Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 7 August 2015
1. Access to Benefits/Care
1.1 - San Francisco Chronicle (AP): Assisted living center at Topeka's VA campus to open in fall (6 August, 9.5M online visitors/mo; San Francisco, CA) The Veterans Administration plans to open an assisted living center on its Topeka campus for veterans with mild dementia. The building on the Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center campus is expected to open this fall, The Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/1IlF8ZS ) reported. The building will offer 12 private rooms with their own bathrooms, plus amenities such as a social area, kitchen, dining area and outdoor courtyard.
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1.2 - San Francisco Chronicle (AP): Charleston VA center serving hundreds of new patients (6 August, 9.5M online visitors/mo; San Francisco, CA) The Charleston VA Medical Center is expecting a record 10 percent growth for the fiscal year that winds up at the end of next month. Director Scott Isaacks told local media outlets Wednesday that each week between 150 and 200 veterans are enrolling as new patients at the Ralph Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Isaacks said the center has recruited 270 additional staff to respond to the growth. The medical center system has about 2,300 workers.
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1.3 - Military.com: American Legion Conducting New Survey on Veterans' PTSD, TBI Care (6 August, Bryant Jordan, 5.8M online visitors/mo; San Francisco, CA) The American Legion is conducting a new national survey of veterans and their families to assess the care they are receiving from the Veterans Affairs Department for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. Louis Celli, director of Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation for The American Legion, said the findings will provide the Legion's PTSD/TBI Committee with an understanding of veteran satisfaction with VA mental health care…
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1.4 - Stars and Stripes: McCain bill would let all veterans seek care outside VA (6 August, Heath Druzin, 1.2M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) Just before Congress leaves town for a month, Sen. John McCain introduced a bill Thursday that could increase the controversy over how to fix the Department of Veterans Affairs, proposing that all veterans be eligible to have private care paid for by their VA insurance. Currently, veterans who live more than 40 miles from a VA facility and those who face long wait times can apply to seek medical care in the private sector on their VA insurance.
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1.5 - KTAR-FM (FM-92.3): Phoenix VA office busy with home loans (6 August, Bob McClay, 1M online visitors/mo; Phoenix, AZ) The Veteran’s Administration office in Phoenix is apparently keeping busy with veterans wanting a home loan. The Phoenix Regional VA Office processes home loans for veterans, and a lot of the vets are taking advantage of them. “As of this point in the fiscal year, we’ve guaranteed almost 93,000 home loans for veterans in Arizona,” said Duane Honeycutt, the Interim Director of the Phoenix Regional VA Office. Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 7 August 2015 1
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1.6 - The Sun Herald: Biloxi National Cemetery could need more room, The grounds will run out of room for caskets in six years. (6 August, Regina Zilbermints, 984k online visitors/mo; Gulfport, MS) If current trends continue, the Biloxi National Cemetery will run out of room for caskets in about six years. There is room for 25-30 years of cremated remains. And on the Biloxi Veterans Administration campus, there's not much room to grow, officials said. While the National Cemetery Administration is actively working to provide access to more veterans, there are no plans in place to either expand the existing cemetery in Biloxi or designate a plot of land elsewhere on the Coast for burial.
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1.7 - Military Times: VA may pay disability for some illnesses linked to Lejeune (6 August, Patricia Kime, 606k online visitors/mo; Springfield, VA) The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Aug. 2 it will begin a process that may allow some veterans to receive disability pay if they were sickened by drinking contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The VA has provided health care or reimbursement for medical costs for veterans or family members with 15 illnesses related to exposure to water contaminated by solvents and fuels…
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1.8 - WCYB-TV (NBC-5): VA talks about improvements to Mountain Home Medical Center (6 August, Kristi O’Connor, 492k online visitors/mo; Bristol, VA) U.S Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert McDonald, wanted officials of VA medical centers across the nation to meet with the media this week. The meetings would focus on the state of veteran's health facilities and how officials are working to improve them. Thursday, News 5 met with the VA Leadership Team of the Mountain Home VA Medical Center in Johnson City. The leaders talked about a number of topics, including the expansion of the Emergency Department.
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1.9 - NextGov: VA Secretary: We Need To Simplify Website For Veterans (6 August, Mohana Ravindranath, 483k online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to make its online services easier for veterans to navigate, VA Secretary Robert McDonald said Thursday during an event hosted by Politico. "If I went to a veteran and said, 'What's Blue Button?' they would have no idea," he said, referring to the service that lets veterans download their electronic medical records.
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1.10 - KJZZ-FM (NPR-91.5, Audio): Vietnam Veterans Still Struggling With PTSD Decades After War (6 August, Jimmy Jenkins, 427k online visitors/mo; Phoenix, AZ) The Vietnam War ended decades years ago. Veterans from that conflict are now in their 50s and 60s, and are starting to retire. And with retirement, for some, there’s a troubling realization that they have deep wounds from the war that have never healed. New research shows that hundreds of thousands of Vietnam vets are still suffering from the traumatic after effects of war.
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1.11 - WTVM-TV (ABC-9): Vietnam Vet beats PTSD, helps others at Dublin VA (6 August, Dave Miller, 411k online visitors/mo; Columbus, GA) Florida native Gus Allbritton was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1969, and Uncle Sam shipped him out to Southeast Asia, where the Vietnam war was raging. “I was scared to death!” Allbritton laughed during a recent interview. “I didn’t know where Vietnam was or what to expect, I just knew that the Army told me to go and I went.”
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1.12 - WNYP-TV (FOX-28, Video): New VA Clinic In Massena Mall Wows Veterans (6 August, 290k online visitors/mo; Watertown, NY) Some 2,000 veterans will go to see the doctor at the new VA clinic in the St. Lawrence Centre Mall in Massena. So far, their major concern is getting lost inside. "I was stunned, the number of rooms here and the help they're going to have," said Joe Cosentino, World War II vet from Ogdensburg. The clinic at the mall replaces the former one at Massena Memorial Hospital.
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1.13 - WKMG-TV (CBS-6, Video): Veteran's claim denied again by VA, Veteran still denied after death, despite presumptive service connection announcement (6 August, Tara Evans, 225k online visitors/mo; Orlando, FL) Three days after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced several Camp Lejeune- related illnesses a presumptive service connection, a local veteran who died from kidney cancer was denied by the VA again for the third time. Tonight, Donald Burpee's wife said she is devastated after getting another denial letter she didn't expect to get, after finding out the VA said kidney cancer was going to be made a presumptive service connection.
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1.14 - Kingsport Times-News: New improvements on tap for Mountain Home VA (6 August, Nick Shepherd, 126k online visitors/mo; Kingsport, TN) A number of improvements will be coming to the Veteran's Administration at Mountain Home over the next year, including a new parking garage, a tele-Intensive Care Unit and an expansion of the Emergency Department. The changes were announced to media members at a media roundtable on Thursday. The expansion of the Emergency Department should help improve access for veterans in emergency situations.
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1.15 - Healio: VA launches two programs to help veterans transition from service (6 August, 119k online visitors/mo; Thorofare, NJ) The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has launched two no-cost training programs designed to help service members and veterans learn skills, earn credentials and advance in civilian careers following separation from service. “My message to transitioning service members is simple: Plan early and stay engaged,” Robert McDonald, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)…
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1.16 - The Register-Herald: Greenbrier veterans still waiting for new clinic (7 August, Tina Alvey, 92k online visitors/mo; Beckley, WV) Promises and explanations were plentiful at a 90-minute "town hall" meeting staged at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine's Roland P. Sharp Alumni Center by the Beckley Veterans Affairs Medical Center Thursday evening. Facing an occasionally surly audience of more than 60 veterans, family members and former clinic personnel, Beckley VAMC director Karin McGraw and associate director Allen Moye reviewed the history of the now-closed Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) in Maxwelton and outlined the steps being taken to find a new home for the facility.
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1.17 - Midland Daily News: Saginaw VA helping more veterans with Choice Fund (6 August, Jessica Haynes, 67k online visitors/mo; Midland, MI) The Saginaw VA hospital is making changes in order to provide care for a growing number of veterans, including additional staff and updated technology. Officials with the Aleda E. Lutz Veteran Affairs Medical Center recently discussed what initiatives have been developed to address issues of access and care, as well as updating technology and hiring more staff to accommodate a larger population of patients.
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2. Ending Veterans’ Homelessness
2.1 - WISC-TV (CBS-3, Video): Madison Stand Down offers hand up to homeless veterans (6 August, Dave Delozier, 877k online visitors/mo; Madison, WI) For the last 10 months, veterans in the community have been working to collect clothing, solicit donations to buy food and provide services at the Madison Area Homeless Veterans Stand Down. The Stand Down program, which was started in 1993, has seen an increase in the number of homeless veterans needing assistance. “Last year we had 87 go through our Stand Down and this year they are expecting 136,” said Jim Blankenheim, one of the founders of the Madison Stand Down program and a Vietnam veteran.
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2.2 - Los Angeles Daily News: Let homeless veterans live on West Los Angeles VA site, say Feinstein, Boxer and Lieu (6 August, 409k online visitors/mo; Woodlands Hills, CA) Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, in conjunction with Rep. Ted Lieu, called today for legislation that would facilitate housing for homeless veterans on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus. The trio of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs committees, outlining legislation that would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to work with local governments and nonprofits…
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2.3 - KITV-TV (ABC-4, Video): Veteran Stand Down helps treat more than 100 homeless vets (6 August, Roger Mari, 360k online visitors/mo; Honolulu, HI) More than 100 homeless veterans came off the streets to receive immediate relief, including medical attention, clothing and a meal at Veteran Stand Down. For many, it's the first time in
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months to get such treatment. “This is unbelievable. I had no idea this kind of stuff went on,” said Kevin Powell, a homeless veteran. It's all part of Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s Heroes Housing Heroes campaign, which aims to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015.
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2.4 - MyNewsLA.com: Get homeless vets off the street; California senators demand Westwood VA provide shelter (6 August, Debbie L. Sklar, 148k online visitors/mo; Los Angeles, CA) Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, in conjunction with Rep. Ted Lieu, called Thursday for legislation that would facilitate housing for homeless veterans on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus. The trio of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs committees, outlining legislation that would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to work with local governments and nonprofits to ” provide additional housing and services for homeless and disadvantaged veterans at the West Los Angeles campus.”
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2.5 - Chillicothe Gazette: Approach to homeless veterans care changing (6 August, Chris Balusik, 125k online visitors/mo; Chillicothe, OH) When Chillicothe VA Medical Center Director Wendy Hepker came into the Veterans Administration system 20 years ago as a part-time social worker, she was surprised at how little attention was paid to the problem of homelessness in veterans. Having come from a background in crisis mental health in which she regularly worked with homeless veterans on the street, she had experienced what it was like to see how little attention the community in which she was living at the time paid to the issue.
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2.6 - Westside Today: Have a Hand in Designing the New West L.A. Veteran Housing (6 August, 26k online visitors/mo; Los Angeles, CA) The government is inviting Los Angeles to share their collective vision for the West LA Veterans Home Master Plan, set to finalize come October. With a tight deadline, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs has sought out the community to input ideas on how to combat veteran homelessness through pop-up workshops and open houses around the city, specifically on the West L.A. VA campus, downtown, and El Monte.
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2.7 - KABC-TV (ABC-7, Video): US Senators Propose Legislation To Move Homeless Veterans To West Los Angeles VA Campus (7 August, Miriam Hernandez, 7.8k online visitors/mo; Glendale, CA) After Al Gunn's lower right leg was blown off by a land mine in Vietnam in 1972, he turned to substance abuse and homelessness shortly followed. But, he's now getting transitional help at the Department of Veterans Affairs' campus in West Los Angeles. Yet, like 6,000 other veterans in Los Angeles County what he really needs is permanent, affordable housing.
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3. Ending the Claims Backlog
3.1 - Austin American-Statesman: VA claims backlog shrinking in Texas, but goal still elusive (6 August, Jeremy Schwartz, 4.9M online visitors/mo; Austin, TX) When he talks about shrinking the pile of pending disability claims among Central Texas veterans, John Limpose likes his audience to imagine the imposing peak of Mount Everest. Back in the summer of 2012, when the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Waco Regional Benefit Office had nearly 52,000 pending claims, they soared above the summit of the planet’s most famous mountain, according to a nifty graphic Limpose, the office’s director, often shows.
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4. Veteran Opportunities for Education/GI Bill
4.1 - Reveal: Defense Department now reviewing University of Phoenix recruiting (6 August, Bobby Caina Calvan, 272k online visitors/mo; Emeryville, CA) Pressure continues to mount on the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs amid widening concern about the quality of education at for-profit colleges and unaccredited institutions, which together have siphoned billions of dollars in taxpayer-supported benefits for veterans and military personnel. The Defense Department confirmed this week that it is reviewing whether recruitment practices by the University of Phoenix, the country’s largest benefactor of GI Bill funds, comply with federal law.
