Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 09-30-08

Today’s Local News for Veterans

What’s Inside

1. Peake In Hawaii For Pacific Islands Health Care Summit. 
2. VA Now Considers ALS To Be A "Presumptively Compensable Illness."  
3. VA, HHS Collaborating On Assistance Program For Older Americans, Veterans.  
4. Tuscaloosa VAMC Welcomes Home Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans.  
5. Congress Authorizes $568 Million For Stand Alone Hospital In Colorado.  
6. Investigations Examine Possible Chemical Exposure Incident.  
7. VA Hospital Upgrading Mental Health Units.  
8. Clinics Begin Operations In Indiana.  
9. Fort Riley To Host Grand Opening Of VA Facility.  
10. Award Given To VA Healthcare Network Upstate New York.  

1.      Peake In Hawaii For Pacific Islands Health Care Summit.   The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (9/29) reported Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne was scheduled to "convene a two-day conference in Honolulu" Monday "to develop strategies and programs to improve health care in the Pacific Islands." Among "those attending will be Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake."
      The AP (9/29) reported, "Top officials" of four "federal agencies are agreeing to coordinate efforts at improving inadequate health care services" in the US territories of the Pacific. On Monday, Kempthorne, Peake, "and two ranking officials" from the Defense and Health and Human Services Departments "said their pact will raise the level of care in the territories," which include "Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands, as well as the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The pact follows release of an inspector general report this month that spotlighted dilapidated facilities, overworked personnel and an inadequate supply of medicines and specialized care." Guam’s Pacific Daily News (9/30) also takes note of the summit.

2.      VA Now Considers ALS To Be A "Presumptively Compensable Illness."   In continuing coverage, Air Force Print News (9/29) reported veterans with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), "also known as ‘Lou Gehrig’s Disease,’ soon may receive badly needed support for themselves and their families." Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake "announced recently that ALS will become a presumptively compensable illness for all veterans with 90 days or more of continuously active military service." Peake "based his decision primarily on a November 2006 report by the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine on the association between active-duty service and ALS." The first story in the Grand Junction (CO) Sentinel’s (9/30) "Health Briefs" column and MedPage Today (9/29, Fiore) also noted the VA’s announcement.

3.      VA, HHS Collaborating On Assistance Program For Older Americans, Veterans.   Senior Journal (9/29) reported that on Monday, the US Department of Health and Human Services "announced $36 million in new grant programs to 28 states to help older Americans and veterans remain independent and to support people with Alzheimer’s disease to remain in their homes and communities. Just over $19 million of this funding involves a new collaboration" with the US Department of Veterans Affairs. HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt "and VA Secretary James Peake, M.D., announced the joint effort to provide essential consumer-directed home and community-based services to older Americans and veterans of all ages, as part of a Nursing Home Diversion (NHD) grants program." In "announcing the collaboration, Secretary Leavitt said, ‘This historic HHS-VA initiative combines the expertise of the HHS’ national network of aging services providers with the resources of the Veterans Health Administration to provide more people…with improved long-term care options.’"

4.      Tuscaloosa VAMC Welcomes Home Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans.   The Tuscaloosa (AL) News (9/29, Hawk) reported Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were welcomed home Saturday during an event held at the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Damon Stevenson, "chief of stakeholder relations for the VA, said the event drew about 400 people, with about half of the total made up of returning veterans and their families."

5.      Congress Authorizes $568 Million For Stand Alone Hospital In Colorado.   On its website, KCNC-TV Denver, CO (9/29, Nathan) reported, "Veterans in the Rocky Mountain region may finally get their wish" after "Congress approved a $568 million bill Saturday for a state-of-the-art stand alone veterans’ hospital." The news was "welcomed by politicians and veterans who have been working for 10 years to bring the hospital to the Fitzsimons Medical Campus in Aurora. ‘It will make the new veterans hospital at Fitzsimons a reality because for the first time in law, there’s a $500 million plus authorization that says we’re going to move forward with a stand along hospital for veterans,’ said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo. ‘That has never happened before so this is a historic time for veterans in Colorado.’" But Artie Guerrero, "a local veterans’ leader," urged caution, saying, "We’ve been disappointed three times with three different secretaries of Veterans Affairs in the same administration," so there will be "a lot more satisfaction" when "we see a hole in the ground and construction taking place."

6.      Investigations Examine Possible Chemical Exposure Incident.   The Army Times (9/30, Maze) reports, "Two separate investigations are being launched to determine if soldiers guarding a water treatment plant in Iraq were exposed to a cancer-causing substance in 2003." The US Army "plans a 60-day investigation by a panel of personnel and logistics experts to review procedures that may have led members of the Indiana National Guard to be exposed to sodium dichromate at the Qarmat Ali plant in Iraq. Separately, a defense health board also will investigate if any ill effects resulted from the possible exposure." The Department of Veterans Affairs said about 600 soldiers were in the area and could have been exposed when wind blew the chemical over a large area." In "a fact sheet, VA officials said long-term exposure to high amounts of the substance may cause lung cancer and other problems."

7.      VA Hospital Upgrading Mental Health Units.   The Memphis Business Journal (9/26, Sells) reported the Veterans Affairs medical center in Memphis "will upgrade two mental health units in a $5 million renovation project. The first phase" of the renovation "got under way in July and is scheduled to wrap up in April next year. The second phase will begin after that and is scheduled to finish in six months."

8.      Clinics Begin Operations In Indiana.   On its website, WSBT-TV South Bend, IN (9/29, Baldino) reported, "Local veterans have a new place to get medical care" after a Monday afternoon "grand opening of the Goshen Veterans Clinic." For "many Elkhart County veterans this means less driving time. Before now, many were traveling to Fort Wayne, South Bend and even Indianapolis for medical treatment."

9.      Fort Riley To Host Grand Opening Of VA Facility.   The third story in the Topeka (KS) Capital-Journal’s (9/29) "Military News" column reported, "Fort Riley will host a grand opening for a Department of Veterans Affairs One-Stop Center at 9:30 a.m. Friday" at Fort Riley’s Irwin Army Community Hospital. The new facility "will be staffed with representatives from the Veterans Health Administration and the Veterans Benefits Administration. It was established as a one-stop organization to ease the transition of service members." The WIBW-TV Topeka, KS (9/29) website published a similar story.

10.    Award Given To VA Healthcare Network Upstate New York.   In continuing coverage, Business First Of Buffalo (9/30, Drury) reports, "The VA Western New York Healthcare System will share $500,000 with other upstate" Veterans Affairs "medical centers as part of a quality award. The VA Healthcare Network Upstate New York, including the Albany, Bath, Buffalo, Canandaigua and Syracuse VA Medical Centers and 29" community-based outpatient clinics, "received the 2008 Kenneth Kizer Quality Award." The award "is the highest" given "by the Veterans Health Administration for outstanding patient-care results based on performance measures."