VA Moves to Prevent Veteran Violence Over Disability Claims

To curtail confusion, the department wants to change when veterans can view the results of their disability exam online.

 Veterans Affairs officials want to change when veterans can view some of their medical records online, fearing that some could become violent if they see negative comments and think their disability claims will be denied.

A group of department officials said Monday that they fear some veterans could see the notes from the exam, assume from this partial picture that their claim is being denied, and take out their anger on local VA officials. They voiced their safety concerns Monday to members of the department's Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation at their meeting this week in Washington.

Source:  http://www.nationaljournal.com/defense/va-moves-to-prevent-veteran-violence-over-disability-claims-20141021

Agent Orange and VA battles Wife recounts years of struggles for late husband to finally receive benefits

Over the following decades, he suffered from cysts and boils on his body and post traumatic-combat stress that nearly tore his family apart. He sought disability benefits for exposure to Agent Orange — a blend of chemicals used by U.S. armed forces in Vietnam to eliminate foliage that provided cover for the enemy — but theDepartment of Veterans Affairs repeatedly rejected his claims until days before he died, according to records.

"He was denied so many years until he was on his deathbed," Francesca Cesare said from her home in the Luther Forest development. "What good is that? At the end of his life, they finally admit it."

Continue Learning>>>http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Agent-Orange-and-VA-battles-5727316.php?cmpid=fb

McDonald must clean house at VA, experts say

Bob McDonald, President Barack Obama’s pick to head up the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs, faces such a hidebound bureaucracy that experts say the way forward is clear: He must clean house.

“McDonald has to walk in and kind of dismantle all of those structures that would keep the culture in the same place,” according to Todd Henshaw, the director of executive leadership programs at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business. “If you’ve been in an organization that’s failed across the board the way the VA has, the writing is on the wall and probably a lot of the senior people have to go … He’s going to need some people coming in from the outside” with “some experience and some success leading organizations through turnarounds and transformations.”

Continue Learning>>>http://www.stripes.com/news/mcdonald-must-clean-house-at-va-experts-say-1.294510

Judge’s Surprise Ruling On Veteran’s Exposure to Toxic Chemicals On U.S. Military Base Called “Turning Point”

House has doggedly pursued any information that might help get his claim approved and prove to VA that he’s not fabricating his exposure. His claim was repeatedly denied by the VA until last week, when a judge with VA’s Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA) acknowledged that House’s suffering resulted from chemical exposure at Camp Carroll, though it stopped short of naming Agent Orange.

"I was determined to show that I was telling the truth about why I’m so sick"” House said. "I gave up countless hours of my life, including years of my vacation time that I should have spent with my family, digging for facts. I have a very understanding wife. I had to do what I had to do"”

The VA portrayed the ruling as a single administrative finding that applies to this one man. But House and others who have long alleged a government cover-up regarding Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals say it is an acknowledgement of the malevolent consequences of veterans’ exposure to those chemicals, even if, at this stage, it is unclear how the ruling will affect cases that are specifically about Agent Orange.

Continue Learning>>>http://www.ibtimes.com/judges-surprise-ruling-veterans-exposure-toxic-chemicals-us-military-base-called-turning-1569225

American Legion helps local veterans with disability claims

The Vietnam veteran had claims related to Agent Orange, post-traumatic stress disorder and a knee replacement he needed because of a grenade injury.

“I struggled through the process at first, but eventually got myself together,” Brown, 66, said Thursday during a three-day service campaign being held at American Legion Post 178 in south Augusta. “My job now is to help veterans.”

Continue Learning:  http://m.chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2014-03-13/american-legion-helps-local-veterans-disability-claims

Many reasons for VA delays

"Make no mistake, we are manufacturing veterans at a rate, as a result of the Middle East, that we have never done before"” said Nevada’s 2nd U.S. House Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, and a veteran who was in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. "That is why the VA budget, even in these times, has gone up every year in the last few years"”

Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will be filing disability claims for decades to come, Amodei said.

Continue Learning:  http://www.rgj.com/article/20140302/NEWS/303020051?nclick_check=1

Scope of missing federal military records grows

The number of missing or destroyed military records at a federal government warehouse in St. Louis is significantly larger than initially reported.