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5. Women Veterans
5.1 - Democrat & Chronicle: Film explores female veterans’ struggles (6 August, Robin L. Flanigan, 827k online visitors/mo; Rochester, NY) A candid documentary being screened at the Little Theatre aims to create awareness about the specific challenges female veterans face — and one of its featured voices is from Greece. Service: When Women Come Marching Home, showing for free on Monday, depicts the courage of several female veterans as they transition from active duty to civilian life. It brings to light a disturbing disparity: Women who have been in the military are more likely to be single parents, unemployed, homeless, living in poverty and victims of sexual trauma.
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6. Other
6.1 - The New York Times (AP): Gun-Confiscation Fears Lead to Protest in Northern Idaho (6 August, 63.6M online visitors/mo; New York, NY) A group of residents in northern Idaho lined up outside a U.S. Navy veteran's house on Thursday to protest claims that federal officials are planning on confiscating the man's weapons. Idaho Republican state Rep. Heather Scott of Blanchard said the Veteran Affairs office has sent a letter to John Arnold of Priest River warning him that he cannot possess or purchase firearms.
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6.2 - PBS (Newshour, Video): 5 times ‘The Daily Show’ actually influenced policy (6 August, Corinne Segal, 18M online visitors/mo; Arlington, VA) In May 2014, the VA was facing a public scandal. Officials at the Phoenix VA hospital had lied about the long wait times at their facility, where veterans faced an average wait of 115 days for a primary care appointment. Meanwhile, veterans could only receive private care under the Veterans Choice Program if they lived outside a 40-mile radius from a VA center.
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6.3 - The Boston Globe: Ricky Lee reaches out to veterans with free concert at Bedford VA( 6 August, Cynthia Chen, 16.9M online visitors/mo; Boston, MA) There will be a “Music-4-R-Vets” show at the Bedford VA campus on Saturday, Aug. 8, as part of country musician Ricky Lee’s efforts to show Veterans the healing power of music. Held at 1:30 p.m., the free outdoor concert will be at the Oval of the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital and will be open to all veterans and the public.
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6.4 - POLITICO (Video): Video: Playbook Breakfast with Secretary Robert A. McDonald and David Brock (6 August, 8.3M online visitors/mo; Arlington, VA) POLITICOs Chief White House Correspondent Mike Allen interviews Secretary Robert A. McDonald and David Brock in Washington on Thursday. Below is a selection of video clips from that event…
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6.5 - POLITICO (Video): David Brock: I'm not going to the West Wing if Hillary wins (6 August, Eliza Collins, 8.3M online visitors/mo; Arlington, VA) During Thursday’s event, Allen also spoke with Veteran Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald, who said the most legitimate criticism of the VA is that it isn’t moving fast enough. That should be directed at him because he leads it. McDonald said that even one veteran without a roof over his head is his fault. McDonald, who has been known to give out his personal phone number to veterans in need, provided it publicly during the interview.
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6.6 - Military.com: VA Chief Blasts 'Political' Proposal to Privatize the Department (6 August, Bryant Jordan, 5.8M online visitors/mo; San Francisco, CA) Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald on Thursday rejected criticism from a political advocacy group that has called for privatizing the department. McDonald made his comments during an interview at The Newseum in Washington, D.C., where Politico White House Correspondent Mike Allen cited "a 10-page document of VA low-lights" given to him by Concerned Veterans for America, an Arlington, Virginia-based based organization that favors market-based federal policies.
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6.7 - The Arizona Republic: VA retaliation alleged in sworn statement (6 August, Dennis Wagner, 5.5M online visitors/mo; Phoenix, AZ)
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A former official at the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Phoenix has signed a sworn statement alleging that the hospital’s acting director sought to fire or suspend a mental- health staffer just hours after the employee appeared on a television newscast criticizing VA suicide-prevention efforts. Laurie Butler, who served as acting human resources officer for the Phoenix VA Health Care System, wrote in an Aug. 3 affidavit that top administrators met on Jan. 13 to discuss options…
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6.8 - Washington Examiner: VA secretary: Accountability is more than 'just firing people' (6 August, Susan Crabtree, 3.3M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald said more than 1,400 officials and workers "have been terminated" from the agency since he's been secretary but stressed that accountability is "more than just firing people." Another 100 more, he said, are under investigation by the FBI for potential criminal behavior for cooking the books to make the backlog in patients appointments appear better than it was.
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6.9 - Dayton Daily News: Lawmakers, vets call for ‘thorough investigation’ into VA scheduling (6 August, Barrie Barber, 3.3M online visitors/mo; Dayton, OH) The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is investigating a “scheduling irregularity” that led to delayed appointments for pulmonary care patients at the Dayton VA, according to a U.S. senator’s office. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, contacted VA Secretary Bob McDonald over concerns the Dayton VA had not scheduled callback appointments for about 1,000 pulmonary patients between October 2013 and May 2015 until an employee discovered a list of the patients in late May, officials said.
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6.10 - The Hill (Video): Rubio: God blessed GOP candidates, Dems can't find one (6 August, Peter Sullivan, 1.9M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) Rubio went on to tout reform of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). “When I’m president, we are going to have a VA that cares more about our veterans than about the bureaucrats who work at the VA,” he said. Rubio spent much of the debate emphasizing his theme of moving toward the future, portraying Clinton as the candidate of the past.
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6.11 - The Hill (Video): Huckabee decries the 'social experiment' of transgender troops (6 August, David McCabe, 1.9M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) late Thursday decried the idea of transgender people being allowed to serve openly in the military during the GOP debate. “The military is not a social experiment,” he said. “The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things.” “It's not to transform the culture by trying out some idea that some people think would make us a different country and more diverse…”
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6.12 - Army Times (Video): Jon Stewart vs. VA: How TV host raged against red tape (6 August, Kevin Lilley, 1M online visitors/mo; Springfield, VA)
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During his 16-plus-year run at the desk of "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart trafficked in the same military-themed segments as many of his television brethren: He did pushups for charity, he went on a USO tour with a magician and a noted mailman, and he ... did more pushups for charity. Tests of upper-body strength aside, one of Stewart's unique, lasting contributions to military matters may be his frequent, frustration-filled salvos at the Veterans Affairs Department.
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6.13 - WTNH-TV (ABC-8, Video): World War II Veteran reunited with his wallet he lost 70 years ago (6 August, Rose Shannon, 1M online visitors/mo; New Haven, CT) The letter was from Dr. Josef Ruckhofer, a eye doctor in Salzburg, Austria, informing Ramos that while cleaning out his family’s farmhouse, he found the wallet. According to VA public affairs specialist Carmichael Yepez, during the war, Dr. Ruckhofer’s grandfather allowed Ramos and the 250th field artillery stay the night in the farmhouse. At the time, the artillery was traveling from village to village liberating people from concentration camps.
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6.14 - Military Times: McDonald stays focused on long-term despite elections (6 August, Leo Shane III, 606k online visitors/mo; Springfield, VA) Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald may have only 16 months left to accomplish an overhaul of his department, but he's not looking at the calendar yet. "I don't know that I'm going to be gone (after the 2016 presidential election)," McDonald told audience members at a Politico media forum Thursday. "And I'm not acting like I will be gone." HIs comments came just days after the one-year anniversary of his appointment to the top VA post.
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6.15 - KREM-TV (ABC-2, Video): Idaho veteran says VA plans to seize his guns in error (6 August, Lindsay Nadrich, 559k online visitors/mo; Spokane, WA) Veteran John Arnold said he received a letter on July 30 telling him Veterans Affairs representatives were planning to come pick up his guns. Dozens gathered in front of Arnold's home Thursday to support his right to keep those gun. "A couple days ago it was going to be me sitting here with john and today it's quite a few folks that so it's veterans veterans taking care of veterans," said Arnold's friend Ranger Rick.
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6.16 - El Paso Times: Editorial: VA continues to resist reform at all costs (7 August, 420k online visitors/mo; El Paso, TX) In two separate developments last month, the Veterans Administration demonstrated yet again that its concrete-encased bureaucracy is willing and able to resist reform at all costs. Early in July, Department of Veterans Affairs inspectors produced a 35-page analysis of the private-care alternative Congress created in 2014 to help alleviate the enormous backlog of veterans seeking health care through the VA.
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6.17 - WJHL-TV (CBS-11): VA employees to get promotions back after administration mistake (6 August, Allie Hinds, 272k online visitors/mo; Johnson City, TN)
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The Veteran’s Affairs secretary asked VA leaders to be more available to the media, so Thursday the Mountain Home VA invited us to come and ask questions. We had a long list of questions for the leaders, one was on an issue we first told you about last month. Some VA employees’ promotions were taken away because of what the VA called an administration mistake in the promotions process.
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6.18 - Federal Times: Stephen Warren resigns from VA post (6 August, Amber Corrin, 226k online visitors/mo; Springfield, VA) After more than two years in a dual role as CIO and principal deputy assistant secretary for IT at the Veterans Affairs Department, Stephen Warren will step down as of Aug. 28, according to an internal VA e-mail announcing the news. Warren's departure comes one month after industry IT veteran LaVerne Council was sworn in as VA CIO and assistant secretary for information and technology.
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6.19 - Federal Computer Week: Deputy CIO Warren exits VA (6 August, Adam Mazmanian, 117k online visitors/mo; Vienna, VA) Stephen Warren, the career senior executive who led IT at the Department of Veterans Affairs over a rocky two-year period, will leave VA on Aug. 28 to take the CIO post at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Warren's exit comes on the heels of LaVerne Council, a former top private sector CIO, taking the reins at the Office of Information and Technology at VA.
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6.20 - Alaska Public Media: Choice Improvement Act helps close VA funding gap (6 August, Zachariah Hughes, 65k online visitors/mo; Anchorage, AK) A move by the Obama Administration has freed up money in Alaska to close a funding gap in healthcare for veterans. But officials in Alaska say it isn’t a silver bullet for difficulties vets have faced the last few months connecting with care. The Choice Improvement Act signed by the President July 31st lets Alaska shift about $20 million between programs in order to restore services that have slowed in recent months.
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6.21 - FierceGovernmentIT: VA to have comprehensive cybersecurity plan by month's end, says official (6 August, Molly Bernhart Walker, 43k online visitors/mo; Washington, DC) A major push at the Veterans Affairs Department's Office of Information & Technology will result in an enterprise-wide cybersecurity plan by the end of August, said Dr. Paul Tibbits, deputy chief information officer for architecture, strategy and design at VA OI&T at a conference last week. VA's spokesman for the chief information officer Mark Farrell confirmed that, after only one month as VA's chief information officer, LaVerne Council formed an Enterprise Cybersecurity Strategy Team, or ECST.
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6.22 - Daytona Times: American veterans deserve better treatment (6 August, Harry C. Alford, 24k online visitors/mo; Tampa, FL)
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My mentor, the late Arthur A. Fletcher, said this: “If your life becomes so miserable that you want to commit suicide, just check into a VA hospital. It won’t take long.” Art told me that 15 years ago. Today, the status of Veterans Administration hospitals has gotten even worse. No matter how many news articles detail the bevy of scandals, Congressional hearings and Inspector General reports, it just keeps getting worse.
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6.23 - Victor Post: VA probes link between suicide, sleep, The Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence is working on solving sleep problems to reduce suicide among veterans (6 August, Julie Sherwood, 16k online visitors/mo; Canandaigua, NY) New research shows that the suicide rate for female veterans is nearly six times the rate for other women, and their suicide rate is so high it approaches that of male vets. “It is alarming,” said Dr. Jan Kemp, associate director for the Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, at Wednesday’s Community Council meeting at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center.
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6.24 - The Southeast Sun: Roby VA hospital reform bill passes (6 August, Ryan McCollough, 7.9k online visitors/mo; Enterprise, AL) Veterans needing health services could see improved facilities and updated technology at local hospitals if Rep. Martha Roby (R-Alabama) gets her wish. Roby’s new legislation, which was passed by the House after being introduced July 28, calls for top Department of Veterans Affairs officials to take over failing VA medical centers in order to bring the hospitals up to par.
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1. Access to Benefits/Care
1.1 - San Francisco Chronicle (AP): Assisted living center at Topeka's VA campus to open in fall (6 August, 9.5M online visitors/mo; San Francisco, CA)
The Veterans Administration plans to open an assisted living center on its Topeka campus for veterans with mild dementia.
The building on the Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center campus is expected to open this fall, The Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/1IlF8ZS ) reported. The building will offer 12 private rooms with their own bathrooms, plus amenities such as a social area, kitchen, dining area and outdoor courtyard.
Veterans Administration officials say the 17,700-square-foot building costs about $8.8 million to design and build. Work started in October 2012, but was slowed when workers found a buried wall and other surprises not in the 1950s blueprints of the site, said John Keys, assistant chief of engineering for the VA in Topeka.
Colleen Grinage, nurse manager for the Topeka VA's community living centers, said the facility is designed for veterans with cognitive impairment or mild dementia. She said residents will be encouraged to do as much as possible for themselves, with supervision to ensure they are safe.
"We focus on what the veterans can do, not what they can't do," she said. "If the residents are able to do their laundry with just some setup and prompting, they can do that."
Each room has a display case outside for residents' personal belongings, such as old childhood photos. Those suffering from Alzheimer's disease often become confused about recent events, but clearly remember things that happened during their younger years. Grinage said that while residents may not remember a room number, an old photo or keepsake could help them find their rooms.
