VA HQ Veterans News for Monday, October 3, 2011.  Thanks to Kevin Secor at VA HQ!

 

1.    For-profit colleges grab big share of GI Bill money.  The Virginian-Pilot  Webb, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who introduced the Post-9/11 GI Bill on his first day in office in 2007, last month called for “aggressive leadership” by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the agency that runs the program, to make sure it ...

 

2.    Metro Detroit centers part of pilot project to treat brain-injured vets.  Crain's Detroit Business  Hundreds of veterans with traumatic brain injuries are expected to be treated by four rehabilitation providers in Michigan over the next two years under a pilot project begun in May with the US Department of Veterans Affairs. ...

 

3.    Injured veterans making bicycle trek from San Francisco to Santa Monica.  San Francisco Examiner  A weeklong ride from SFO to Santa Monica was organized by the Fitness Challenge Foundation, the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the military. (Michael Short / Special to the Examiner) The sun had just broken through the fog Sunday morning when ...

 

4.    Vet Cemetery Won't be Open by Veteran's Day.  West Virginia MetroNews  The $14-million project will be the first state veteran's cemetery in West Virginia. It's being funded mostly through the US Department of Veteran's Affairs. "Most cemeteries run $6-$7-million. This is a $14-million project, this being the largest [in ...

 

5.    Oregon DVA director gets national post.  Statesman Journal  Jim Willis, director of the Oregon Department of Veterans' Affairs for the past eight years, has been chosen senior vice president of the National Association of State Directors of Veteran Affairs. The group met recently at Chinook Winds Resort in ...

 

6.    Veterans forum in Pike prompts politicians to work on issues.  Pocono Record  He suggested veterans check with him. And many participants called for Bunce to be employed full-time with the Veterans Affairs office, as he had helped many with long-delayed or denied benefits. Vietnam veteran Harry Doerr said that 12 years ago the ...

 

7.    Governor signs important legislation for veterans.  Lake County News  By extending the priority enrollment time frame, not only will veterans maximize their Post 9/11 GI Bill funding, but California will receive more federal veteran education money in a time when the State's colleges and universities are in need of ...

 

8.    Raleigh apartments for homeless vets to be built.  News & Observer  Nationwide, about a third of the adult homeless population is made up of military veterans, most of them single men living in urban areas, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans in Washington. The US Department of Veterans Affairs ...

 

9.    Voters will decide veterans' exemption.  Daily Comet  Both the Terrebonne and Lafourche parish councils passed resolutions this year to place a measure on the fall ballot that will give veterans who are rated as 100 percent disabled by the US Department of Veterans Affairs an exemption on an additional ...

 

10.                    Lovell Center ends first year 'on successful voyage'.  Chicago Sun-Times  It integrates services and facilities from North Chicago's Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Naval Health Clinic Great Lakes. It is a first-of-its kind partnership between the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense. ...

 

11.                    Hospice Savannah unveils Veterans Memorial.  Savannah Morning News  Those funds, said Hospice Savannah president and CEO Debra Larson, have been allocated to partner with organizations including the US Department of Veterans Affairs and We Honor Veterans undefined a national group that educates hospice professionals on ...

 

12.                    Belle Fourche native named to state cabinet post.  Rapid City Journal  Until Zimmerman takes on his new duties in 2013, Lt. Gov. Matt Michels will serve as interim Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Michels is a veteran of the United States Navy and is already the governor's point-person on veterans' issues. ...

 

13. Military Retirees To Start Paying Higher Health Care Premiums, With More Increases On The Way.  AP  US military "retirees will pay slightly more for their health care starting Saturday, and more cost increases are on the way." Under a "change announced by the Defense Department on Thursday, individuals who enroll in the retiree program as of Saturday will pay $260 annually, up from $230, and it will be $520 annually for a family, up from $460." After noting that Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said "modest annual increases" are planned for the future, the AP adds, "Officials have tried previously to raise premiums but were met with resistance from veterans' groups as well as lawmakers loathe to tamper with benefits of men and women in uniform who have sacrificed for the nation."

