserve to suffer or have their freedom taken away from them. It is the right thing to do.

So how is it that when a veteran seeks help and compensation for being wounded in service to this nation we send them away and make them fight for what society simply assumes is a debt we owe them? 65 years!

A soldier's 65-year fight with the VA
By William R. Levesque
In Print: Saturday, July 3, 2010


It was 1945 when Tampa native Marty Redding Jr. first asked the Veterans Administration for a pension and treatment for the psychological trauma he suffered fighting in World War II.

He was 20 years old.

On Sunday, Redding will celebrate his 85th birthday — and he's still seeking benefits. "Kind of hard to believe, isn't it?" he says.

In what might be one of the longest-running benefits cases at what is now the Department of Veterans Affairs, Redding has enjoyed some measure of victory in his on-again, off-again battle. After half a century, the VA agreed to pay him a pension for post-traumatic stress starting in 1997. With other ailments, that brings his total monthly pension today to $2,800.

Now the contest is over retroactive benefits dating to 1947.

The Lakeland resident's struggle has outlasted four of his marriages and 11 U.S. presidents. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki was just 3 years old when Redding first filed a VA claim.

Delayed or improperly rejected claims at the VA "are a catastrophic problem," says Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. "Marty should be labeled a hero for never giving up."

Redding's discharge papers show that he spent more than 10 months in combat from 1944 to 1945 in Italy. He earned a Bronze Star for meritorious service.

He found that war held no romance. Forty of the 200 men in his company were killed in action, and another 45 were severely wounded, military records show.

read more here
A soldier 65 year fight with the VA

VA Scandal - VA Manipulates Appointment Scheduling

Thanks to Larry Scott over at VAWatchdog.org this became a story in the first place. Then Paul Sullivan over at Veterans For Common Sense.org jumped on it to get the word out to even more people. These are the heroes who track what is really happening to veterans day in and day out. Want to know how we really care, or should I say, don't really care about our veterans, read some of the work they do and then you'll know what are fairytales and what is their worst nightmare. We cannot go blindly day to day and just assume all is well with our veterans because it isn't and it won't be until the American people actually do pay attention as much as they pay attention to them coming home to their hometowns in flag draped coffins.

VA Scandal - VA Manipulates Appointment Scheduling

On June 23, 2010, veteran Larry Scott at VA Watchdog uncovered a huge VA scandal. Larry posted VA's memo descrbing 24 "tricks" or "gaming strategies" so VA would appear to help veterans get appointments fast. In fact, VA was delaying and denying medical care.

VA failed to fulfill the agency's promise to provide our veterans with prompt medical care. Instead of taking responsibility and actually improving access to care, VA is cooking the books and hoping no one will dig deeper.

VA cheated, and our veterans suffered.

Thanks go out to the investigative journalist who wrote the first news article about the VA scandal, Nora Eisenberg at AlterNet. Additional commendation goes to Kyra Phillips at CNN for making this national news. The CNN article contains a VCS statement about VA's outrageous "Cooked Appointment Books" scandal.

Vets' care hurt by bureaucratic games, memo says
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 2, 2010 12:25 p.m. EDT

Paul Sullivan, from the group Veterans for Common Sense, told CNN the memo is "absolutely" symptomatic of a nationwide problem with the VA. "It's tragic (and) beyond unacceptable," he said. If VA employees are "cooking the books, (they) need to find another job."

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Memo: Veterans being denied care due to improper scheduling practices
VA employees using "gaming strategies" for better performance scores
Top VA official promises to stop denial of care
Advocate for veterans says practice is "tragic" and "unacceptable"

(CNN) -- Military veterans are being denied health care due to "inappropriate scheduling practices" at VA facilities, according to an internal memo from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The memo, written on April 26, says employees at various VA facilities often canceled veterans' appointments with doctors in order to generate better performance scores in reports to supervisors.

"In order to improve scores on assorted access measures, certain facilities have adopted use of inappropriate scheduling practices sometimes referred to as 'gaming strategies,'" the memo says.