      A 2012 audit found that a file clerk at the National Personnel Records Center wrongly filled nearly three-fourths of 1,200 files assigned to him over a three-month period. Archives workers could earn bonus pay through an incentive program for completing more filings.





Continue Learning:  http://www.ky3.com/news/local/scope-of-missing-federal-military-records-grows/21048998_24731574

Veterans Affairs purged thousands of medical tests to 'game' its backlog stats

About 40,000 appointments were “administratively closed” in Los Angeles, and another 13,000 were cancelled in Dallas in 2012.

That means the patients did not receive the tests or treatment that had been ordered, but rather the orders for the follow-up procedures were simply deleted from the agency’s records.

It is not known how widespread the practice is, or how many veterans hospitals have mass-purged appointment orders to clear their backlogs.

Continue Learning:  http://washingtonexaminer.com/veterans-affairs-purged-thousands-of-medical-tests-to-game-its-backlog-stats/article/2544580

 
VA Defends Deleting Veteran Medical Appointments

VA Ignores Medical Conditions Linked to El Toro

Exposure to TCE directly affects the genitourinary (GU) system, and also causes cancer of this system. TCE is broken down in the liver to vinyl chloride and excreted by the GU system. TCE is also excreted in the urine. Together they can cause renal (kidney) and bladder tumors, like the transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder that Mr. O’Dowd had. These chemicals also cause non-cancer illness like interstitial cystitis, hyperactive bladder, and prostatitis. These problems occur from several days to decades after exposure. The latency appears to be dose related and over different periods of time.

TCE and vinyl chloride have profound effects on the liver and can cause liver failure from direct toxicity to the hepatic cell. Vinyl chloride has also been positively linked to a rare malignancy of the liver, hemangiosarcoma. The hemangioma found in Mr. O’Dowd’s liver has to be followed carefully, because it could be or could change to a malignant tumor. 

 

Continue Learning:  http://www.salem-news.com/articles/february162014/va-el-toto-ro.php

 

 

Marine Denied VA Disability For El Toro

More than 1,800 vets' records intentionally destroyed or misfiled by 2 clerks

Some employees seeking to earn an incentive bonus were intentionally misfiling, or "stashing"” records to finish more quickly, state court files show. Although Halkmon denied stashing files and said he'd lacked proper training, a tribunal handling Halkmon's appeal of the rejection of his unemployment benefits said his claims were not credible.

Continue Learning:  http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/more-than-1-800-vets-records-intentionally-destroyed-or-misfiled-by-2-clerks-1.264849

House passes bill to give veterans in-state tuition, halt VA executive bonuses

The measure, approved on Monday, was introduced last year by Reps. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) and Mike Michaud (D-Maine), who head the House Veterans Affairs Committee. It would require all schools eligible for GI Bill benefits to give veterans in-state tuition rates regardless of where those individuals have actually established residence.

The legislation would also eliminate all bonuses for VA senior executives during fiscal years 2014 through 2018, for a projected savings of $18 million over that period, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Continue Learning:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/02/05/house-passes-bill-to-give-veterans-in-state-tuition-and-halt-va-executive-bonuses/

Veterans Secretary Eric Shinseki defends bonuses despite patient deaths and disability claims backlogs

Shinseki is under growing pressure from Congress, the media and veterans groups to explain why top executives collected bonuses worth tens of thousands of dollars even though they ran hospitals where patients needlessly died, or benefits offices with huge backlogs of disability claims.

Shinseki statements came in a Jan. 31 response to a letter Miller sent in August seeking information on several top executives who were either rewarded or not disciplined despite failing to deliver services to veterans.

Continue Learning:  http://washingtonexaminer.com/veterans-secretary-eric-shinseki-defends-bonuses-despite-patient-deaths-and-disability-claims-backlogs/article/2543684

Disabled local veteran caught up in VA red tape

"The Secretary of the VA has to sign off on it, so that's where we are," said Haynie.

