Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 4-29-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans 

1. More Recovery Coordinators For Injured Vets Said To Be Needed.
2. VA Reaching Out To Vets With New Website.  
3. US Army "Well Represented" At Winter Sports Clinic.  
4. Napolitano: VA Part Of Multi-Agency Response To Swine Flu Outbreak.  
5. VA Awards $29 Million Grant To Iowa Veterans Home.  
6. VA Extends Contract With Powell Valley Healthcare.  
7. VA, DOD Moving Quickly To Develop Joint EHR.  
8. Tuition Coverage Under New GI Bill Said To Be A Problem For Some California Vets.  
9. Agency Disavows Camp Lejeune Drinking Water Report.  
10. VA Researchers Disrupt Brain Protein In Mice, Produce Antidepressant-Like Effect.

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HAVE YOU HEARD?
VA is leading the way among federal government agencies reporting major steps towards “greening” their IT purchases. Their 2008 progress reports submitted to the Office of Management and Budget and Office of the Federal Environmental Executive reflect a significant commitment across government to the EPEAT® system for green IT purchasing. The EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) program evaluates computer desktops, laptops, and monitors based on 51 environmental criteria developed through an extensive stakeholder consensus process supported by the US Environmental Protection Agency. VA ranked as a leader in EPEAT purchases for 2008. All of the 290,623 Dell desktops and monitors leased by VA between September 2007 and December 2008 were EPEAT gold or silver products. “Thirteen of the 22 Federal agencies reported meeting the goal of 95 percent or higher EPEAT purchasing in their 2008 IT acquisitions, with many others moving toward that rate of compliance. This is particularly notable because the EPEAT requirements are new and being implemented along with security and other IT requirements,” said Dana Arnold, Acting Federal Environmental Executive, “This striking level of compliance reflects great work on the part of agency IT purchasing staff, as well as the ease of use of the EPEAT system. “ For more on EPEAT criteria and qualified products, see www.epeat.net.

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1.      More Recovery Coordinators For Injured Vets Said To Be Needed.   The Army Times (4/29, Maze) reports, "A year-old program that assigns recovery coordinators to help severely injured combat veterans and their families maneuver through the maze of military and veterans’ treatment and benefits programs is underpublicized and still has growing pains," a House Veterans Affairs Committee panel "was told Tuesday. There are 14 Federal Recovery Coordinators responsible for fewer than 300 cases of the most severely injured combat veterans who face complicated treatment and recovery plans. That is just a handful of the estimated 1,300 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have what the Department of Veterans Affairs considers catastrophic injures." The Time notes that among those testifying before Tuesday’s panel was Sarah Wade, the wife of an injured Iraq veteran, who "said she thinks the new director of the coordinator program, Dr. Karen Guice, will improve things…because Guice reports directly to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki." But what "is still needed, Wade said, is better coordination between Pentagon and VA leadership."

2.      VA Reaching Out To Vets With New Website.   In continuing coverage, the WBFO-FM Buffalo, NY (4/28, Kryszak) website said the Department of Veterans Affairs "is reaching out to returning veterans" through a new website that contains blogs, as well as links to features on Facebook and YouTube. Buffalo VA spokesperson Evangeline Conley "said it is all part of a stepped-up effort to help vets reconnect."

3.      US Army "Well Represented" At Winter Sports Clinic.   The Army News Service (4/28, Buehler) reported, "Nearly 400 disabled veterans and injured" soldiers "participated in a winter sports clinic earlier this month in Snowmass Village, just outside of Aspen. Colo." The US Army "was well represented at the 23rd National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, March 29 – April 3. Almost half the participants were Army veterans," 44 of whom "had recent service in Iraq and Afghanistan." The ANS said the clinic, which is sponsored "by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Disabled American Veterans," is "now the largest rehabilitation event of its kind in the world."

4.      Napolitano: VA Part Of Multi-Agency Response To Swine Flu Outbreak.    VA Employee In Oklahoma Tested For Swine Flu.   The AP (4/29) reports an employee at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Muskogee, Oklahoma, "has flu-like symptoms after a recent trip to Mexico and tests have been performed to determine if this person has swine flu." Hospital spokeswoman Nita McClellan "says the employee was treated with Tamiflu, sent home, and a culture was sent to state officials for testing. She declined to identify the employee, but says they were not in regular contact with patients at the hospital."