Geriatric psychiatrist Maritza Buenaver adds that other therapies besides medication for residents can help address agitation and other symptoms, such as music, aromatherapy and using a whirlpool tub.
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1.2 - San Francisco Chronicle (AP): Charleston VA center serving hundreds of new patients (6 August, 9.5M online visitors/mo; San Francisco, CA)
The Charleston VA Medical Center is expecting a record 10 percent growth for the fiscal year that winds up at the end of next month.
Director Scott Isaacks told local media outlets Wednesday that each week between 150 and 200 veterans are enrolling as new patients at the Ralph Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
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Isaacks said the center has recruited 270 additional staff to respond to the growth. The medical center system has about 2,300 workers.
Last December, the center opened a new $10 million mental health research center.
The VA medical center provides primary and mental health care for more than 63,000 veterans along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts.
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1.3 - Military.com: American Legion Conducting New Survey on Veterans' PTSD, TBI Care (6 August, Bryant Jordan, 5.8M online visitors/mo; San Francisco, CA)
The American Legion is conducting a new national survey of veterans and their families to assess the care they are receiving from the Veterans Affairs Department for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Louis Celli, director of Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation for The American Legion, said the findings will provide the Legion's PTSD/TBI Committee with an understanding of veteran satisfaction with VA mental health care in time for the organization's national symposium on the issue later this year in Washington, DC.
"Veterans [will be] asked to identify treatment programs they are using and to rate quality, access and timeliness of care," Celli said.
The 59-question survey is the Legion's second dealing with TBI and PTSD. Last June its survey of 3,100 veterans found that 59 percent of respondents reported feeling no improvement or feeling worse after undergoing TBI and PTSD treatment.
It also found that 30 percent of respondents ended their treatment before it was completed.
"The last survey was definitely impactful and was referenced several times by Congress while introducing new legislation to improve PTSD programs," Celli said on Wednesday.
Celli also said that the Legion's 2014 findings that treatments were often ineffective are validated by a newly released study by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The Legion's new survey, which may be accessed by veterans and their families through Aug. 16, are mostly multiple-choice and can be answered with a single click from a drop down menu.
"The survey focuses on veteran satisfaction and levels of perceived benefits with VA's PTSD/TBI programs, including alternative and complementary treatments," Celli said. All information obtained through it will remain confidential and used solely to better understand VA performance in PTSD and TBI care, he said.
No respondents' personal information will be used.
The survey questions include veteran status, gender, era of service, number of times deployed, diagnosis of TBI, PTSD and both, availability of appointments, time and distance to care
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 13 7 August 2015
facilities, treatment type (therapy, medication and complementary and alternative medicine), reported symptoms, efficacy of treatment and side effects.
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1.4 - Stars and Stripes: McCain bill would let all veterans seek care outside VA (6 August, Heath Druzin, 1.2M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)
Just before Congress leaves town for a month, Sen. John McCain introduced a bill Thursday that could increase the controversy over how to fix the Department of Veterans Affairs, proposing that all veterans be eligible to have private care paid for by their VA insurance.
Currently, veterans who live more than 40 miles from a VA facility and those who face long wait times can apply to seek medical care in the private sector on their VA insurance. That was part of the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014, a three-year pilot program that McCain, R-Ariz., championed as a way to give veterans faster, more convenient access to health care and to make it easier to fire senior VA officials.
McCain’s latest bill would make the choice card pilot program permanent and erase the qualifications in the 2014 law, opening the option to every VA eligible veteran.
“This would help remove uncertainty from within the VA, among providers, and especially among our veterans, while sending a strong signal to all Americans that this program is here to stay,” McCain said in a released statement. “More than a year after the VA scandal first came to light and a year since VA reform legislation was signed into law, wait times are still too long and veterans are still not getting the care they have earned and deserve.”
Veterans groups seemed caught off guard by the bill Thursday, and many contacted by Stripes said they had not yet taken a position on the proposed legislation. In the past, most veterans advocates have come out strongly against privatizing VA health care, and this bill appears to put much more emphasis on paying for private health care for veterans.
There was some early pushback on McCain’s new bill, including from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, who said existing legislation has achieved the goal of simplifying veterans’ choice in their health care.
Sherman Gillums Jr., deputy executive director of Paralyzed Veterans of America, took a cautious approach, saying that many veterans with catastrophic injuries find that VA treatment centers offer the best — and in some cases, the only — care options.
"We support the bill's intent," he said. "But if it requires VA to erode its infrastructure or rob Peter to pay Paul to fund permanent Choice Care, we won't support it."
The Veterans Independence Act, an idea presented earlier this year by conservative veterans group Concerned Veterans for America, has many similarities to McCain’s bill, and McCain was one of the keynote speakers at the group’s rollout of the plan.
But the group was critical of McCain’s plan, saying it does not go far enough. While applauding McCain’s earlier efforts to get the original choice act passed, the Concerned Veterans for
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 14 7 August 2015
America’s legislative and political director, Dan Caldwell, said this latest choice bill still puts too much control in the hands of VA.
“Simply making the (choice) program permanent will not overcome bureaucratic resistance, and thus meaningful, long-term reform, such as the Veterans Independence Act, is necessary,” he said in an email to Stars and Stripes.
VA spokeswoman Walinda West said the VA was looking forward to reviewing the legislation, adding: “It would, however, be premature to take a definitive position until we have had the opportunity to thoroughly review the bill.”
Secretary Bob McDonald has spoken out against aggressive efforts to take veterans’ health care out of the public sphere.
“We are not in favor of privatizing the VA,” McDonald said at a talk Thursday.
The VA is still in the midst of a scandal that began more than one year ago after whistleblowers revealed nationwide problems in patient care as well as malfeasance, including secret wait lists created to manipulate performance data and retaliation against employees who reported misconduct.
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1.5 - KTAR-FM (FM-92.3): Phoenix VA office busy with home loans (6 August, Bob McClay, 1M online visitors/mo; Phoenix, AZ)
The Veteran’s Administration office in Phoenix is apparently keeping busy with veterans wanting a home loan.
The Phoenix Regional VA Office processes home loans for veterans, and a lot of the vets are taking advantage of them.
“As of this point in the fiscal year, we’ve guaranteed almost 93,000 home loans for veterans in Arizona,” said Duane Honeycutt, the Interim Director of the Phoenix Regional VA Office.
And, he says, his office is doing more than that. “We’ve also helped 5,875 veterans avoid foreclosure,” Honeycutt said.
He added that the Home Loan program for veterans is something that you don’t hear too much about.
“It’s sort of news that goes under the radar, but it’s a very important part of our business,” said Honeycutt. “I can tell as a veteran myself that I’ve used the VA home loan, and it’s made a huge difference in my life and the life of my family.”
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Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 15 7 August 2015
1.6 - The Sun Herald: Biloxi National Cemetery could need more room, The grounds will run out of room for caskets in six years. (6 August, Regina Zilbermints, 984k online visitors/mo; Gulfport, MS)
If current trends continue, the Biloxi National Cemetery will run out of room for caskets in about six years.
There is room for 25-30 years of cremated remains.
And on the Biloxi Veterans Administration campus, there's not much room to grow, officials said.
While the National Cemetery Administration is actively working to provide access to more veterans, there are no plans in place to either expand the existing cemetery in Biloxi or designate a plot of land elsewhere on the Coast for burial.
Cemetery Director Graham Wright would like to change that.
"Right now, we're not slated for expansion," he said. "It is something I've talked with our leadership about. I continue to talk to leadership about it."
He said he makes a strong argument for expansion, "every day."
The Biloxi National Cemetery opened in 1934 for veterans who died at the adjoining medical center. In 1973, it was opened to all honorably discharged veterans, their spouses and dependents and soldiers who died on active duty.
The 54-acre cemetery holds the remains of almost 20,000 military members or veterans and their families.
Nationwide, there are 132 national cemeteries and 33 soldier's lots and monument sites. They hold the remains of more than 4 million people.
"Currently, the National Cemetery Administration is undergoing one of the largest expansions it has had in recent history," Wright said.
After it is completed, 96 percent of veterans will have burial options within 75 miles of their home.
The National Cemetery Administration is also instituting a new program - the Dignified Burial Act of 2012, which came to fruition just a few months ago.
The initiative will pay for or reimburse funeral expenses for an unclaimed veteran, or a veteran who died with no family and without enough savings to pay for a funeral.
"It's an important program meant to defray costs for organizations and individuals who provide these veterans a dignified burial in a VA National Cemetery," Wright said.
Those organizations or individuals can get money for a casket or urn, the cost of transportation and an allowance for other expenses.
Wright said the cemetery staff would continue to work to meet the needs of those it serves.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 16 7 August 2015
"We look forward to the opportunity to serve that family and honor that family for the service that veteran gave to the country," he said.
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1.7 - Military Times: VA may pay disability for some illnesses linked to Lejeune (6 August, Patricia Kime, 606k online visitors/mo; Springfield, VA)
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Aug. 2 it will begin a process that may allow some veterans to receive disability pay if they were sickened by drinking contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
The VA has provided health care or reimbursement for medical costs for veterans or family members with 15 illnesses related to exposure to water contaminated by solvents and fuels, but it has not given "presumptive status" — meaning they are considered service-related and thereby eligible for disability compensation — to any condition.
The recent announcement may provide an opportunity for veterans to receive disability payments if they have one of three illnesses — kidney cancer, angiosarcoma of the liver and acute myelogenous leukemia — and served at Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987.
More than 750,000 people, including troops, family members and civilian employees, may have been exposed to volatile organic compounds and other chemicals like benzene and vinyl chloride found in the drinking water at the coastal Marine Corps base.
The Corps first publicly acknowledged a portion of the problem when it notified residents in an enlisted housing area in 1985 that trace amounts of contaminants had been found in their water and the affected wells were closed. The Corps blamed the problem on illegal dumping by an off- base dry cleaner.
But the pollution was far more extensive and encompassed two major water treatment facilities that served the base and its housing areas for more than three decades. Water tests dating to 1980 but never released to residents or the public indicated high levels of chemicals related to industrial spills, poor disposal practices and leaking underground storage tanks, in addition to the dry cleaning compounds.
Some veterans already receive disability payments for their service-related exposure at Camp Lejeune, but the new regulation would make approval automatic for those with one of the three named illnesses.
Congress in 2012 passed a law requiring VA to provide health care for affected veterans and cover out-of-pocket costs for family members with health conditions related to the toxic water.
Richard Burr, R-N.C., has pressured the VA for years to grant health care and presumptive status to ailing veterans. He expressed disappointment on Aug. 2 that continued pressure on VA and congressional action ultimately were required to "do the right thing for our veterans."
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 17 7 August 2015
"The scientific research is strong and the widespread denials of benefits will soon end. Now these veterans and their family members will not have to fight for benefits they are due," Burr said.
According to a VA news release, the department will work with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to create a definitive list of service-connected diseases related to exposure, and it will continue to evaluate potential service connection for other illnesses.
Among the diseases for which VA currently offers health care or reimburses family members are cancers like breast, lung, esophageal and bladder cancer, kidney and liver problems, infertility, miscarriage, and birth defects.
Veterans with health problems they believe are related to exposure to the water at Camp Lejeune may file a claim for disability compensation online at www.ebenefits.va.gov, or call 800–827–1000 for assistance, according to VA.
Those who need help getting health care for their conditions can contact their nearest VA facility or call 877-222-8387. VA also has a website dedicated to the issue.
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1.8 - WCYB-TV (NBC-5): VA talks about improvements to Mountain Home Medical Center (6 August, Kristi O’Connor, 492k online visitors/mo; Bristol, VA)
U.S Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert McDonald, wanted officials of VA medical centers across the nation to meet with the media this week. The meetings would focus on the state of veteran's health facilities and how officials are working to improve them.
Thursday, News 5 met with the VA Leadership Team of the Mountain Home VA Medical Center in Johnson City. The leaders talked about a number of topics, including the expansion of the Emergency Department.
Mountain Home is in the process of working on a 2500 square ft. expansion to the ER. Officials say at Mountain Home, they have enough staff to take care of people coming in to the ER. What they do not have is enough space or beds.
The expansion will include remodeling the entire ER. As well as the addition of six monitored beds for critical patients and several more exam rooms for non-critical patients. Officials say that quarters will not be as tight for patients and their families
"What we try to create here for our veterans and our families is an environment that they are comfortable in and we are able to expand the space where the patients are provided care," Associate Director for Patient Care and Nursing Services said.
The VA leaders say they are also analyzing the workflow of nurses and physicians within the ER so they can be more efficient.
Another issue the leaders talked about was bettering veteran's access to care by making staffing changes.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 18 7 August 2015
They say in the east Tennessee VA healthcare system there are more than 2,000 nurses, doctors and healthcare personnel working within the VA. That number has increased by 100 employees, compared to last year at this time. Now, they are relocating some employees to clinics that need more manpower.
"Veteran population is growing in terms of needed access in the western area like Knoxville. But it's been relatively flat here so what we're tasked to do through using our budget is allocate people effectively," Chief of Staff Dr. David Hecht said.