"Example: as a way to combat Missed Opportunity rates some medical centers cancel appointments for patients not checked in 10 or 15 minutes prior to their scheduled appointment time. Patients are informed that it is medical center policy that they must check in early and if they fail to do so, it is the medical center's right to cancel that appointment."
read more here
Vets care hurt by bureaucratic games, memo says

Veterans for Common Sense warns of need to hire more doctors now

They are right. Too often I'll talk to veterans and find out while they get all the meds they need, there isn't any therapy for them. They are given meds and told to come back in a few months but that's just about it. When you tell a twenty-something year old he needs to be on medication the rest of his/her life, they tend to not find much hope in that. Yet when you tell them what PTSD is, and what they can do to get to the point when they won't need much medication at all, that gives them hope. They need to know healing is possible and how to get there. This is their biggest complaint of all and it's easy to understand why it is that way.

National Security News
Finally, the press starts to wake up to the escalating and shocking human toll nine years of war has had on our military. The L.A. Times reports the number of U.S. military casualties caused by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is more than 500,000. The real total is 537,099, according to VA, because VA also counts veteran patients with TBI, mental illness, and warzone-acquired diseases - categories not counted in misleading and incomplete Pentagon reports.

The Army Times reports on the the military's struggles related to the severe shortage of medical personnel. VCS believes the number of suicides rises, in part, due to the lack of medical professionals, especially mental health professionals (other factors include multiple deployments, the lack of medical exams, and discrimination against veterans with mental health conditions).

Our messsage to Secretary Gates: Hire more doctors now !

How did we get to PTSD awareness day?

Maybe you thought it was strange that this is PTSD Awareness Day, but a PTSD blog has been silent. I've been busy editing a video I shot yesterday about a fantastic group out of Orlando, Semper Fidelis and how they are getting ready to go to the Orlando VA to have a 4th of July Cookout with over 200 patients and employees there.

We seem to always forget how we get to where we are simply because while the media may report on the bad stuff, and usually it ends up helping as with PTSD, but in the process, they ignore a lot of good work being done. This country is full of regular people stepping up to make this country a better place but you'd never know most of them. What you do end up knowing is the results of their hard work when things change for the better. As with Semper Fidelis, no one knew who they were or what they've been doing all this time. I was even shocked to find out as much as I did. (Check back tomorrow for the videos on this interview.)

The best part about being involved in working toward helping the veterans, aside for meeting the veterans themselves, are the people who worked so hard to get us to a day set aside to raise awareness for PTSD.

One of the reasons we got here is Lily Casura. She has worked so hard without recognition but had it not been for people like her, this day wouldn't have happened. What you don't know about Lily is that reporters have used her worked and never bothered to even thank her or mention her. Other people jumped on stories she worked for hours on just so they could claim it for themselves. Over the years, she's wondered why she has worked so hard but will never give up because her heart is dedicated to helping our veterans. She's simply an amazing woman and I've very proud to call her my friend. Well, it looks as if Lily had finally gotten some big time support from the Founder of Craigslist with a post on the Huffington Post.

When you read it, understand that had it not been for people like Lilly and my other friend Paul Sullivan over at Veterans for Common Sense, and a lot of other groups pushing to make change happen, there wouldn't be a day to mention at all. Just a lot more endless hopeless days for a lot more veterans and their families.

Bravo Lily! I adore you even more!

Craig Newmark
Founder of Craigslist
Posted: June 26, 2010 04:51 PM
"Healing combat trauma" and "The Brain at War"
Okay, people are supporting the troops in ways that are deeply important, in ways that as a country, we got a lot of work to do. There are physical injuries that even I can understand, but beyond that, there's traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the invisible damage to troops, like post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD.)

Recently the NCIRE and The Veterans Health Research Institute, ran the "The Brain at War" conference, which I attended briefly. (I'm not very tough, and this stuff is hard to hear.) This was all about helping vets deal with these real problem. I don't really understand a lot, so I'll get out of the way, and hear from someone with real expertise.

Check out Healing Combat Trauma and specifically, "The Brain at War" Conference in San Francisco:click link for the rest of this

Or you could go to my friend Lily's site and read the great work she's been doing.

