Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 11-19-08

Today’s Local News for Veterans 

 What’s Inside 

1. Panel Says Gulf War Syndrome Is Real.  
2. Mileage Reimbursement Rate Raised For Disabled Veterans.          
3. Bay Pines VA Receives Performance Award.  
4. Cleland Said To Be Under Consideration For VA Secretary.  
5. Casey Says Army’s Health System Has Improved.  
6. Iraq Vet Hired To Work On Computer Security At VA Hospital.  
7. VA Clinic Opens In Georgia.     
8. VA Presents Plan To Handle New GI Bill Claims.  
9. Brown Joins Obama’s Veterans Policy Transition Team.
10. HeatheVet Applications Signal Beginning Of End For VistA.

     1.      Panel Says Gulf War Syndrome Is Real.   In continuing coverage, AFP (11/18) reported, “A congressionally-mandated panel has concluded that ‘Gulf War syndrome’ is real and that more than a quarter of the 700,000 US veterans of the 1991 conflict suffer from the illness.” Released Monday, the “most extensive-ever report on the debilitating, multi-symptom illness…concluded that it is caused by exposure to toxic chemicals…and a drug administered to protect soldiers against nerve gas. ‘The extensive body of scientific research now available consistently indicates that Gulf War illness is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time,’ said the 450-page report, presented to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake.” The “panel noted that federal funding for Gulf War research had dropped dramatically in recent years and urged 60 million dollars in annual funding.”
 Vets Relieved, Angered By Report.   The Denver Post(11/19, Blevins, Olinger) reports, “Colorado’s veterans of Operation Desert Storm feel justified after a congressionally mandated panel this week announced that the mysterious and often maligned ‘Gulf War syndrome’ was in fact a legitimate medical condition.” a 57-year-old nurse who served for six months during Operation Desert Storm and has spent the past 17 years” advocating for soldiers suffering from Gulf War illnesses, said, “I feel vindicated, but I’m angry. This is so long overdue. Why did it take so long to listen to the vets and their families? . . . Why have they denied benefits and hurt people and let families fall apart and have soldiers go bankrupt seeking help?” The Post notes the VA “declined to discuss the report,” but a statement from VA Secretary James Peake read, “The VA has accepted and implemented prior recommendations of the committee and values the work represented in the report.”

2.      Mileage Reimbursement Rate Raised For Disabled Veterans.    The New Mexico Business Weekly (11/19) reports that in a press release, VA Secretary Peake said, “We owe it to our veterans to give them the best care possible,” and the “increase will once again provide assistance to our veterans, especially in these difficult economic times, to help offset gasoline costs and to assist veterans with access to the VA’s world-class health system.” The Weekly adds, “In New Mexico, the increase ‘will impact a lot of our veterans, because we are a rural state,’ said Lou Helwig, deputy cabinet secretary” of the New Mexico’s Department of Veterans Services.” The Huntington (WV) Herald-Dispatch (11/19) also notes the reimbursement rate increase.

3.      Bay Pines VA Receives Performance Award.   The Pinellas Park (FL) Beacon (11/18) said the Bay Pines Veterans Affairs Healthcare System “is the recipient of the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs Robert W. Carey Performance Excellence Award.” The award “is the most prestigious award in VA and recognizes VA sites that have achieved organizational excellence. Bay Pines VA was presented the award” in Washington, DC “by VA Secretary James B. Peake, M.D. and Under Secretary for Health, Michael J. Kussman, M.D.”