To do that they need to expand care at other branches in the network so veterans who live far away don't have to travel as far for care.
They are also improving patient access through technology called telehealth. They've been using types of it since the 1990s, but soon they will have a new program they're calling the Tele- ICU.
Attending physicians at Mountain Home can monitor up to 17 patients in the ICU at one time. With telehealth, cameras installed in the rooms will feed live video to the Cinncinati VA, so another set of eyes can be watching the veteran. They will have access to the patient's vitals, charts and nearly everything an in-person doctor can do just without touching the patient.
"They have a critical care specialist there as well as a critical nursing, and they will coordinate with our care here so that there is always an attending physician and critical care nurse monitoring those beds at all times," Hecht said.
They are also using telehealth for regular doctor's appointments. Veterans can see their doctor through video chat called clinical video teleconferencing. Doctors can listen to a patient's heart, lungs or anything they would hear through a stethoscope.
One last issue was discussed today: the prescription of opioid narcotics.
Officials say Tennessee is the number one state in the U.S to prescribe and abuse the pain killer. Within the state, East Tennessee is the number one area for prescriptions and abuse of the drug.
The team is trying reduce the use of the drug by offering other forms of therapy like interventional support, pain clinician care, mental health care and other non-narcotic therapeutics
Officials say cutting off the use of the pain killer altogether is not a solution, but they are trying to reduce how much it is used.
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1.9 - NextGov: VA Secretary: We Need To Simplify Website For Veterans (6 August, Mohana Ravindranath, 483k online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 19 7 August 2015
The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to make its online services easier for veterans to navigate, VA Secretary Robert McDonald said Thursday during an event hosted by Politico.
"If I went to a veteran and said, 'What's Blue Button?' they would have no idea," he said, referring to the service that lets veterans download their electronic medical records. "Our websites have unusual names," he said, referring to MyHealtheVet, which has access portals for health records, prescriptions and other services.
"What's wrong with 'veterans.gov,' or 'vets.gov'?" he asked, adding, "let's look at everything from the lens of the customer" instead of the bureaucracy.
McDonald also addressed VA's upcoming update to its outdated medical appointment scheduling system, which led to delayed care for veterans in reports surfacing last year.
"We've taken a two-track approach -- one track is to put in fixes to our current system knowing that's not the solution," he said, though "it's the fastest approach."
Separately, he said, VA is looking for an off-the-shelf scheduling system and plans to begin deploying it by 2016. The department currently has a smartphone app for scheduling appointments, he added.
"Just like we need to make things simpler for veterans, we have to make things simpler for our employees," McDonald said.
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1.10 - KJZZ-FM (NPR-91.5, Audio): Vietnam Veterans Still Struggling With PTSD Decades After War (6 August, Jimmy Jenkins, 427k online visitors/mo; Phoenix, AZ)
The Vietnam War ended decades years ago. Veterans from that conflict are now in their 50s and 60s, and are starting to retire. And with retirement, for some, there’s a troubling realization that they have deep wounds from the war that have never healed.
New research shows that hundreds of thousands of Vietnam vets are still suffering from the traumatic after effects of war.
It took Chuck Byers almost 40 years before he was able to think about his service in Vietnam. There was one day in particular that he tried to forget.
“A lot of heavy fire that day — it was a bad day — June 1, 1968,” Byers said, recounting the memories at his home in Gilbert, Arizona.
Byers was a combat medic known by the call sign "Big Band-Aid."
Looking at photos of himself from decades ago, he tells the story. He had 23 days left before he could go home when he got a call saying his unit was under attack. He and a fellow medic flew to the combat area and they started patching up the wounded men.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 20 7 August 2015
Byers was performing a tracheotomy, in the middle of a fierce firefight, when he was struck by enemy fire.
“And just as I inserted the tube, I got hit,” Byers said. “I took an AK-47 in my arm and in my gut.”
He was taken to a field hospital and stitched back together. But his fellow medic was killed during the combat. Byers wondered why was he the lucky one. He questioned why had he survived while his friend had died.
“And so I carried that guilt — for a long, long time,” Byers said.
When he came back to the states, he was only 22 years old. He didn’t have any time to comprehend what he’d gone through, and the war he’d served in was very unpopular. So he put his uniform away in a drawer and tried to forget.
“But it came back and it kept biting me — it kept biting me over and over,” he said. “It bit me in relationships, it bit me in my jobs.”
By his own count, he had more than 20 jobs over the course of the next 35 years.
“Every time that I was doing really well, I’d sabotage myself, and I couldn’t understand why,” Byers said.
But it took Byers several decades to seek out an answer.
Unfortunately, he’s not alone. New findings from the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study estimate more than 200,000 Vietnam Veterans like Byers are still suffering from trauma, now known as post-traumatic stress disorder.
There was no such diagnosis in the late 1960s when Byers returned. But now, for many older vets, it’s all coming back, the trauma remains.
Dr. Kerri Salamanca, a clinical psychologist at the Phoenix VA, said veterans like Byers are seeking help as they age.
“Their symptoms are skyrocketing,” Salamanca said. “Work has historically been one of the ways they coped and functioned — just pushing it out of their head — keeping busy, busy, busy.”
She said the very nature of military training has kept many veterans from seeking help.
“They’re taught really good skills to be soldiers and marines and airmen to just lock all that stuff down and put it away and, you know, soldier through,” Salamanca said. “That skill keeps them from seeking care and keeps them from healing.”
Her caseload is full of Vietnam veterans like Byers that now, finally, have the time to reflect on their lives. Others come to the VA because they have no choice but to get treatment.
“That’s what we see with the PTSD,” Salamanca said. “When it gets to the point when they can no longer function, they come in for care. That’s unfortunate because if they came in sooner, we could help them get better before it becomes dysfunctional in their life.”
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 21 7 August 2015
So as a new batch of veterans like Evan Phillips return from today’s wars, the VA is trying to get them to seek help right away.
“I definitely wouldn’t be the person I am today without the help I received from that therapist,” Phillips said.
Phillips is an intelligence analyst, now serving in the Air Force reserves. For four years, he served as an active-duty airman and he spent a year in Afghanistan.
His team flew 20,000 feet above the battlefield in a small plane providing logistics for ground forces. The trauma he experienced came from watching the horrors of war from afar — and from one specific incident that changed his life.
“We were flying a typical night mission and encountered a pretty significant storm and fell about 10,000 feet — it was probably 20 seconds of, essentially, free fall," said Phillips.
He said the experience was terrifying. Phillips’ plane landed safely, but another surveillance plane crashed shortly after. Like Byers, Phillips suffered from survivor’s guilt and the trauma of his own near death experience.
At the encouragement of the Air Force, Phillips sought counseling soon after. He learned breathing techniques that allowed him to get back on an airplane. Dealing with his fears up front is a lesson he believes will benefit him in life beyond war.
“It’s essentially the idea that these traumas that military members experience can be beneficial and can bounce people to a better life," Phillips said.
Maybe not for all veterans — but for some — what’s known as "post-traumatic growth," can finally make healing a real possibility.
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1.11 - WTVM-TV (ABC-9): Vietnam Vet beats PTSD, helps others at Dublin VA (6 August, Dave Miller, 411k online visitors/mo; Columbus, GA)
Florida native Gus Allbritton was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1969, and Uncle Sam shipped him out to Southeast Asia, where the Vietnam war was raging.
“I was scared to death!” Allbritton laughed during a recent interview. “I didn’t know where Vietnam was or what to expect, I just knew that the Army told me to go and I went.”
Allbritton served in the Army until 1971, and along the way, received three Purple Hearts, a Combat Infantry Badge, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, and a National defense Ribbon.
He returned to Florida, and tried to put the war behind him. He became a deputy sheriff and court bailiff, a bail bondsman and bounty hunter, and even earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 22 7 August 2015
Be he carried emotional baggage from his combat experiences in Vietnam, and realized they couldn’t be ignored forever.
“A lot of times I couldn’t sleep. Memories would come flooding in and I would find myself reliving things that I had never wanted to think about again. I wanted to get back to the business of living a regular life, but I was having trouble doing it,” Allbritton said.
Then he did something that he never thought he would-- he went to the VA.
“I didn’t know much about the VA but what I knew wasn’t good. I heard all of the horror stories and decided right out of the service that I didn’t want to go to the VA for help.”
What Allbritton did not know at the time was that he was suffering with something that was not going to go away and that was adversely affecting his efforts to resume civilian life. It was only after visiting the VA that he learned about post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
“I had heard of shellshock and knew a little about what it meant,” Allbritton said, “but I didn’t really understand the extent of what the condition could do to a person’s life. I had never heard of PTSD or what the VA could do to help but I finally went to my local VA and found out about it, which was one of the smartest decisions I ever made. It saved my life.”
After going to the VA and getting counseling and attending classes that taught coping skills and educated him about PTSD, Allbritton went from barely making it through the day in some cases to getting back into the social mainstream. Before he realized it, he was interacting with the VA in ways that he could never have imagined.
“I went from being reluctant to being treated at the VA to joining the team as a volunteer. If someone had told me when I got back from Vietnam that I would spend a large part of my life volunteering with the VA, I might have said something crude and would have at least told them that they were greatly mistaken,” Allbritton says with a smile. “Man, was I wrong.
Allbritton started volunteering with the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin in 1991 after then-medical center director Bill Edgar asked him to assist in finding other veterans needing help with PTSD.
He joined the Combat Veterans Group, a PTSD support group, and has never looked back. “I started volunteering with the VA because I realized that it could do for my fellow veterans what it had done for me and I wanted to be a part of helping them realize what was available to them. For me, it was a way of continuing to serve,” Allbritton said.
Allbritton serves on 17 committees and work groups, and is often sought out by VA management and staff for his opinion about how the VA is doing and how it can do better. He currently has over 20,000 hours as a volunteer with VA.
It has been a long time since the young Army veteran left Vietnam and combat behind to try to get back to the business of living only to encounter difficulties that he could not have anticipated, but the way Allbritton sees it, things could not have worked out better.
“I came back looking for one life and ended up finding another. Volunteering has become a way of life for me. If I’m not volunteering with VA, I’m working with my church. I see volunteering as a
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 23 7 August 2015
ministry for me. Not only does volunteering with VA allow me to give back to my fellow veterans, it helps me to feel like I’m still serving my country,” Allbritton said.
“Service is my life, and what I do at VA allows me to serve my country, my community, and my fellow veterans. Looking back on my time in Vietnam, I now see very clearly what I was fighting for. I ended up having a good life after all.”
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1.12 - WNYP-TV (FOX-28, Video): New VA Clinic In Massena Mall Wows Veterans (6 August, 290k online visitors/mo; Watertown, NY)
Some 2,000 veterans will go to see the doctor at the new VA clinic in the St. Lawrence Centre Mall in Massena.
So far, their major concern is getting lost inside.
"I was stunned, the number of rooms here and the help they're going to have," said Joe Cosentino, World War II vet from Ogdensburg.
The clinic at the mall replaces the former one at Massena Memorial Hospital.
Some of the former staff came along.
"Some of them made the transition from Massena Memorial Hospital, working here. So there is a continuity of care," said Richard Kazel, of the Syracuse VA Medical Center.
Along with a new clinic is a new operator, Onsite OHS, which operates 50 medical facilities in three countries.
Its president is a war veteran, himself.
"So, we will take good care of the veterans. I have a personal stake in it," said Kyle Johnson, president of Onsite OHS.
A tour shows a labyrinth of hallways and offices which include the latest in telemedicine.
"There's all sorts of medical devices that are plugged into the computer that they can look into your eyes and ears and things to that effect from Syracuse," said Johnson.
One other thing the clinic has going for it is its access right next to a major highway.
And veterans had no trouble finding their way to this open house.
"Impressive. This place is huge," said Don O'Shea, an Ogdensburg veteran.
"I think it's going to be a big help to the veterans," said Richard Vinet, a veteran.
The clinic has been open since July 1.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 24 7 August 2015
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1.13 - WKMG-TV (CBS-6, Video): Veteran's claim denied again by VA, Veteran still denied after death, despite presumptive service connection announcement (6 August, Tara Evans, 225k online visitors/mo; Orlando, FL)
Three days after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced several Camp Lejeune- related illnesses a presumptive service connection, a local veteran who died from kidney cancer was denied by the VA again for the third time.
Tonight, Donald Burpee's wife said she is devastated after getting another denial letter she didn't expect to get, after finding out the VA said kidney cancer was going to be made a presumptive service connection.
Being classified as a presumptive service connection means as long as veterans meet eligibility requirements, they are approved for benefits.
Burpee and her husband fought the VA for months after he was diagnosed with kidney cancer they said was caused by the toxic drinking water at Camp Lejeune.
Local 6 helped get him a hearing before a judge back in May, and Donald Burpee was awaiting the judge's final ruling on his appeal when he died in July.
In the ruling, the VA heavily on the opinion of Dr. Deborah Heaney. She's what the VA calls a subject matter expert.
Heaney stated Burpee's cancer is more likely because of other factors, like obesity and smoking, than his exposure to toxic chemicals.
