December 2007December 2007
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IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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To view
and download VA news release, please visit the following |
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ARMED
FORCES NEWS |
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| Service members wounded in the Global War on Terrorism should see the attention they and their families receive improve dramatically in the coming months. Provisions of the 2008 Defense authorization bill call for establishment of a Wounded Warrior Resource Center, which will provide a single point of contact for wounded service members, their families, and their health care providers as well. The center will provide updates on benefits and facility-related issues, as well as information on how to obtain heath care services. Other provisions would require inspection of housing facilities for wounded veterans, better coordination of disability evaluation standards between the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments, and establishment of a protocol for handling post-traumatic stress disorder and eye-injury cases. The bill is undergoing final voting in Congress. |
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ARMED
FORCES NEWS |
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| The Department of Veterans Affairs has earmarked
$4.7 million to provide training and assistance to caregivers who provide
in-home assistance to disabled and elderly veterans, and to bolster
health-care education. The pilot programs will support eight caregiver
projects across the country, including: * Training in how to manage patient behavior and their own stress, at the VA’s Memphis, Tenn., and Palo Alto, Calif., facilities; * Video courses will provide instruction in transition assistance, at the VA’s Gainesville, Fla., facility; * Round-the-clock coordination between VA and community resources throughout Ohio, centered at the state’s VA health care system headquarters in Cincinnati; * Online, video and telephone help for caregivers who assist veterans with traumatic brain injuries at the VA Desert Pacific Network and the VA Sierra Nevada Healthcare System; * A pilot-program workshop on communicating effectively with health care professionals at the VA medical center in Albany, N.Y.; * Computer-based help for caregivers who live in remote areas or who cannot leave patients alone, provided through the Atlanta VA medical center; * Offering relief for up to two weeks per year to workers who provide 24-hour in-home respite care, at the VA medical centers in Tampa and Miami; * Instituting "medical foster homes," which allow caregivers to take veterans into their own homes and provide 24-hour supervision, on the Hawaiian islands of Kauai, Hawaii, Maui, and rural parts of Oahu, through the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System. |
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ARMED
FORCES NEWS |
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| The House of Representatives voted Dec. 11 to add a
new provision to legislation passed in March that would improve benefits for
blinded veterans. The change would allow veterans who receive disability compensation for impairment to vision in one eye to be treated for vision problems in the eye that is not service-connected. The new measure, H.Res. 855, amends HR-797, which the House passed in March. Eye injuries have risen substantially since the onset of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. "Walter Reed Army Medical Center alone has treated more than 140 service members from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom for visual injuries," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., in a statement outlining the House action. Filner chairs the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. The Senate, which passed comparable measure to the original House bill, S-1163, will review the new change and decide whether to include it in its legislation. |
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CONGRESS
SET TO BOOST BUDGET FOR VA HEALTH SERVICES, TECHNOLOGY |
By Bob Brewin bbrewin@govexec.com December 17, 2007 The Veterans Affairs Department's information technology budget could hit $2 billion, a $752 million increase from 2007, in the 2008 omnibus spending measure Congress will consider before it adjourns on Dec. 21. It includes $107 million more than the Bush administration's requested for electronic medical record interoperability with the Defense Department. The bill, approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Sunday, also raises the agency's IT spending in 2008 by $141 million above levels originally approved in the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies appropriations bill, and $102 million above the amount appropriated by the Senate bill in legislation passed this June. The House said the additional $107 million is aimed at improving the department's IT system "to help ensure medical information tracks patients as they transition from the Department of Defense health system to the VA health system." The bill directs Defense and VA to submit a report to the House and Senate appropriations committees no later than April 1, 2008, detailing their actions to develop interoperable electronic medical records. In an October report, the Government Accountability Office stated that VA and Defense have spent almost a decade pursuing ways to share electronic medical records, but "have faced considerable challenges in these efforts, leading to repeated changes in the focus of their initiatives and target completion dates." Language in the omnibus spending bill, now under consideration by the House Rules Committee, includes $10.2 million for IT costs associated with new community-based veterans outpatient clinics, which the committee viewed as underfunded in the administration's budget request. The VA portion of the bill also includes $39.7 million to provide computers and IT support for the Veterans Benefits Administration to hire more claims processors to speed processing of backlogged disability claims. The bill also calls for VA to add a direct link on its Web page that will allow veterans to seek assistance and provide feedback, and to set up separate toll-free number for VBA and the Veterans Health Administration so they can check on benefit eligibility, seek assistance in obtaining services and resolve problems. |
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ARMED
FORCES NEWS |
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| Other provisions of the 2008 defense bill reject a
Defense Department proposal to increase in Tricare fees for retirees and
their dependents, and place a limit on the cost of prescription drugs
dispensed through Tricare's retail pharmacy program. Other health
care-related provisions call for the Defense Department to: * Submit a plan to establish a nursing school; * Offer bonuses of up to $20,000 for participants in the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship and Assistance Program; * Increase the maximum incentive special pays and multi-year retention bonuses to $75,000 from $50,000 for medical officers, to $10,000 from $4,000 for dental officers with fewer than three years' service and to $12,000 from $6,000 for dental officers with more than three but fewer than 10 years' service. |