14.                    Lost TRICARE Backup Tapes Could Expose Nearly 5 Million Records.  Government Health IT  TRICARE announced Sept. 28 that Science Applications International (SAIC) has "reported a data breach involving personally identifiable and protected health information (PII/PHI) impacting an estimated 4.9 million military clinic and hospital patients." The breach was reported by SAIC "on Sept. 14 and involved backup tapes from an electronic healthcare record used in the Military Health System (MHS) to capture patient data from 1992 through Sept. 7, 2011, from patients who received care in the San Antonio area military treatment facilities." Officials said they "delayed posting a notification about the breach for two weeks because they did not want to cause 'undue alarm' and wanted to be able to assess the risk to the public, which they have determined is low."

 

15.                    VA To Foot Extra Costs From Home-Loan Confusion.  AP  The Veterans Affairs Department announced Saturday it will "cover extra costs for veterans who struck deals on home loans and faced the possibility of higher fees amid confusion over a federal law change." The problem involved a Sept. 8 notice from the VA's Loan Guaranty Service, which indicated "fees would be lower beginning Oct. 1. But Congress delayed those lower rates from taking effect until November." VA Secretary Eric Shinseki "said the VA will waive fee changes. ... 'For cases where lenders have closed loans with lower funding fees than provided in the new bill, the secretary, under existing authority, will waive the difference in the fees,'" said VA spokesperson Joshua Taylor.

 

16.                    Women Veterans Conference Set For Oct. 15.  Albuquerque Journal, "A free benefits conference and health fair for women veterans will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 15 at Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1901 University NE." Female veterans attending the fair "can obtain information about VA and state veterans' benefits and programs such as filing for disability compensation, the new 9/11 G.I. Education Bill, state property tax exemptions, utility bill payment assistance and starting a veteran-owned business."

 

17.                    Many Women Vets Unaware Of VA's Maternity Benefits. KSL-TV  "More of our veterans are mothers, so the VA has answered the call with services that surprise even the vets themselves. ... Operation Baby Shower: Babies and their moms are getting comfortable at the Salt Lake City Women Veterans Clinic, which is growing to meet their specific needs." Kassie Diaz, a "Marine Veteran of the Iraq War...is also a mother of three, who got all of her prenatal and maternity care for 2-month-old Aryana at the VA." Diaz never thought of the VA for maternity care "until they contacted her. Neither did Army veteran Tammy New, who is pregnant with her first child." Notably, women now comprise "15 percent of America's active and reserve troops. That's five times more than in World War II and double the number of servicewomen involved in the Vietnam War."

 

18.                    Ex-Homeless Air Force Mom Backs Federal Way Women's Shelter.  Mercer Island (WA) Reporter  Sheila Sebron had an "eight-year career in the US Air Force" before a brain injury resulted in a "medical discharge. ... 'I went from hospital bed to homeless,'" said Sebron. But the homeless mother of two children struggled to "move forward"; and six years ago, she founded the "Veteran Community Network to help men and women in similar situations reintegrate into civilian life." Another goal of the Veteran Community Network is to "assist the first women's winter homeless shelter in South King County." Sebron will share her story "Oct. 13 at a fundraiser for Reach Out Federal Way, which hopes to open the shelter this winter."

 

19.                    Veteran's Profile: Ollie May Baker.  Norman (OK) Transcript   Ollie May Baker, known as "'Miss May' at the Norman Veterans Center," she is "proud of her service in the WAC." In 1953, May was assigned to the "5th Army General Hospital in Stuttgart, Germany"; and after training in a "psychiatric specialty," she served for "18 months" as a midwife in the hospital's the obstetrics ward. In August 1956, May received an honorable discharge and worked with her husband, "filmmaking for the Army...in Verdun, France."

 

20. Standing Up & Delivering.   VVA Veteran  Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, after he had spoken to delegates at VVA's national convention. Shinseki told the magazine that VA's claims backlog can be eliminated through automation and streamlining of the claims process. Shinseki added that he wants to increase access to VA care, improve care provided to rural and female veterans, make progress on helping vets with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries, and eliminate veteran homelessness by 2015. Shinseki concluded, "Thanks to the President," VA has a "clear direction, predictability in resourcing, and unwavering support," so "it's up to us to deliver."