But three days ago, the VA made the presumptive service connection announcement saying, in part: "The diseases that are currently being reviewed for potential presumptive service connection include kidney cancer, angiosarcoma of the liver, and acute myelogenous leukemia, which are known to be related to long-term exposure to the chemicals that were in the water at Lejeune from the 1950s through 1987."
Burpee said it doesn't make any sense.
"I am so hurt that the denial was again given for my husband, Don, but it is typical with the VA and their system," said Burpee. "With all the issues with the Camp Lejeune water contamination being at the forefront, and my husband's case bringing out how the VA continually denies these cases for the Marines, to have this denial by a judge again is like a stab in the back. They poisoned these Marines and yet they want the blame to be anywhere but on the VA and the Marine Corps. I'm just heartbroken."
Camp Lejeune veterans advocate Mike Partain said there is information missing from the denial. He said a March 2015 Institute of Medicine report that was commissioned by the VA indicates veterans with kidney cancer who were on base should be given the benefit of the doubt. But that report isn’t mentioned in Burpee’s denial at all.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 25 7 August 2015
“It makes no sense whatsoever,” said Partain. “It’s an insult to the veterans in our country and someone needs to be held accountable.”
The VA said it was meeting on August 19th to discuss the presumptive service connection with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, so it is not yet a done deal.
The granting of presumptive service connection for certain conditions can still happen, and Burpee is hoping then -- Don's case will finally be approved.
Local 6 has emailed the VA for answers on Donald Burpee's denial, but so far, has not heard back.
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1.14 - Kingsport Times-News: New improvements on tap for Mountain Home VA (6 August, Nick Shepherd, 126k online visitors/mo; Kingsport, TN)
A number of improvements will be coming to the Veteran's Administration at Mountain Home over the next year, including a new parking garage, a tele-Intensive Care Unit and an expansion of the Emergency Department.
The changes were announced to media members at a media roundtable on Thursday. The expansion of the Emergency Department should help improve access for veterans in emergency situations.
"We have two big problems, one is the amount of beds that are full in the hospital," said Dr. David Hecht, Chief of Staff at the VA. "We also have the ER saturation, which is too many people coming into the emergency room that we can handle at one time with the amount of space."
The expansion will add six additional beds and more, larger exam rooms. The design will also allow health care workers in the emergency room to become more efficient, said Linda McConnell, Associated Director for Patient Care/Nursing Services.
Mountain Home will start construction on a five level, 551 space parking garage at the beginning of fiscal year 2016. It will be located behind Building 160. While construction is ongoing, 161 parking spaces will be temporarily displaced. To counter the loss of parking spaces, Mountain Home is planning for alternate parking plans that may include a temporary gravel lot or shuttle buses.
Another interesting project that will be implemented over the next year is a tele-ICU.
"It's an opportunity for us to monitor patients with the help of telemedicine using professionals at the Cincinnati VA," said Dr. Colleen Noe, Deputy Chief of Staff. "It's a really exciting opportunity for Mountain Home to be involved in this."
The tele-ICU is part of a redesign of Mountain Home's ICU. The tele-ICU will allow physicians in Cincinnati to monitor in real-time critical patients around the clock. Hecht said the program
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 26 7 August 2015
allows a physician to always be in the room with a patient and will allow physicians to catch irregularities much quicker.
Work is expect to being on a new ICU in Nonmember 2016.
Telemedicine is being used more and more at Mountain Home. The VA's coverage area stretches from Bristol through Southwest Virginia and on past Knoxville to Campbell County. Before, all veterans would have to travel to the VA in Johnson City for some care.
Now with telemedicine, veterans can travel to their local VA clinic and have wound exams or eye exams completed via telemedicine. Operators can even listen to heartbeats or lung sounds via an electronic stethoscope.
Last year, Mountain Home conducted more than 10,000 tele-health encounters.
Mountain Home also recently completed a new Oncology center as well. The new area has 18 treatment stations for chemotherapy patients. Those stations have privacy dividers, patient lockers, chairs with heating and massaging and personal televisions.
The need to expand the number of treatment stations has increased over the past few years as the need for oncology services has gone up. Mountain Home is still trying to work through some challenges, such as the long waiting list for optometry and audiology and implementing the Veteran's Choice Act, which allows the VA to send patients out to community care facilities.
Even though the VA will be very busy for the next year, they are still concentrating on what's most important, their patients.
"Productivity and the number of veterans we've seen internally has gone up," Hecht said. "We have worked diligently across all services to bring in more veterans to use the VA facilities."
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1.15 - Healio: VA launches two programs to help veterans transition from service (6 August, 119k online visitors/mo; Thorofare, NJ)
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has launched two no-cost training programs designed to help service members and veterans learn skills, earn credentials and advance in civilian careers following separation from service.
“My message to transitioning service members is simple: Plan early and stay engaged,” Robert McDonald, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), stated in the release. “These resources provide no-cost opportunities to learn skills and earn credentials, which can increase competitiveness during transition.”
The Accelerated Learning Programs (ALPs) offer cybersecurity training, network support engineer training and information technology help desk training. They also offer courses in hardware, software, networking, coding, programming and Web services. Each course includes free referral and support services.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 27 7 August 2015
The VA is also lunching “Learning Hubs” in 27 cities in partnership with the American Red Cross, The Mission Continues and Coursera – an online education platform. Online modules will be completed remotely, while class sessions are held in-person. Upon completion, members are eligible to receive one free verified certificate issued by Coursera.
The ALPs are a part of the VA’s Veterans Economic Communities Initiative, which promote education and employment opportunities for U.S. veterans.
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1.16 - The Register-Herald: Greenbrier veterans still waiting for new clinic (7 August, Tina Alvey, 92k online visitors/mo; Beckley, WV)
Promises and explanations were plentiful at a 90-minute "town hall" meeting staged at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine's Roland P. Sharp Alumni Center by the Beckley Veterans Affairs Medical Center Thursday evening.
Facing an occasionally surly audience of more than 60 veterans, family members and former clinic personnel, Beckley VAMC director Karin McGraw and associate director Allen Moye reviewed the history of the now-closed Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) in Maxwelton and outlined the steps being taken to find a new home for the facility.
"We're going to try to do this as quickly as possible," McGraw said, cautioning that the legal process under which a new site is selected and renovated to suit VA standards will be lengthy.
Pressed for an estimate of how much longer Greenbrier Valley veterans will be without a local clinic, Moye responded, "Realistically, my best guess is six months to 12 months."
Asked why the mobile clinic that was recently supplanted by a new facility in the Bluefield/Princeton area hasn't been moved here, Moye said its tryout in Mercer County proved "it didn't work." He said there were numerous issues with the cramped space of the mobile unit, including a lack of a waiting room and adequate rest room facilities to enable staff to obtain urine samples from patients. Patient privacy was imperiled at every turn, he said.
One of the most vocal people in the crowd at the Alumni Center protested, "Bob McDonald said he would reopen the CBOC."
McDonald, secretary of Veterans Affairs, indeed said last month, "We have to reopen it," and McGraw acknowledged that his intervention did "fast-track" the process. But, she added, the law still must be followed in vetting possible sites, contracting out any construction and running everything past legal counsel for approval.
Moye said he has "pulled (a) team together," and they will look at several potential sites for the clinic's relocation next week. He said time and care must be taken in evaluating the sites because "we never want to do this again," emphasizing that this site must meet every criterion, from square footage (at least 5,000) and on-site parking spaces (at least 40) to handicap accessibility and a long-term lease.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 28 7 August 2015
Moye noted that funds for this project have already be set aside, repeating McGraw's assurance, "This is fast-tracked."
Veteran Jim Creasman was not mollified by those words, however, insisting, "You all have not been forthright with us at all." He said the information flow is so inadequate, "Your own staff are treated like a bunch of red-headed stepchildren."
McGraw countered that she hasn't been receiving much concrete information either. "I was just as frustrated as you all were," she said.
Others in the audience aired frustration at having to travel to Beckley for medical care. Dr. Charles Weinstein, a 90-year-old veteran, reported that he had totaled his vehicle this past winter trying to get to the Beckley VAMC, while another vet told of his difficulty in operating a vehicle while under the influence of medications.
Weinstein identified himself as a former VA physician. An advocate of telemedicine — using technology to connect doctor and patient across distance — Weinstein said, "It works. It doesn't take much money." Furthermore, he said, "The equipment is here."
Former clinic staffers and a few veterans expressed concern that the VA hasn't followed up with them regarding the dangers of the fumes to which they presumably were exposed in the Maxwelton CBOC. That facility was closed upon the recommendation of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) after tests showed formaldehyde levels that were one one-thousandth part per billion higher than NIOSH's allowable standard.
One person said, "I hope it's not a political cover-up," a possibility that both McGraw and Moye dismissed.
McGraw said she was not aware that there had been no follow-up with employees and patients who suffered ill effects from the air quality in the Maxwelton CBOC, but she would see to it that it is done.
Hearing from a veteran from Rainelle who said he had gotten treatment at the CBOC every two weeks while it was open and "never smelled anything," McGraw said, "Different people have different sensitivity levels." She said she had personally felt the effects of the clinic's odor when it was first reported by employees, but after the building's owner replaced much of the ductwork in the CBOC, she was no longer affected.
Another wave of speakers addressed the issue of retaining familiar medical staff when the new CBOC site opens. Veteran Don Brown asked McGraw for assurances that the Maxwelton CBOC staff would return to the new site.
McGraw said the choice would be left up to the staff members, but those who want to return likely would be able to do so.
When Brown asked if the clinic would still have two doctors or, as rumored, would be reduced to one, Moye said that, based on the number of veterans enrolled at the CBOC for primary care — a figure all agreed was just over 1,700 — the clinic will have only one physician, along with either a nurse practitioner or a physician's assistant.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 29 7 August 2015
"We had two physicians (at the now-closed CBOC)," Brown protested. "Now, we're going to be shortchanged."
McGraw said the staffing level is dictated by the patient load, and with only 1,700 patients, the Greenbrier Valley CBOC cannot have two physicians on staff. The expectation, she said, is that a doctor will be able to see 12 patients by appointment each day, plus treat walk-ins.
She emphasized that those standards are set by the VA, not by her.
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1.17 - Midland Daily News: Saginaw VA helping more veterans with Choice Fund (6 August, Jessica Haynes, 67k online visitors/mo; Midland, MI)
The Saginaw VA hospital is making changes in order to provide care for a growing number of veterans, including additional staff and updated technology.
Officials with the Aleda E. Lutz Veteran Affairs Medical Center recently discussed what initiatives have been developed to address issues of access and care, as well as updating technology and hiring more staff to accommodate a larger population of patients.
Some of these initiatives were funded by the Veteran Choice Fund, part of the 2014 Veterans Accountability Act that authorizes non-VA care for any veteran who cannot make an appointment within 30 days or lives more than 40 miles from the nearest facility.
Congress passed the Act after allegations regarding an extensive wait-list for veterans at a Phoenix VA hospital made national headlines a year ago. The Act includes the Veterans Choice Fund, a $10 billion fund to cover non-VA care and improve access as well as health care over a three-year period.
“We’ve all been working to improve these areas,” Saginaw VA Medical Center Director Peggy Kearns said.
In 2014, $15 million was used to provide non-VA care for veterans unable to receive an appointment in time or outside of the 40-mile range. That number has now soared to $27.7 million for the 2015 fiscal year. It is just one change the VA has made to better serve veterans on a national level.
On a more local level, the Saginaw VA facility has made its own transformation in the form of adjusted hours to accommodate the working schedules of veterans, added weekend hours and keeping the on-site medical lab open 24 hours for faster results.
At least 24 positions, ranging from clerks to physicians, have been added and Kearns said there is more hiring to be done in the future. Some positions “float” or move between the nine community-based outpatient clinics within the Saginaw VA organization.
“We stretch it as a far as we could to get as many people as we could,” Kearns said about the additional aid that made the hiring possible.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 30 7 August 2015
Along with renovations like a new front entrance and ambulatory surgery unit at the Saginaw facility, multiple clinics are getting more space. The Traverse City clinic is moving to a new location within a few years, and has leased 4,000-square-feet of space to take in more patients now.
“They are very excited, they have a big need there,” said Carrie Seward, public information officer.
There is an audiology clinic planned for the Cadillac clinic, and the Clare clinic was recently renovated to take full advantage of the space available.
If veterans are unable to drive and receive the care necessary at their clinic of choice, there are options now for Telehealth and e-consults that connect a patient with a health care provider through video and audio systems.
It is a valuable asset for a facility with patients traveling to the nine rural clinics across northern Michigan, Kearns said. In the 2014 budget year, the Saginaw VA had 11,826 veterans receive care through virtual health care technology.
Veterans do not have to drive to discuss their prescriptions, go over test results and can even do post-operation visits electronically.
“The VA is way ahead of the private sector,” Kearns said. “We’ve been doing this a little bit longer than other VA hospitals because we had to.”
The improvements have led to an increase in patients seeking VA care, with at least 1,000 new veterans receiving primary care at the Saginaw facility.
According to Kearns, there has been an 8 percent increase in visits and 9 percent increase in primary care visits.
