VA to Expand Benefits for Traumatic Brain Injury

The VA has decided to push again for expanded disability benefits for veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI), the signature wound from the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and occupations, outside of missing limbs.

Those Iraq and Afghanistan veterans; they never tire of being 'takers' and 'moochers,' as Paul Ryan, Charlie Sykes and every other Republican tells us over and over.

From the VA:

WASHINGTON (Dec. 16, 2013) – Some Veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who are diagnosed with any of five other ailments will have an easier path to receive additional disability pay under new regulations developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The new regulation, which takes effect 30 days from today, impacts some Veterans living with TBI who also have Parkinson’s disease, certain types of dementia, depression, unprovoked seizures or certain diseases of the hypothalamus and pituitary glands.

“We decide Veterans’ disability claims based on the best science available,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “As scientific knowledge advances, VA will expand its programs to ensure Veterans receive the care and benefits they’ve earned and deserve.”

This regulation stems from a report of the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine (IOM) regarding the association between TBI and the five diagnosable illnesses.  The IOM report, Gulf War and Health, Volume 7:  Long-Term Consequences of Traumatic Brain Injury, found “sufficient evidence” to link moderate or severe levels of TBI with the five ailments.

The new regulations, printed in the Federal Register, say that if certain Veterans with service-connected TBI also have one of the five illnesses, then the second illness will also be considered as service connected for the calculation of VA disability compensation.

Eligibility for expanded benefits will depend upon the severity of the TBI and the time between the injury causing the TBI and the onset of the second illness.  However, Veterans can still file a claim to establish direct service-connection for these ailments even if they do not meet the time and severity standards in the new regulation.

Veterans who have questions or who wish to file new disability claims may use the eBenefits website, available at www.eBenefits.va.gov/ebenefits.

Servicemembers who are within 180 days of discharge may also file a pre-discharge claim for TBI online through the VA-DoD eBenefits portal at www.eBenefits.va.gov/ebenefits.

The published final rule will be available Dec. 17 at http://www.regulations.gov.

Proposed VA Rule Will Hammer Veterans, If Adopted

Time to screw our veterans again

Jamie Reno has an exclusive piece on a new proposed rule by the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA) (VA) that will slap away veterans seeking disability benefits after the VA's Veterans Benefits Administration screw up veterans' claims. 

Reno notes an almost identical piece of legislation, HR 1404, in being considered in the House and studied in the Senate. Concerned readers should contact their House reps.

Screwing up veterans' claims is the norm.

Justice John Roberts in oral arguments in Astrue v. Ratliff (No. 08-1322) (2010):

"In litigating with veterans, the government more often than not takes a position that is substantially unjustified?"

- Yes

Justice Roberts: This is "really startling." 

The VA benefits claim procedures are supposed to be non-adversarial, in effect paternalistic, under the Veterans' Judicial Review Act of 1988 (VJRA). And the proposed regulation, RIN 2900-AO81, is substantially insulting and would block veterans who need our help as they come home.

Notes Reno: "Under current law, veterans are able to simply write a letter to apply for and/or to appeal a claim. No form necessary, no special language needed. This policy has actually been a welcome protection for veterans for veterans with disabilities that limit their cognitive functions."

This new anti-veteran proposed rule would make the benefits process adversarial and turn the VBA into one huge, mean-spirited health insurance company for our veterans, emphatically so for the large numbers of veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

What you can do now

Written public comments may be submitted through www.regulations.gov; by mail or hand-delivery to the Director, Regulations Management (02REG),
Department of Veterans Affairs,
810 Vermont Avenue NW., Room 1068,
Washington, DC 20420; or by fax to (202) 273-9026. (This is not a toll-free number.)

Comments should indicate that they are submitted in response to “RIN 2900-AO81—Standard Claims and Appeals Forms.”

Copies of comments received will be available for public inspection in the Office of Regulation Policy and Management, Room 1063B, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (except holidays). Please call (202) 461-4902 for an appointment. (This is not a toll-free number.) In addition, during the comment period, comments may be viewed online through the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) at www.regulations.gov.
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Writes Reno:

Glenn Bergmann, a partner at Bergmann and Moore, a Washington D.C.-area law firm that solely represents veterans with VA disability claims, has studied the proposal and the relevant case law. He tells Veteran Journal that, "While on the surface these proposed regulations look veteran-friendly, they really are not."