 

21. VA Expecting More Than 40,000 Vets To Take Advantage Of Expanded GI Bill.  Government Executive  "Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan after Sept. 10, 2001, will be eligible to receive education benefits for noncollege degree programs beginning Oct. 1." Veterans Affairs "expects more than 40,000 veterans to take advantage of the newly expanded benefit under the Post-9/11 GI Bill in the next year." Government Executive added, "The expanded benefit will not add to the deficit over the next decade, said Josh Taylor, VA press secretary."
22. Invisible Injuries Of War To Be Felt For Decades.  Stars And Stripes   "Sixty-six percent of the most seriously wounded soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have 'invisible' injuries of brain trauma or post-traumatic stress, which their families and society will be dealing with at great cost for decades, said Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff," who also took note of advances in treating such injuries. Chiarelli "made his remarks Monday at Defense Forum Washington, a one-day conference on support for wounded warriors and families as they struggle to heal and regain stable lives. The annual event is co-sponsored by US Naval Institute and Military Officers Association of American."

 

23. DoD And VA Pursue PCMH Model.  Government Health IT  Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is an attempt by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to coordinate a "flood of medical data...into a single, cohesive approach for patient care." The two major information technology (IT) components "driving the initiative" are the Primary Care Management Module (PCMM), which when completed "early next year...will be able to identify a patient's healthcare team and link them to one another as well to the patient so that caregivers can offer guidance and, in turn, present patients the opportunity to become their own advocate. The second component of the PCMH initiative adds a smart suite that will integrate into the Military Health System Clinical Systems, giving critical care clinicians a single dashboard that displays electronic medical records and device data without requiring them to log into different systems and view multiple pages."

 

24. Why Blue Button Data Is A Big Deal.  Medgadget The US Department of Veterans Affairs "launched the Blue Button Initiative in an effort to facilitate veterans' access to their medical records, which they'd be able to share with doctors or insurers. Medicare, the Department of Defense, and the private sector have since adopted the concept." And recently, added Medgadget, the "Robert Wood Johnson Foundation rolled out bluebuttondata.org, which it hopes will eventually give 'all Americans' online access to their health data." Medgadget notes that US Health and Human Services (HHS) CTO Todd Park said VA has had great success with its Blue Button initiative.

 

25. Why Doctors Order So Many Tests.  New York Times  After analyzing "more than 600 responses to a nationwide mail survey" of primary care doctors, researchers found "nearly half" the respondents "believed that patients in their practice were receiving too much care." After noting that the lead author of the study was Dr. Brenda Sirovich of the White River Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the Times added, "Dr. Calvin Chou, author of an editorial accompanying the study and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, believes that overtreating patients stems not from an active desire to do or gain something, but rather from a sense of overwhelming helplessness. 'Many doctors feel like they are on a treadmill and are running scared because of malpractice and having to check off all the checkboxes of quality measures,' Dr. Chou said."

 

26. Veterans Research Lab Focuses On Creating Special Devices For Disabled Veterans.  Forbes   Bernard A. Krooks writes, "People with disabilities have some new, powerful devices to make daily living easier. The Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL) is a part of the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and has created robotic arms, better wheelchairs, and other mobility devices." Krooks adds, "'We try to address the clear and real needs of Veterans now and in the future,' said HERL director Rory Cooper, who is also a longtime National Veterans Wheelchair Games athlete."

 

27. Researchers At New Facility Aim To Study Veterans' Health Issues.  Cronkite News, "A research facility that opened Wednesday at the Carl T. Hayden Veteran Affairs Medical Center offers a state-of-the-art setting for researchers and clinical trial patients to conduct studies of conditions that heavily affect veterans, such as mental health problems, lung cancer and diabetes, officials said." Susan P. Bowers, director of the US VA's "network in the Southwest, said understanding the genetic makeup of veterans who have illnesses such as PTSD, for example, could lead to researchers being able to determine whether an individual is susceptible to the conditions. 'We really have the opportunity of changing the way health care is delivered,' Bowers said."

 

28. Cocaine Users Have 45 Percent Increased Risk Of Glaucoma.  Science Daily  "A study of the 5.3 million men and women seen in Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinics in a one-year period found that use of cocaine is predictive of open-angle glaucoma, the most common type of glaucoma." Results of the study "appear in the September issue of Journal of Glaucoma." The study was "funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Health Services Research and Development Service."