This connects with the VA promise for all veterans to have a medical appointment within 30 days, a goal the Saginaw facility is striving for.
“We probably have attracted 4,000 new veterans to our area clinics,” Seward said.
Kearns has been a part of the leadership at the Saginaw VA facility for about 30 years and said there is no question of the need of veterans within the community.
“The VA is modern healthcare now,” Kearns said.
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2. Ending Veterans’ Homelessness
2.1 - WISC-TV (CBS-3, Video): Madison Stand Down offers hand up to homeless veterans (6 August, Dave Delozier, 877k online visitors/mo; Madison, WI)
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 31 7 August 2015
For the last 10 months, veterans in the community have been working to collect clothing, solicit donations to buy food and provide services at the Madison Area Homeless Veterans Stand Down.
The Stand Down program, which was started in 1993, has seen an increase in the number of homeless veterans needing assistance.
“Last year we had 87 go through our Stand Down and this year they are expecting 136,” said Jim Blankenheim, one of the founders of the Madison Stand Down program and a Vietnam veteran.
This year’s Stand Down will take place on Oct. 24 at 8 a.m. at the National Guard Armory at 1420 Wright St. Homeless veterans will be given clothing, food, medical care, legal help and assistance finding a home and a job. The organization is in need of donations to meet the expected demand.
“Ironically our idea is to put ourselves out of business. No one wants to keep having to help the homeless. You want them to be able to get back up on their feet and get going again,” Blankenheim said.
Harrison Booker, a U.S. Navy veteran, did just that.
“Due to no fault of our own we got put in a situation where we became homeless,” Booker said.
For two years, he and his family struggled to find a permanent home. A year ago, they found that home and Booker found a calling.
He founded FACES, a nonprofit organization that advocates for homeless veterans.
At this year’s Stand Down, he will be volunteering to help the homeless veterans.
“I’m a veteran. The Stand Down is for homeless veterans throughout the area. It is a no-brainer. I need to be there. I need to be a light for somebody else,” Booker said.
For more information about the Madison Area Homeless Veterans Stand Down and how to help, visit the organization's Facebook page or their website.
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2.2 - Los Angeles Daily News: Let homeless veterans live on West Los Angeles VA site, say Feinstein, Boxer and Lieu (6 August, 409k online visitors/mo; Woodlands Hills, CA)
Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, in conjunction with Rep. Ted Lieu, called today for legislation that would facilitate housing for homeless veterans on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus.
The trio of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs committees, outlining legislation that would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to work with local governments and nonprofits to “ provide
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 32 7 August 2015
additional housing and services for homeless and disadvantaged veterans at the West Los Angeles campus.”
The legislators noted that the department recently settled a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union over use of the West Los Angeles property, and a new master plan is being created for the land.
Their proposed legislation would authorize the department to enter into leases for supporting housing, while prohibiting the sale of any of the property for private development. The proposal also allows for the department to partner with agencies such as UCLA for services benefiting veterans and “help make the campus a veteran-centric community setting.”
“There is a critical need for long-term supportive housing on the West Los Angeles campus, and enhanced use leases would allow the department to work with community and state organizations toward the goal of ending veteran homelessness in Los Angeles,” according to the letter. “As you may be aware, Los Angeles is home to the largest population of homeless veterans in the country, which is simply unacceptable.”
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has vowed to end veteran homelessness in the city by the end of the year. There are an estimated 4,360 homeless veterans in Los Angeles County, according to a count released earlier this year. Garcetti said in January that the city has about 3,100 homeless veterans.
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2.3 - KITV-TV (ABC-4, Video): Veteran Stand Down helps treat more than 100 homeless vets (6 August, Roger Mari, 360k online visitors/mo; Honolulu, HI)
More than 100 homeless veterans came off the streets to receive immediate relief, including medical attention, clothing and a meal at Veteran Stand Down.
For many, it's the first time in months to get such treatment.
“This is unbelievable. I had no idea this kind of stuff went on,” said Kevin Powell, a homeless veteran.
It's all part of Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s Heroes Housing Heroes campaign, which aims to end veteran homelessness by the end of 2015.
On Thursday, dozens of community service providers came together to help place veterans who have fallen onto hard times into housing.
“Events like these bring so many smiles to their faces. We are really happy to provide them with food, haircuts, medical services, housing services… This really is a one-stop-shop,” said Erin Rutherford with Catholic Charities.
The Office of Housing hopes to have housing units inspected and ready for occupancy as early as this month.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 33 7 August 2015
“We’re just trying to get people signed up and ready to get all the documents ready so that once we can pull the trigger, once the unit is now available and move-in-ready, they’re going to be in that unit right away,” said Jun Yang with Office of Housing.
The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans has recognized the Stand Down program as the most valuable outreach tool to help homeless veterans.
“Actually, I hope I never get in this situation again, so, I hope that this event here helps me a lot. I think it will,” said Steven Stanley, a homeless veteran.
Stand Down is an opportunity for homeless veterans to get back on their feet so they can help fellow homeless veterans get back on theirs.
“I’m being helped now, so why shouldn’t I help others? That’s the main objective: veterans helping veterans,” said Stanley.
The Housing Office is planning a meeting with the Hawaii Association of Realtors, landlords and property managers to get them involved in the efforts to house Oahu's homeless veterans. The meeting is scheduled for some time in October.
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2.4 - MyNewsLA.com: Get homeless vets off the street; California senators demand Westwood VA provide shelter (6 August, Debbie L. Sklar, 148k online visitors/mo; Los Angeles, CA)
Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, in conjunction with Rep. Ted Lieu, called Thursday for legislation that would facilitate housing for homeless veterans on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus.
The trio of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs committees, outlining legislation that would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to work with local governments and nonprofits to ” provide additional housing and services for homeless and disadvantaged veterans at the West Los Angeles campus.”
The legislators noted that the department recently settled a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union over use of the West Los Angeles property, and a new master plan is being created for the land.
Their proposed legislation would authorize the department to enter into leases for supporting housing, while prohibiting the sale of any of the property for private development. The proposal also allows for the department to partner with agencies such as UCLA for services benefiting veterans and “help make the campus a veteran-centric community setting.”
“There is a critical need for long-term supportive housing on the West Los Angeles campus, and enhanced use leases would allow the department to work with community and state organizations toward the goal of ending veteran homelessness in Los Angeles,” according to
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 34 7 August 2015
the letter. “As you may be aware, Los Angeles is home to the largest population of homeless veterans in the country, which is simply unacceptable.”
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has vowed to end veteran homelessness in the city by the end of the year. There are an estimated 4,360 homeless veterans in Los Angeles County, according to a count released earlier this year. Garcetti said in January that the city has about 3,100 homeless veterans.
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2.5 - Chillicothe Gazette: Approach to homeless veterans care changing (6 August, Chris Balusik, 125k online visitors/mo; Chillicothe, OH)
When Chillicothe VA Medical Center Director Wendy Hepker came into the Veterans Administration system 20 years ago as a part-time social worker, she was surprised at how little attention was paid to the problem of homelessness in veterans.
Having come from a background in crisis mental health in which she regularly worked with homeless veterans on the street, she had experienced what it was like to see how little attention the community in which she was living at the time paid to the issue. She was disappointed to see that same inattention during her early tenure in the VA system.
Now, as the VA has demonstrated a growing recognition of how homelessness affects the ability to treat the mental and physical health of veterans under its care, she said all of that has changed.
“I have been so grateful for the change in the focus that we are about the holistic experience of veterans and their health and well-being,” Hepker said. “It’s really hard to talk to somebody about taking care of their diabetes and their other health conditions when they don’t even have a place to call home — to be able to feel safe and comfortable and to then start to think about more than just survival, much less preventive health care issues.”
The Chillicothe VA, which has begun preparations for its fifth annual Stand Down for Homelessness in Yoctangee Park Sept. 25, has seen the number of employees over the past five years involved with homeless veteran issues grow from two to 13, with the number of programs expanding accordingly.
Amy Combs, homeless veterans coordinator, said the key to addressing the issue is a continuum of care that not only provides temporary housing solutions but also prepares veterans to strike out on their own. The local VA is at the tail end of a five-year plan designed to set up an approach that does just that.
In terms of housing alone, it operates a 90-day emergency housing program with 37 available beds in Circleville, Athens and Lancaster that serves single men, single women and families, as well as a 24-month transitional housing program with 14 available beds in Circleville and Lancaster that helps single male veterans looking to get back on their financial feet.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 35 7 August 2015
A supported housing program, which presently offers about 196 vouchers for participation, is a bit more intensive and currently involves veterans in Ross, Fairfield, Athens and Pickaway counties with plans to expand into Scioto, Pike, Jackson, Hocking and Highland counties.
“This program comes with intensive case management,” Combs said. “It’s designed to really wrap services around the veterans once we do get them housed to make sure whatever issues led to their homelessness in the past do not resurface.”
This may involve dealing with mental health or addiction issues or simply helping make connections with potential employers and getting veterans involved in vocational rehabilitation programs.
Because homelessness in rural areas like Ross County is not as visible as some of the “tent cities” found in more urban areas, Combs said, raising awareness of the problem is essential.
“We’re really educating people that our rural homeless have a completely different experience,” she said. “With our current conflicts, the veterans coming back now are in their child-bearing years so we’re talking about a lot of young children, infants, pregnant wives, preschool-age children, so all of these create challenges, but also opportunities, and the community has really worked with us with totally open arms. We couldn’t do this on our own.”
The Stand Down for Homelessness events have been a primary avenue for raising awareness while providing help to those in need at the same time. The event has grown from less than 200 participants at the inaugural one five years ago to more than 500 last year, with the number of organizations putting up informational tables about available services going from 33 to around 50 in that time.
“There’s been a lot of buy-in from the community,” Combs said. “We’ve been able (during Stand Down) to provide hot meals (for the homeless who attend), we had a giveaway tent with clothing, food pantry boxes with fresh fruit and vegetables, hygiene items, we offered hair cuts. Again, it’s not just for homeless veterans, it’s for homeless community members. This is a community event.”
Chillicothe VA housing programs by the numbers
449 individuals or families housed through all programs over last five years
108 individuals or families housed in this fiscal year alone
8 percent of those in housing programs are women
49 is the average age of those in the programs
70 percent of participants have a mental health diagnosis
26 percent of participants have substance abuse concerns
63 percent of participants are deemed chronically homeless
Town hall meeting
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 36 7 August 2015
A veterans town hall meeting for all veterans has been scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 18 in the Building 9 auditorium at the Chillicothe VA Medical Center, 17273 Ohio 104. Normal discussions during town hall meetings are such things as recent campus renovation highlights, upcoming events, an overview of programs and services offered and an open forum.
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2.6 - Westside Today: Have a Hand in Designing the New West L.A. Veteran Housing (6 August, 26k online visitors/mo; Los Angeles, CA)
The government is inviting Los Angeles to share their collective vision for the West LA Veterans Home Master Plan, set to finalize come October.
With a tight deadline, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs has sought out the community to input ideas on how to combat veteran homelessness through pop-up workshops and open houses around the city, specifically on the West L.A. VA campus, downtown, and El Monte.
The West Los Angeles VA Master Plan will describe how the physical elements of the campus can be developed for housing, recreational and health care services for Veterans in the future. It will identify needed infrastructure improvements while protecting and enhancing open space and the historic character of the campus and surrounding community.
If you have ideas, you can email [email protected] or call 310.879.5773. For more information about the West L.A. VA Master Plan visit www.helphouselavets.com.
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2.7 - KABC-TV (ABC-7, Video): US Senators Propose Legislation To Move Homeless Veterans To West Los Angeles VA Campus (7 August, Miriam Hernandez, 7.8k online visitors/mo; Glendale, CA)
After Al Gunn's lower right leg was blown off by a land mine in Vietnam in 1972, he turned to substance abuse and homelessness shortly followed.
But, he's now getting transitional help at the Department of Veterans Affairs' campus in West Los Angeles. Yet, like 6,000 other veterans in Los Angeles County what he really needs is permanent, affordable housing.
"There's an awful lot of empty buildings around here that could be rehabbed," Gunn said.
On Thursday, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, in conjunction with Rep. Ted Lieu, called for legislation that would facilitate homeless veterans on the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus. It would allow nonprofits to enter long-term leases for housing on the sprawling campus.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 37 7 August 2015
Hillary Evans, director of housing services for New Directions for Vets, is already operating at the location with temporary housing for 400 vets, but the hope is to expand.
"There's a lot of unused space that could be a real safe haven and restorative place for veterans that are experiencing homelessness and have been on the streets for years," she said.
The VA has already approved the repurposing of the 387-acre grounds. A new facility opened just months ago, and a master plan for expansion is now underway after the VA was sued for allegedly misusing the land.
The urgency to convert the property is further pushed by the White House's goal to end homelessness for veterans by the end of the year.
There are an estimated 4,360 homeless veterans in Los Angeles County, according to a count released earlier this year. Mayor Eric Garcetti said in January that the city has about 3,100 homeless veterans.
On Thursday, Garcetti said Los Angeles is doing its part.
"Just already we have housed more than 4,000 homeless vets in less than a year and a half since accepting that pledge," Garcetti said.