4.      Cleland Said To Be Under Consideration For VA Secretary.   In a story on the continuing formation of President-elect Barack Obama’s White House staff and policy, the Washington Times (11/19, Bellantoni, Seper) reports Obama “is…considering former Sen. Max Cleland” for a top Administration post. A “source familiar with transition planning said Mr. Cleland, a Vietnam veteran and triple amputee, is under consideration for either secretary of Veterans Affairs or secretary of the Army in an Obama administration.” Obama’s “friend, Tammy Duckworth,” also “is under consideration for an administration position dealing with veterans issues.” The disabled Iraq veteran “is currently serving as the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.” The Times notes that the “political action committee VoteVets has collected more than 5,700 signatures on an online petition detailing Mr. Cleland’s and Ms. Duckworth’s service and asking Mr. Obama to consider both for administration positions.”   In a version of this story that focuses on Cleland, the Washington Times (11/19, Bellantoni) notes that Cleland “is a lobbyist for a medical device firm that helps wounded soldiers. He has not removed himself from the federal registry, a move that would be required under new ethics rules to be imposed by the incoming” Obama Administration. Reached “on his cell phone Tuesday morning, Mr. Cleland would not comment and referred the call to a retired aide who helps him with press.” The aide, Lynn Kimmerly, “said Mr. Cleland has not been contacted by the transition team, adding, ‘It’s all speculation.'” However, the third story in AL Kamen’s “In The Loop” Column in the Washington Post (11/19, A 19) said Cleland is a former VA secretary “who is said to be a top contender for the post under Obama.”  The Politico (11/18, DiMascio) reported that “while five of 11 leaders of Obama’s national security transition team are women, names in circulation for Cabinet-level positions have predominantly been those of men. There are exceptions,” however, including Duckworth, “who…is mentioned as a possible” VA secretary.  Obama Urged To Slow His Plans For Priority 8 Vets.   CQ (11/19, Johnson) reports Edwards, a “key lawmaker” who chairs the House Appropriations Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Subcommittee, “is urging…Obama to move slowly and cautiously on his pledge to grant all veterans medical attention at Veterans Affairs Department facilities, or else risk clogging” the system “and harming quality. Obama said repeatedly during the campaign that one of his first acts as president would be to sign an executive order permitting” veterans with non-service-related disabilities – “so-called ‘Priority Group 8′” veterans — to “seek medical care within the VA system.” Vets are “designated as Priority 8 when their income exceeds a pre-set threshold,” but until 2003, they “were permitted to seek treatment at VA health facilities.” That year, however, the VA “announced a freeze on new Priority 8 enrollments…to alleviate a 300,000-plus patient backlog and quell a funding crisis.”

5.      Casey Says Army’s Health System Has Improved.   In continuing coverage, the Temple (TX) Daily Telegram (11/18, Kirk) reported, “On Monday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey made the rounds between Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston” and the Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) at Fort Hood “in respect to Army Warrior Care Day and Military Warrior Care Month.” Casey “said much of the finger pointing that erupted from the Walter Reed scandal in 2005 helped fix a system that was antiquated and led to the creation of the WTU.” Casey, who “indicated that shorter times between long deployments would become less and less common in the very near future” for Army soldiers, also “said the Army is in the process of implementing a program that elevates mental fitness to the same level as physical fitness.”

6.      Iraq Vet Hired To Work On Computer Security At VA Hospital.   The New York Daily News (11/18, Grace) profiled Arthur Foster, who, after returning home from Iraq, “faced a different kind of battle: looking for work in a brutal job market. Calling on his military man’s discipline and can-do approach, Foster enrolled at Monroe College in the Bronx and got his associate’s degree in computers.” The Daily News noted that last month, Foster, “landed a $38,000-a-year job developing and maintaining computer security” at the Bronx’s James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

7.      VA Clinic Opens In Georgia.   In continuing coverage, the Macon (GA) Sun News (11/19, Smith) reports, “Veterans in Perry can now drive a shorter distance for some of their medical needs,” because on Monday, the “Perry Veterans Affairs Outreach Clinic opened…at 2370 South Houston Lake Road.” Janine Cameron, “public affairs officer for the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center, the parent facility, said the new clinic is part of the Veterans Affairs office’s Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services plan.”.