 

29.                    Marijuana Study Of Traumatized Veterans Stuck In Regulatory Limbo.  Washington Post  Although the FDA in April "approved a first-of-its kind study to test whether marijuana can ease the nightmares, insomnia, anxiety and flashbacks" commonly experienced by veterans with PTSD, the Health and Human Services Department subsequently thwarted the effort, "refusing to sell government-grown marijuana to the nonprofit group proposing the research." Although Sarah A. Wattenberg, the HHS "official in charge of the review," declined to discuss the issue, agency spokesperson Tara Broido, "wrote in an email that 'the production and distribution of marijuana for clinical research is carefully restricted under a number of federal laws.'" The study protocol calls for analyzing "five doses of marijuana in 50 combat veterans with PTSD whose symptoms have not improved" with standard treatments, such as "talk therapy, antidepressants and anti-anxiety medicines."

 

30. Man Of Honor Will Wait His Turn.  Newsday  Afghanistan veteran Dakota Meyer "knows a thing or two about honor. In a laudable display of fairness and principle, the Medal of Honor winner passed up a chance to fulfill his dream to become a New York City firefighter." Meyer "refused to accept any special treatment after a judge Monday extended the Sept. 19 application deadline just for him." Newsday quoted Meyer, who said in a statement that unless the "filing period is open to everyone, I cannot morally accept it."

 

31.                    Veterans Hug Aide Workers Goodbye Then Welcome Them Back As Last-minute Court Order Restores Their Jobs.  Grand Rapids (MI) Press  "Veterans and their caregivers were celebrating Saturday after news that a judge, at least temporarily, restored the jobs of state-employed aides at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans." On Friday evening about "170 workers hugged residents goodbye...assuming they wouldn't be back." But Ingham County Judge Paula J.M. Manderfield "late Friday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the workers' layoff." Manderfield said the privatization plan would "result in irreparable harm to the veterans living in the home and scheduled a hearing for Oct. 12."

 

32. Cherokee Nation Offers Program For Combat Veterans.   Muskogee (OK) Phoenix "The Cherokee Nation is partnering with the Tulsa Vet Center to offer area combat veterans help in readjusting to a peaceful civilian life, according to a media release. The TVC is an extension of the Department of Veterans Affairs." The Phoenix adds, "Meetings will regularly be held at Cherokee Nation facilities in Tahlequah and are open to all combat veterans, regardless of whether they are Native American."

 

33.                    Should Olympia's Vietnam Memorial Include Vietnamese Soldiers? Some US Vets Say No.   Tacoma News Tribune  "In the 1980s," Hal Lymus was "part of a veterans group that helped raise about $178,000 in private donations to build" the Washington State Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which "features the names of 1,116 Washington residents who were killed or went missing in action during the Vietnam War. He opposes a proposed $50,000 addition to the memorial that includes a plaque depicting a Vietnamese 'mourning soldier' with inscriptions in English and Vietnamese that read, 'We remember with gratitude the soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam and the United States who fought and died for freedom and democracy in Vietnam.' Lymus, 72, said he and others plan to voice their objections to the addition during a public meeting about the monument Saturday." Lymus says the "wall is meant for one thing: the Washington citizens who died or are missing in action and for the guys who died as a result of their injuries."

 

34.                    2 Sides Make Cases In Olympia Meeting About Controversial Vietnam War Memorial Proposal.  Tacoma (WA) News Tribune  "Tempers didn't flare, but passions were evident at a meeting Saturday about a controversial proposed addition to the Washington State Vietnam Veterans Memorial," a plaque to honor ARVN veterans "who fought and died for freedom and democracy in Vietnam." US Vietnam War veterans who "oppose that plan" were among some "70 people who gathered for an hour-long discussion" Saturday. State VA Director John Lee "asked for a show of hands," revealing a "near-even split between those for and against the proposed addition." Speakers included Lan-Phan Jones, who "co-chairs a citizens group" that has raised "about half of the $50,000 needed for the addition." Jones' father was an ARVN soldier who "died in 1991."