The need is growing as veterans, like Gunn, get older. Finding a place to live is more challenging than ever for the 65-year old.
He hopes that the campus becomes what homeless advocates envision: a potential hub for veteran housing and services, a rare place in L.A. where there is space to grow.
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3. Ending the Claims Backlog
3.1 - Austin American-Statesman: VA claims backlog shrinking in Texas, but goal still elusive (6 August, Jeremy Schwartz, 4.9M online visitors/mo; Austin, TX)
When he talks about shrinking the pile of pending disability claims among Central Texas veterans, John Limpose likes his audience to imagine the imposing peak of Mount Everest.
Back in the summer of 2012, when the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Waco Regional Benefit Office had nearly 52,000 pending claims, they soared above the summit of the planet’s most famous mountain, according to a nifty graphic Limpose, the office’s director, often shows. At the time, the Waco office led the nation in backlogged disability claims and was a flash point of national outrage over the length of time it took injured veterans to get compensation for their war wounds.
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Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 38 7 August 2015
4. Veteran Opportunities for Education/GI Bill
4.1 - Reveal: Defense Department now reviewing University of Phoenix recruiting (6 August, Bobby Caina Calvan, 272k online visitors/mo; Emeryville, CA)
Pressure continues to mount on the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs amid widening concern about the quality of education at for-profit colleges and unaccredited institutions, which together have siphoned billions of dollars in taxpayer-supported benefits for veterans and military personnel.
The Defense Department confirmed this week that it is reviewing whether recruitment practices by the University of Phoenix, the country’s largest benefactor of GI Bill funds, comply with federal law.
Spurred by investigations by Reveal, members of Congress are asking the Pentagon and VA to do more to protect taxpayer money – and defend veterans and military personnel from predatory recruiting and subpar education.
Much of the concern centers on the University of Phoenix, which Reveal found has paid the military for exclusive access to bases, held recruitment events disguised as résumé workshops and included military insignias without the required permission on custom-engraved “challenge coins” handed out by recruiters.
In a speech Tuesday on the Senate floor, Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, credited Reveal for exposing what he called dubious marketing practices.
“The tide is turning against the for-profit colleges and universities,” Durbin said. “The question is whether this Senate, this Congress, this government will step up once and for all and defend those young men and women who are wasting their time and money and taxpayer dollars – and, in many cases, GI bill benefits – on these worthless for-profit schools.”
In an email, spokesman Maj. Ben Sakrisson said the Pentagon “takes the allegations very seriously and is conducting a review to ensure that the University of Phoenix is compliant with the Department of Defense Education Partnership Memorandum of Understanding.”
Since 2009, the school has reaped more than $1.2 billion in GI Bill money. Last year alone, it received $345 million to educate Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, along with $20 million in tuition assistance from the Pentagon.
“If a non-compliance issue is found, DoD will take the appropriate action as outlined in the MOU,” Sakrisson wrote in the email.
Contacted for a response, retired Maj. Gen. James “Spider” Marks, a University of Phoenix dean, said, “We’ve responded to that,” before promising to call back and ending the call. He did not call back or respond to subsequent calls.
Ryan Rauzon of the institution’s public relations staff asked for written questions, then said he would not answer them because Reveal’s past reporting “left us unconvinced that fair, balanced, fact-based reporting that allows us to tell our side of the story (is) likely to happen here.”
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 39 7 August 2015
Veterans groups welcomed the inquiry and said they hope the military will work aggressively to rein in schools that they say prey on veterans and military personnel to gain access to taxpayer money.
“I hope they are conducting an aggressive review to protect and defend the integrity and promise of the GI Bill and other federal education programs for veterans and service members,” said Walter Ochinko, policy director of Veterans Education Success, a Washington-based advocacy group.
If military investigators “brush off” the allegations, he said, “there will be a firestorm on Capitol Hill and among veterans groups.”
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators on Wednesday introduced legislation to prevent unaccredited schools from receiving GI Bill money, arguing that such schools do little to help veterans gain meaningful employment.
Reveal found 2,000 institutions that do not meet minimum federal requirements for other government funds have received more than $260 million in GI Bill money. Among those cashing in on the trade school loophole were a sex school in San Francisco that teaches masturbation and an Oklahoma Bible school whose president once declared that “50 to 60 percent of homosexuals are infected with intestinal parasites.”
In a statement, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., one of the sponsors of the bipartisan bill, said: “This bill protects veterans from slick pitches that lure them into squandering GI Bill benefits on worthless degrees from unaccredited education programs – helping them pursue legitimate education and employment opportunities.” Blumenthal is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
That legislation is the latest on Capitol Hill intended to prevent unscrupulous institutions from raiding the GI Bill, first established in 1944 to provide World War II veterans with unemployment benefits, tuition assistance and help obtaining home loans.
The program was expanded in 2008 to give post-9/11 veterans broad educational benefits. As a result, the government largesse represented by the GI Bill has become a financial bonanza for schools.
Since 2009, the revamped GI Bill has disbursed more than $53.6 billion for tuition, housing and books, according to VA spokeswoman Meagan Lutz.
Following Reveal’s investigation, Durbin urged Defense Secretary Ash Carter to launch an inquiry and suspend taxpayer-supported tuition payments to the University of Phoenix until an investigation could be completed. The senator also sought to ban the college from military bases.
Last week, 12 other senators joined Durbin in calling on the Pentagon to make public any state and federal inquiries being conducted against schools suspected of predatory practices, saying that information should be readily available on military websites.
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 40 7 August 2015
Doing so presumably would make veterans and military personnel aware of any ongoing investigations into the University of Phoenix, whose parent company, Apollo Education Group, also is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.
As disclosed in a July 29 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that probe centers on whether the company engaged “in deceptive or unfair acts or practices … in the advertising, marketing, or sale of secondary or postsecondary educational products or services or educational accreditation products or services.”
The SEC filing requires the company to hand over documents and other information dating back to Jan. 1, 2011, on “a broad spectrum of the business and practices” of the University of Phoenix, including its military recruitment methods.
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5. Women Veterans
5.1 - Democrat & Chronicle: Film explores female veterans’ struggles (6 August, Robin L. Flanigan, 827k online visitors/mo; Rochester, NY)
A candid documentary being screened at the Little Theatre aims to create awareness about the specific challenges female veterans face — and one of its featured voices is from Greece.
Service: When Women Come Marching Home, showing for free on Monday, depicts the courage of several female veterans as they transition from active duty to civilian life. It brings to light a disturbing disparity: Women who have been in the military are more likely to be single parents, unemployed, homeless, living in poverty and victims of sexual trauma. And though they make up just 14 percent of today’s military forces, that figure is expected to double over the next decade, according to Disabled American Veterans, a national advocacy and assistance group.
Alicia Thompson, a program specialist at Veterans Outreach Center on South Avenue, opens up in the film about the post-traumatic stress disorder she has experienced since her deployment to Afghanistan as a member of the U.S. Army’s Military Police Corps.
“You see things and experience things that a normal mind doesn’t, so you have this prolonged exposure to an unnatural circumstance,” explains the 33-year-old, who worked with a counselor up to three times a week after returning home, then once a week, then once every other week, then monthly. She hasn’t been in counseling for a while, but she recognizes a need to return. “It’s a maintenance thing. There has been no tipping point, just a self-awareness that there are reactions in situations that don’t need to be the reactions I’ve had.”
The film is part of WXXI’s Veterans Connections initiative, designed to help bridge military and veteran needs with community support and awareness. It is co-sponsored by the Veterans Outreach Center, which has launched a Women’s Veteran’s Initiative to identify needs, advocate for resources and tailor programming and strategies for this population in the greater Rochester area.
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The center will generate a set of recommendations, scheduled for September, based on answers from a survey being conducted with female veterans over eight months. To take the survey, go to veteransoutreachcenter.org.
“We’re a nonprofit, so we can be very surgical in how we go out and solve problems,” says Todd Baxter, the center’s executive director. “We have that flexibility.”
Women are less likely than men to access veterans benefits. “They’re even less apt to identify themselves as veterans at all,” notes former Monroe County Court Judge Patricia Marks, who is on the board of directors at the Veterans Outreach Center and is chair of its Women’s Veteran Outreach Initiative. “To an extent, they feel invisible. Some tell me, when they see a bumper sticker on a car about being a veteran, they always assume it’s about the driver’s husband, not the woman driving. And some come back to family demands, so they remove themselves totally from the military and dig into what they need to get done at home.”
Organizers of the screening hope the community learns not only about the distinct challenges women veterans face, but also about the increasing need for peer support groups and career mentoring services. There are opportunities for female veterans to connect — the Rochester chapter of the Blue Star Mothers of America hosts a drop-in coffeehouse at 1010 East Ave. on select Friday evenings, for example — but more are needed.
Thompson, who is pursuing a master’s degree in military social work through the University of Southern California, will speak to the audience and answer questions after the screening.
“It’s very cathartic for me to talk about my experience, and it gives me the opportunity to tell others, ‘I know what you’re feeling. You’re not alone,’ ” she says. “People tell me, ‘You’re not the same person anymore’ and I say, ‘You’re right. I’m not.’ ”
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6. Other
6.1 - The New York Times (AP): Gun-Confiscation Fears Lead to Protest in Northern Idaho (6 August, 63.6M online visitors/mo; New York, NY)
A group of residents in northern Idaho lined up outside a U.S. Navy veteran's house on Thursday to protest claims that federal officials are planning on confiscating the man's weapons.
Idaho Republican state Rep. Heather Scott of Blanchard said the Veteran Affairs office has sent a letter to John Arnold of Priest River warning him that he cannot possess or purchase firearms.
The protest —spearheaded by Scott— attracted roughly 100 people. Among them were Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler, who promised to stand guard against any federal attempts to remove Arnold's guns, and Republican Washington state Rep. Matthew Shea of Spokane Valley, who described the event as a "defiance against tyranny."
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"I took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and uphold the laws of Idaho," Wheeler said. "This seemed appropriate to show my support. I was going to make sure Mr. Arnold's rights weren't going to be breached."
During Thursday's demonstration, the group at times broke out in song to sing "God Bless America" and pray while waving both the American flag and the "Don't tread on me" flag. With a population of just 1,700, Priest River is near the tip of northern Idaho— a region known for its strong tea party roots and gun-rights activism.
Scott was one of the key lawmakers during this year's Legislature who helped sink legislation that would have put Idaho in compliance with federal child support laws. Doing so put Idaho at threat of losing millions of federal dollars and resources, and required the Idaho Legislature to meet for a special session, at which the state finally passed the legislation.
Arnold did not immediately respond to calls from The Associated Press.
Veteran Affairs spokesman Bret Bowers confirmed a letter had been sent to Arnold from the VA's benefits office in Salt Lake City, but he said that VA policy prohibits discussing individual health records without consent. Bowers added that the agency doesn't have the authority to confiscate weapons.
"We don't send officers to confiscate weapons. We are about providing health care to veterans," he said.
Currently, the Veterans Affairs Department can bar veterans from purchasing guns if they are declared incompetent. However, this authority has been criticized by Second Amendment advocates. Most recently, Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas proposed legislation that would require court action before barring gun purchases by veterans declared incompetent.
"This does happen sometimes, where the VA sends out a letter," said Bryan Hult, veteran services officer for Bonner County. "Especially if a veteran has dementia ... and a fiduciary has to be appointed to manage finances like a pension and income. You wouldn't want that person to be in possession of a gun."
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6.2 - PBS (Newshour, Video): 5 times ‘The Daily Show’ actually influenced policy (6 August, Corinne Segal, 18M online visitors/mo; Arlington, VA)
As Jon Stewart prepares to wrap up his time at “The Daily Show,” recent reports surfaced that the comedian had visited the White House in 2011 and 2014 to meet with President Obama. The visits, which were previously unreported, brought speculation and, in many cases, suspicion to conversations about Stewart’s relationship with the administration.
But for people familiar with that relationship, the reports were not a surprise. Obama strategist David Axelrod told Politico that Stewart had an effect on national conversations around policy, even within the administration. “I can’t say that because Jon Stewart was unhappy policy changed. But I can say that he had forceful arguments, they were arguments that we knew would be heard and deserved to be answered,” Axelrod said.
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While Stewart stressed that the show was merely a comedic counterpoint to the politics it covered, there were several occasions on which the show and its alums crossed into the world of policy. We look back at several of those moments below.
1. Jon Stewart helps push a bill forward for 9/11 first responders and their families.
By 2010, 9/11 first responders had waited nearly 10 years for a bill that would give them health care for injuries and illnesses resulting from their service. Those first responders suffered from a range of medical problems that were directly caused by their contact with toxic debris at Ground Zero. When the Senate voted down a bill that would have paid for their medical costs — a bill that had already been in the works for years — Stewart gathered a group of first responders on his show to give a moving testimony on their health issues post-9/11.
Shortly afterward, the bill passed in Congress, allocating $6.2 billion to health care for first responders suffering from illness and providing compensation for families of people who had died in the attacks. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) told ABC News at the time that Stewart had put a renewed focus on the issue. “This bill has long been a huge priority for us in New York, but Jon’s attention to this helped turn it into the national issue it always should have been,” Schumer said.