June 27, 2010 is "National PTSD Awareness Day"
Amazingly enough -- and suddenly, because the U.S. Senate just passed it -- tomorrow is "National PTSD Awareness Day." Even MORE amazingly, the text of the resolution is very veteran-focused (yippee!).
Here's the full text of the bill. Enjoy! My only quibble is that the numbers seem a little on the low side, but mebbe not. (Actually, the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense, led by veteran and former VA bureaucrat, Paul Sullivan, lists the numbers as much higher. See link here for current information.)
And, of course, a focus on treatment through integrative medicine would also be nice. It alludes to, but does not mention directly MST (military sexual trauma), which plagues women and men in the Armed Forces AND which unfortunately also leads directly to PTSD. The combination is often too much to bear. With all those caveats, it's still a great bill, and we appreciate any and all emphasis on the topic, as beneficial to veterans, their loved ones, their caregivers, decision-makers, and the general larger community of humankind.

click the link above for more

Shocking New VA Scandal Uncovered by VAWatchDog

Like most Vietnam vets, after years of no help at all, they have to go to see their VA doctors on a regular basis to stay stabilized yet when they need to be sure they have a stable support force behind them, they are told their appointments need to be cut back. Just too many new veterans flooding the system to have time for all of them. So they are given medication enough to last about three months until they can find the time to see them again. It's not the doctors fault they don't have enough of them to fill the needs but it is however the fault of the people in charge to properly plan and staff based on the needs of the future.

It is not just mental health that is an issue for disabled veterans. They get sent to another part of their state or to a different state to receive the medical care they need. Appointments are canceled or changed without notice and for those seen on a regular basis, they are spread out too far in between.

The VA has to meet "standards" of care and apparently thanks to Jim Strickland reporting, we now know they found a way to make it look as if they have met the standard by hiding the facts. What they cannot hide is the damage they are doing to the veterans feeling betrayed yet again. For Vietnam veterans with PTSD, they overcame the stigma and lost years but can they overcome this?

VCS Salutes VA Watch Dog;
VCS Urges Congress to Fix VA

Shocking New VA Scandal Uncovered by VAWatchDog - -

VA Staff Manipulate Appointment System, Delay Care

This week, the web site VAWatchDog.org posted an internal VA memo where a top VA leader confirmed the existence of 24 ways to "game" VA's appointment computer system. VA's staff manipulate the computer system to conceal delays in setting medical appointments. Veterans are justifiably outraged.

Deputy Under Secretary for Health William Schoenhard's memo confirms a key point VCS and VA's Inspector General have made for years: VA intentionally misleads veterans and Congress about how VA routinely delays and denies medical care for our veterans. VA leaders now know VA's medical appointment system is broken. We are pleased VA's Schoenhard said the improper practices will not be tolerated.

Schoenhard's memo forces a key leadership test upon VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. Will VA reveal how many veterans over the years were harmed by VA's improper practices? What other ways are used to hide VA's problems scheduling appointments? Will VA re-train staff on the proper use of the appointment system? Will VA leaders hold accountable those VA employees and leaders who delay and deny medical care? We want more facts, more training, and more accountability.

VA DOCUMENT REVEALS HOW THE AGENCY IS "GAMING" VETERANS' MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS
Lists 24 ways that VA employees are "gaming" the dates on medical appointments to make themselves look more efficient while veterans wait for health care.



NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... I have been writing about the waiting list issue since 2004, and VA employees have only gotten better at "gaming" the figures to make it look like they are meeting appointment schedules ... when in reality, veterans are waiting for health care.

I detailed the use of log books for waiting lists before veterans could get on the electronic waiting list. That way, the original date requesting an appointment was not entered into the system. VA employees would wait until an appointment opened up (within 30 days) and then take the vet out of the log book and put them into the system, using that date as the date of request. This made it look like the VA had fulfilled their 30-day appointment commitment to the veteran.





The Games People Play
by Jim Strickland
Has it ever happened to you? Have you shown up for an appointment at your VA Clinic or Medical Center only to be told that you don't have an appointment? Tried to make a convenient appointment 2 months away and were told that the rules don't allow that? Is your appointment scheduled in an old fashioned log book rather than the computerized system VA uses? These are the games that are played with your appointment schedule.

The VA says that it takes pride in your care. The truth be known, VA takes even more pride in keeping score so that everyone looks good on paper. Thus, the system that keeps track of the performance of clinics and hospitals is "gamed" in ways that seem to annoy Mr. Schoenhard. "These (gaming) practices will not be tolerated." he tells his troops, "This is not patient centered care."

read the rest here
http://www.vawatchdog.org/10/nf10/nfjun10/nf062310-1-1.htm