5.      VA Awards $29 Million Grant To Iowa Veterans Home.   The AP (4/28) reports, "The Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown has received a $29 million grant" from the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ State Veterans Home Grant Program "for a building replacement project." US Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), who along with US Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) announced the grant on Tuesday, "says the money will help fund the replacement project at the Marshalltown facility as part of its plan to shift from an institutional environment to a more homelike atmosphere." Latham, meanwhile, "says the grant will cover 65 percent of the anticipated costs of the project."

6.      VA Extends Contract With Powell Valley Healthcare.   The Powell (WY) Tribune (4/29, Olson) reports, "After weeks of waiting," Powell Valley Healthcare (PVHC) "administrators were notified Thursday that their bid to extend their contract" with the US Department of Veterans Affairs for another five years "had been accepted." Jim Cannon, a PVHC spokesman, "said the news prompted a sigh of relief" by PVHC staff. He added, "Everyone was very happy to hear the news."

7.      VA, DOD Moving Quickly To Develop Joint EHR.   Government Health IT (4/29, Buxbaum) reports, "The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments will move rapidly to develop" a joint electronic health record (EHR) "for beneficiaries of the two departments, said Scott Cragg, VA chief enterprise architect and acting deputy assistant secretary. Cragg, who has been named the VA lead and IT lead on the joint EHR project, spoke" at an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association International breakfast in Washington Tuesday, saying, "The timelines are extremely, extremely aggressive." Craig added the he is "feeling an awful lot of pressure."
      Defense Official Stresses Importance Of Informatics, Service-Oriented Architecture.   Government Health IT (4/28, Buxbaum) said, "Health informatics is key to Defense Department efforts to reduce costs and improve quality as well as to the future shape of the national health care system. That was one of the conclusions" of a healthcare symposium held "Friday at the National Defense University in Washington." After noting that among those participating "in the conference were representatives" of the DOD and the Veterans Health Administration, GHIT points out that during the meeting, Dr. Ward Casscells, the departing assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, cited the private healthcare system as a leader in the area of health informatics because, according to Casscells, many "in the civilian sector take a modular approach using" a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and this "appears to lowers costs." GHIT adds that the DOD and the VA "have committed to a SOA strategy in their congressionally mandated effort to make their two medical health record systems interoperable, Casscells said."

8.      Tuition Coverage Under New GI Bill Said To Be A Problem For Some California Vets.   The lead story in Inside Higher Ed (4/29) "Quick Takes" column says some "California veterans will be eligible for up to… $0 to cover their tuition under the new GI Bill." That "figure…is a striking reflection of the frustration many have had with the separation of tuition from fees in the process of calculating veterans’ educational benefits." California "veterans are…eligible to have up to $6,586.54 in fees covered per term under the new GI Bill." But for "veterans hoping to apply their benefits to private colleges" in California, "they’ll be able to apply $0 toward the tuition

portion" of their bill, and "most private colleges heavily weight their costs on the tuition side of the ledger." This situation "also means that private colleges in California may be less likely to enter" into a Federal "matching program, the Yellow Ribbon Program, to cover the balance between what the standard veterans’ benefit covers and what private colleges charge."

9.      Agency Disavows Camp Lejeune Drinking Water Report.   The AP (4/29, Beamish) says that on Tuesday, in "an about-face," the US government’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry "disavowed a 12-year-old" Federal report "that found little or no cancer risk for adults who lived on a Marine base where drinking water was contaminated for three decades. Up to 1 million people could have been exposed to toxins that seeped from a neighboring dry cleaner and industrial activity at Camp Lejeune, N.C.," Federal officials say. The AP adds, "Health officials wrote to Veterans Affairs last month warning that a VA report had read too much into the Camp Lejeune health assessment and it should not be used as the basis to deny disability benefits."

10.    VA Researchers Disrupt Brain Protein In Mice, Produce Antidepressant-Like Effect.   Science Daily (4/29) reports, "A brain protein involved in fear behavior and anxiety may represent a new target for depression therapies, according to a study by researchers at the University of Iowa and the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center," whose "results appear in the April 29 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience." The "research team found that disrupting ASIC1a — an ion channel protein found in the brain — produced an antidepressant-like effect in mice." This effect "was similar to that produced by currently available antidepressant drugs, but the team also showed that ASIC1a’s effect arose through a new and different biological mechanism. ‘The mechanism issue is important because if a patient doesn’t respond to one drug, the chances of them responding to another drug that works through the same mechanism are low,’ said study investigator John Wemmie, M.D., Ph.D.," a staff physician and researcher at the Iowa City VAMC, who added, "We need antidepressants with new mechanisms of action to help those people who don’t respond to what is currently available."