General Shinseki oversees 285,000 employees and a $153 billion annual budget and has to decide if Haynie can get a new toilet and shower at his two bedroom home in Spring. And until that happens, he will wait on a federal government that promised to take care of him in combat in 1964 and is still seemingly struggling to keep the promise 50 years later.

Continue Learning:  http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/in_focus&id=9425483

Valley veteran believes he is a casualty of efforts to end a backlog of cases in the VA system

Chambers tells us at a hearing the VA determined he does not have a service connected disability, but had excessive cerebral spinal fluid on the brain, so he now owes the military thousands of dollars for treatment he received and what the VA calls fraud. But the paper work for the denial shows Chambers was in the military September 1, 1959 and left the military July 6, 19-62. Yet his birth certificate shows he was born on July 1, 1948 so he would have been serving in Vietnam at the ages of 11 through 14.  Chambers believes this was done on purpose, that somebody's file was put in with his, so the dates of service predate America's use of Agent Orange in Vietnam.

Continue Learning:  http://www.wfmj.com/story/24436265/valley-veteran-believes-he-is-a-casualty-of-efforts-to-end-a-backlog-of-cases-in-the-va-system

Study links traumatic brain injury and PTSD

The findings add to a growing body of research on the long-term psychological and physical consequences of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where improvised explosive devices have often been the enemy’s weapon of choice, and head trauma — as well as psychological struggles afterdeployment — has proliferated. Past studies have shown the symptoms of TBI and PTSD overlap, and the research by the VA-funded Marine Resiliency Study made public this week adds evidence of a causal connection.

Continue Learning:  http://www.stripes.com/news/study-links-traumatic-brain-injury-and-ptsd-1.257017

Bearing Witness: Shinseki Does Right for Vets

So the good news, not so much reported, but the bad news got a lot of attention. By doing right by vets, the VA looked bad. For whatever reason, the press has largely neglected good work, and emphasized bad news.

Continue Learning:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-newmark/bearing-witness-shinseki_b_4482435.html

VA challenged on progress in cutting claims backlog

“The dirty secret is that a disproportionate number of complex claims are still awaiting adjudication or have been closed by awarding the veteran a nominal rating on one or more minor issues,” Price, a medically retired sailor, told the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s disability assistance and memorial affairs panel.

“VA is irrevocably broken and the only way that all of these issues, which Congress has repeatedly attempted to address, will be fixed is by a forced overhaul,” she said.

Continue Learning:   http://www.armytimes.com/article/20131210/BENEFITS04/312100009/VA-challenged-progress-cutting-claims-backlog

Veteran now receives aid for Agent Orange cancer after claim was denied

In between, many tangled with the poisonous defoliant, Agent Orange. Recently, a Vietnam vet suffering from an Agent Orange derived cancer visited St. Louis County Veterans Service Officer, Brian Rulifson.

He told Rulifson about his difficulties filing a claim with the Veterans Administration.

"He said that he had a few years ago and it got denied," Rulifson, said.

Continue Learning:  http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/local/Vietnam-vet-with-Agent-Orange-once-denied--232064631.html

Long fight reinstates Vietnam veteran's benefits

Joseph Valencourt Jr. served as a combat medic in Vietnam in the early 1970s.

"It's really hard to talk about," Valencourt said.
He returned stateside in 1972 with a host of parting gifts from the Southeast Asia nation, including Agent Orange exposure and Hodgkins lymphoma. In the midst of fighting these battles for his life, his unemployability benefits were reduced, his son says, because he failed to fill out a Veterans Administration form that went to the wrong address.

Continue Learning:  http://www.wktv.com/news/local/Long-fight-reinstates-Vietnam-veterans-benefits-231571711.html

Vietnam veteran keeps faith through health issues

He’s battled prostate cancer from Agent Orange and he’s waging an ongoing fight with the Department of Veterans Affairs to get medical disability payments he believes he’s owed. He was even mistakenly declared dead as of Sept. 16, 2007, in a letter from the VA in November 2007.

"So I drove to VA in Montgomery to show them I was still alive"” Sanders said.

Continue Learning:  http://www.theredstonerocket.com/around_town/article_e0c311d8-4c72-11e3-9ad9-0019bb2963f4.html