8.      VA Presents Plan To Handle New GI Bill Claims.   CQ (11/19, Johnson) reports that on Tuesday, Veterans Affairs Department officials “presented…a two-part plan to handle an expected increase in education benefits claims in the wake of a major expansion of the GI bill. Keith Wilson, the director of the office of education service at the Veterans Benefits Administration, told” the House Veterans Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee that the VA “intends to put forth a short-term, disposable system to handle claims filed over the next 18 to 24 months and then a second distinct system to govern the claims process going forward.”  VA Says It Will Be Ready To Handle New Claims.   The third story in the Washington Times‘ (11/19) “Washington In 5 Minutes” column also notes Tuesday’s testimony, saying VA officials “acknowledged the potential for glitches as they scramble to upgrade government IT systems before the new legislation providing millions of dollars in new GI benefits takes effect next August.” The VA “contended that it was on track to implement an IT system ‘in-house’ just one month after abruptly scrapping plans to hire an IT contractor that the government previously contended was critical to get a system up and running on time.” The AP (11/18, Yen) published a similar story.

9.      Brown Joins Obama’s Veterans Policy Transition Team.   In continuing coverage, the Baltimore Sun (11/19, Dechter) says Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown “has been appointed co-chairman of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team overseeing veterans policy, officials said” Monday. At the “Agency Review Team for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Brown — an Iraq war veteran and 24-year member of the Army Reserves — will help formulate the incoming administration’s policy goals regarding veterans. Brown will be working with Maryland Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, who is part of a team reviewing personnel and policies at the departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development.”  Maryland’s Daily Record (11/19, Lash) also notes Brown’s appointment, saying he “will co-chair the group that oversees the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to information supplied by the transition team.” The Record’s article, however, primarily discusses Perez, the current head of the Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. According to the Record, Obama “has tapped” Perez “to head his transition committee for justice and civil rights issues – a plum position that participants and interested observers of Maryland politics predicted will lead to a job in the incoming administration, perhaps in the Justice Department.”

10.    HeatheVet Applications Signal Beginning Of End For VistA.   Government Health IT (11/19, Robinson) reports, “The Veterans Affairs Department is starting to deliver applications for its new HealtheVet medical information system, which means the end-date for the venerable Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) is finally on the horizon.” VA officials “say VistA is outdated and can’t be easily modernized and that HealtheVet will fit better with the information technology architecture VA and the Defense Department are developing.” But “critics of the plan say VA is giving up too much by retiring VistA. ‘Can [HealtheVet] still provide the same care for veterans that is as good as they get through VistA?’ asked Claudine Beron, chairwoman of the VistA Software Alliance, which promotes the use of VistA by non-VA organizations. ‘The answer to that right now is no.'”  While Still In Operation, VistA Will Help Launch Teleradiology Network.   Government Health IT (11/19, Moore) reports, “Government health care providers are helping push picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) beyond their traditional confines in hospital radiology departments. PACS technology has all but replaced film archives as the way to store and distribute medical images,” and in “the government arena, the PACS leader is the Veterans Affairs Department, which will launch a nationwide teleradiology network in January to support local PACS operations.” The “launch involves installing gateways at VA hospitals that would communicate with the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) electronic health record system ‘and PACS to select which cases must be sent to the teleradiology server and to return the report,'” said Dr. Charles Anderson, “chief consultant for diagnostic services at the Veterans Health Administration’s Office of Patient Care Services.”  Virginia Company To Upgrade VistA Imaging.   Government Health IT (11/18, Buxbaum) reported the VA “is enhancing VistA Imaging and at the same time improving its ability to exchange medical imagery with the Defense Department.” Patriot Technologies, based in “Reston, Va., will provide” the VA “with life cycle engineering and strategic management for the program under a five-year, $65 million contract.” The “improvements to image exchange are part of the wounded warrior initiative, said Roger Coney, a project manager at Patriot Technologies. ‘When soldiers come back from Iraq and Afghanistan and eventually enter the VA system, images will be able to move from DOD to VA seamlessly,’ he said.”