Bergmann says that if approved this VA proposal will "gut decades of veteran-friendly case law by eliminating reasonably raised claims made by veterans. If VA’s proposed regulation goes into effect and forces veterans to use only VA’s forms, then VA tilts the scales of justice from a pro-veteran claim system to an anti-veteran process."

Bergmann adds that veterans with mental health issues such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) will be at a particular disadvantage if VA’s proposed regulation is adopted.

Obama's VA Is a Sea Change from Neocon's Bush-Cheney

Believe and Support -Temporary Services
Chicago, Philadelphia, Copenhagen

While waging far too much war, the Obama administration is a sea change in treating PTSD, Military Sexual Trauma, Gulf War Illness, suicide and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

For example, consider the news today in a typical reported development:

WASHINGTON—In a continuing effort to increase Veterans’ access to mental health care, the Department of Veterans Affairs has set a goal to conduct more than 200,000 clinic-based, telemental health consultations for all mental health specialties in fiscal year 2012. This follows VA’s announcement last month that it would no longer charge Veterans a copayment when they receive care in their homes from VA health professionals using video conferencing.

From the VA

“Telemental health provides Veterans quicker and more efficient access to the types of care they seek,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “We are leveraging technology to reduce the distance they have to travel, increase the flexibility of the system they use, and improve their overall quality of life. We are expanding the reach of our mental health services beyond our major medical centers and treating Veterans closer to their homes.” The clinic-based telehealth program involves the more than 800 VA community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) where many Veterans receive primary care. If the CBOCs do not have a mental health care provider available, secure video teleconferencing technology is used to connect the Veteran to a provider within VA’s nationwide system of care.

Under the Obama administration, no innocent veteran is getting persecuted by the VA and U.S. DoJ for tenaciously pursuing a disability claim, like Wisconsin's Keith Roberts, caught up in the U.S. attorneys' scandal in the Bush-Cheney years, shreddergate and the attack on veterans making disability claims.

As a result, Veterans can arrange appointments at times more in synch with their schedules.

The program improves access to general and specialty services in geographically remote areas where it can be difficult to recruit mental health professionals.

“As technology is improving people’s lives in many areas, telemental health is making access to health care and support easier for Veterans with mental health conditions,” said Dr. Robert A. Petzel, Under Secretary for Health. “For example, one combat Veteran from Iraq cites telemental health as a critical factor in rebuilding her life and coping with the aftermath of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and military sexual trauma. Telemental health offered her a safe and convenient setting to receive gender sensitive services that helped her fit back into civilian life after three months of therapy.”

Since the start of the Telemental Health Program, VA has completed over 550,000 patient encounters. In Fiscal Year 2011 alone, more than 140,000 encounters were conducted with 55,000 Veterans via CBOCs, where providers at 150 hospitals delivered care to veterans at more than 500 clinics. The Telehealth Expansion Initiative launched in May 2011 called for an additional 21 regional leads, 144 facility coordinators and 1,150 clinical technicians to VA’s workforce.

When fully implemented, the expansion will provide a potential capacity of 1.2 million consultations annually.

Video to the home is currently projected to grow to 2,000 patients by the end of fiscal year 2012, with 1,500 using innovative new Internet Protocol (IP) video connected to Veterans’ personal computers.

In addition to supporting these current programs, the VHA National Telemental Health Center in West Haven, Conn., has pioneered additional new programs that delivered 1,000 specialized patient encounters from mental health experts at multiple VA sites to Veterans throughout the nation.

These include over 100 compensation and pension exams, 700 clinical encounters to over 165 Veterans enrolled in behavioral pain treatment programs, and 200 clinical-video and telephone encounters to over 70 Veterans enrolled in a bipolar disorder treatment program.

This campaign is part of VA’s overall mental health program. Last year, VA provided quality, specialty mental health services to 1.3 million Veterans.

Since 2009, VA has increased the mental health care budget by 39 percent. Since 2007, VA has seen a 35 percent increase in the number of Veterans receiving mental health services, and a 41 percent increase in mental health staff.

In April, as part of an ongoing review of mental health operations, Secretary Shinseki announced VA would add approximately 1,600 mental health clinicians as well as nearly 300 support staff to its existing workforce of 20,590 to help meet the increased demand for mental health services. The additional staff would include nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers. For more information, on VA’s telemental health, visit the Office of Telehealth Services at http://www.telehealth.va.gov/.