First responders themselves agreed. “What took us eight years of walking the halls of Congress, Jon Stewart in 22 minutes literally moved mountains and gave us a heartbeat again when we were flat-lined,” John Feal, an Army veteran who worked to clean up the wreckage from 9/11, told Politico.
2. Stephen Colbert testifies before Congress on migrant labor.
“The Colbert Report” host’s comedic surprise for Congress came after the comedian participated in a United Farm Workers challenge to people to fill the place of a migrant worker for a day. He appeared in front of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security on April 24, 2010, in character, injecting some serious points about the role of migrant labor in the U.S. with his particular brand of satire.
Colbert noted that the topic was important to address. “It seems like one of the least powerful people in the United States are migrant workers who come and do our work but don’t have any rights as a result,” he said. “But yet we still invite them to come here, and at the same time ask them to leave.”
And he had some creative ideas about how to address the issue. “As you heard this morning, America’s farms are presently far too dependent on immigrant labor to pick our fruits and vegetables … The obvious answer is for all of us to stop eating fruits and vegetables,” he said. “And if you look at the recent obesity statistics, you’ll see that many Americans have already started.”
3. Stephen Colbert establishes a super PAC.
As the 2012 presidential election approached, Colbert had a dream: “to fashion a massive money cannon that would make all those who seek the White House quake with fear and beg our allegiance … in strict accordance with federal election law.”
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That dream was made possible by the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which had loosened restrictions on campaign finance in January 2010. The Federal Elections Commission approved Colbert’s application to create the super PAC in June 2011, and Colbert established a Delaware-based corporation called the “Colbert Super PAC SHH Institute,” through which anonymous, unlimited donations could be funneled to the super PAC. Colbert said the money would go toward “normal administrative expenses, including but not limited to, luxury hotel stays, private jet travel and PAC mementos from Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.”
Puzzling to some and hilarious to others, the process was entirely legal, showing the effects of the Citizens United decision in real time. “The Colbert Report” won a Peabody Award for the episodes on the super PAC. “Through inventive comedy, sight gags and mock-strident rhetoric, ‘The Colbert Report’ used its ‘megaphone of cash’ to illuminate the far-ranging effects on our politics of the Citizens United decision,” the Peabody Awards said in a statement.
4. The VA changes its policy on health care for veterans after a Daily Show segment criticizes it.
In May 2014, the VA was facing a public scandal. Officials at the Phoenix VA hospital had lied about the long wait times at their facility, where veterans faced an average wait of 115 days for a primary care appointment. Meanwhile, veterans could only receive private care under the Veterans Choice Program if they lived outside a 40-mile radius from a VA center. The radius was measured in a straight line and did not account for road lengths or travel time, preventing many veterans who lived further away from receiving care.
Jon Stewart slammed the 40-mile standard, also called the “as the crow flies” method. “That is the least meaningful way to judge how hard it is to get somewhere for non-crows,” Stewart said.
Shortly after the segment aired, the VA changed the rule to measure the distance by driving miles. Now the VA does not credit Stewart with influencing the change, but the host took some credit for the change on the show. The new rule doubled the amount of veterans that qualified for private care, CBS News reported.
5. John Oliver inspires a Washington state bill aimed at increasing civic engagement.
In June 2014, a segment on “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” implored viewers to voice their concerns about an upcoming decision on net neutrality on the Federal Communications Commission’s website. The next day, the FCC’s site crashed.
It is unknown whether the crash was due to an Oliver-inspired comment flood — but it definitely galvanized Washington state senator Cyrus Habib, who soon introduced a bill aimed at allowing citizens to comment on public policy online. Habib credited John Oliver with inspiring the bill.
“Here’s a guy who likes to take boring topics and make them interesting,” Habib said. “If you can do that for an administrative process like the FCC on net neutrality, imagine the level of interest in issues people are even more familiar with at the state level.” The bill is still pending in the Washington state senate.
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6.3 - The Boston Globe: Ricky Lee reaches out to veterans with free concert at Bedford VA( 6 August, Cynthia Chen, 16.9M online visitors/mo; Boston, MA)
There will be a “Music-4-R-Vets” show at the Bedford VA campus on Saturday, Aug. 8, as part of country musician Ricky Lee’s efforts to show Veterans the healing power of music.
Held at 1:30 p.m., the free outdoor concert will be at the Oval of the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital and will be open to all veterans and the public.
“Music 4-R-Vets is a program that uses inspirational music to speak to assist in the healing process of the battle wounds of our veterans that are not visible. PTSD being just one example,” Lee said on his website. Music has “the potential to induce joy, happiness, memories bliss, merriment and mirth.”
The concert will feature Lee’s “Freedom Cart,” a custom tram with seats made of veterans uniforms and patches.
Lee has played at other VA hospitals, American Legion halls, and Veterans of Foreign War posts nationwide for the past several months.
“The VA Medical center is a precious treasure. The Armed Forces of the United States Veterans utilize this facility to treat illness of any kind that our vets encounter and is the perfect place to introduce the healing and motivational power of music,” Lee said.
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6.4 - POLITICO (Video): Video: Playbook Breakfast with Secretary Robert A. McDonald and David Brock (6 August, 8.3M online visitors/mo; Arlington, VA)
POLITICOs Chief White House Correspondent Mike Allen interviews Secretary Robert A. McDonald and David Brock in Washington on Thursday. Below is a selection of video clips from that event:
Full Event - Mike Allen interviews Secretary Robert A. McDonald and David Brock (1:49:45)
Excerpt - What the VA learned from Starbucks (1:37)
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6.5 - POLITICO (Video): David Brock: I'm not going to the West Wing if Hillary wins (6 August, Eliza Collins, 8.3M online visitors/mo; Arlington, VA)
David Brock will be watching for a GOP candidate who can stand up to Hillary Clinton during Thursday’s debate, because he believes Jeb Bush isn’t the one.
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Brock, who was speaking to Mike Allen during a POLITICO Playbook Breakfast event Thursday, said Bush already failed the test, because “the way Hillary Clinton took him on and shredded his reputation as a moderate.”
Brock is a former conservative journalist turned Clinton ally and is the founder of Media Matters, a non-profit progressive research group.
“I think that showed he can’t stand up to Hillary,” Brock said about Jeb Bush after the two appeared at the same event last week. Clinton criticized his campaign and he thanked her for being there.
Though Brock acknowledged the election wouldn’t be a “cake-walk,” he said people are ready for a woman president and Clinton will win the 2016 election, which will “likely lead to re- election.”
Brock told Allen that 20 years ago, he said, “it was possible someday that she would be as, or greater historical figure than her husband.” He still believes it. If Clinton wins, Brock said he won’t be going to the West Wing.
During Thursday’s event, Allen also spoke with Veteran Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald, who said the most legitimate criticism of the VA is that it isn’t moving fast enough. That should be directed at him because he leads it.
McDonald said that even one veteran without a roof over his head is his fault.
McDonald, who has been known to give out his personal phone number to veterans in need, provided it publicly during the interview.
The VA secretary also called on Congress to pass laws in order for the VA to run more like a business.
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6.6 - Military.com: VA Chief Blasts 'Political' Proposal to Privatize the Department (6 August, Bryant Jordan, 5.8M online visitors/mo; San Francisco, CA)
Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald on Thursday rejected criticism from a political advocacy group that has called for privatizing the department.
McDonald made his comments during an interview at The Newseum in Washington, D.C., where Politico White House Correspondent Mike Allen cited "a 10-page document of VA low- lights" given to him by Concerned Veterans for America, an Arlington, Virginia-based based organization that favors market-based federal policies.
"First of all, you have to understand the political nature of the Concerned Veterans for America," McDonald said. "I've met with [CVA Chief Executive Officer] Peter Hegseth many times. I know the people that back him politically, who fund his organization. We are not in favor of privatizing the VA."
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The secretary didn't go into detail, though his reference to those supporting the group likely refers to reports that it has largely been funded by Koch Brothers' organizations.
Hegseth hit back at McDonald's remarks, saying it was disingenuous of him to avoid criticism of VA health care by claiming the group is politically motivated. He said the group wants to give veterans a choice in using the private sector, not privatize the VA.
"It is disappointing that Secretary McDonald chose to once again blatantly mischaracterize CVA's bipartisan comprehensive VA reform plan – the Veterans Independence Act,c he said in an email. "However, it is not totally surprising considering that Secretary McDonald has a history of struggling with the truth,” he added, referring to McDonald's statement in February that he served with Army Special Forces. The secretary, a West Point graduate, served with the 82nd Airborne.
In February, the organization released a plan for improving VA health care that included converting the department into a government-chartered nonprofit and creating a premium- supported insurance option for eligible veterans who want to use private-sector health care.
What would be lost by privatization would put veterans at risk and be a significant loss to the American public, McDonald said.
"If I'm sending a veteran to the private sector and that doctor does not know the military culture, does not understand how an explosion creates traumatic brain injury, that's dangerous for that veteran," he said. "The idea of privatizing the VA is antithetical to that."
The CVA isn't the only group pushing for privatization of the department, McDonald. "Members of Congress have said to me, 'Why don't you just blow up VA and give out vouchers?'" he said.
McDonald argued there's a role for government in providing care to veterans. It was VA doctors that performed the first liver transplant and VA researchers who developed the nicotine patch and the shingles vaccine, among other medical breakthroughs, he said.
What's more, the department trains 70 percent of the doctors in the United States through its internship program and is the largest employer of nurses in the country, McDonald said. None of these roles are factored into nonprofit's plan for VA health care, he said.
During the interview, McDonald also defended his efforts to hold employees, including members of the Senior Executive Service, accountable for poor performance, mismanagement and especially the wait-times scandal that rocked the department last year. Whistleblowers at the VA Medical Center in Phoenix revealed that hospital staff kept a secret list of veterans seeking appointments.
They did so to conceal from the department leaders just how many veterans were waiting for health care appointments. Investigators later found that the practice was systemic across VA and also confirmed that some veterans died before getting an appointment.
Since the revelations, there has been a growing demand on Capitol Hill to punish or otherwise hold accountable those who were involved or who are mismanaging VA operations.
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McDonald said that since he came on board about a year ago, some 1,400 people have been fired from the department. But only a handful of individuals directly connected to the wait-times scandal have been pushed out and some of those were allowed to retire.
"Accountability is a lot more than just firing people," he said. "Accountability is also the fact that when I came in I found that doctor salaries were 20 percent below market, so we raised the salaries."
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6.7 - The Arizona Republic: VA retaliation alleged in sworn statement (6 August, Dennis Wagner, 5.5M online visitors/mo; Phoenix, AZ)
A former official at the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Phoenix has signed a sworn statement alleging that the hospital’s acting director sought to fire or suspend a mental- health staffer just hours after the employee appeared on a television newscast criticizing VA suicide-prevention efforts.
Laurie Butler, who served as acting human resources officer for the Phoenix VA Health Care System, wrote in an Aug. 3 affidavit that top administrators met on Jan. 13 to discuss options the morning after whistleblower Brandon Coleman complained that suicidal veterans were not being properly handled.
Butler’s declaration says the hospital’s interim director, Glen Grippen, was joined during the meeting by Chief of Staff Darren Deering, VA regional counsel Shelley Cutts and others. According to the statement, Grippen told the group “he wanted to discuss what he could do about Coleman’s actions and asked if it were possible to remove Coleman from employment. At the least, Grippen wanted to know if he could put Coleman on administrative leave.”
The affidavit says Cutts responded that, under the federal Whistleblower Protection Act, Coleman could not be fired for speaking to the media, but he could be removed or suspended for unrelated misconduct.
Three weeks later, Coleman was accused of having an altercation with a colleague. He was suspended pending an investigation, and his treatment program for veterans convicted of substance abuse was shut down. Coleman said he has since been cleared of misconduct, but remains on paid leave.
Jean Schaefer, a Phoenix VA spokeswoman, said Grippen could not comment on Butler’s declaration because of Coleman’s pending complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency that investigates retaliation against whistleblowers. Cutts did not respond to an interview request.
Coleman said in an e-mail that Butler’s affidavit reveals “what actually goes on behind closed doors” when VA employees speak out. He requested an independent investigation by an outside agency because the “VA cannot be trusted to police itself.”
In a letter this week to the Office of Special Counsel and some members of Congress, Coleman attached personal messages he received from VA Secretary Robert “Bob” McDonald. One of
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those in April assured Coleman that Grippen was making a “good faith effort” to resolve his suspension. Coleman told investigators Butler’s affidavit belies that statement, and he believes Grippen should be terminated.
In an interview, Coleman confirmed that the VA offered reinstatement proposals during mediation attempts, but said they contained unacceptable conditions. He remains on leave. His correspondence to the Office of Special Counsel says he has been ordered back to work Aug. 10 “in the same retaliatory environment I was illegally removed from.”
A spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel declined comment.
Butler came to Arizona last July as a specialist on employment and labor law amid a national furor sparked by delays in care at the VA hospital on Indian School Road. Her affidavit says she “intended to make sure employees responsible for the scheduling mess were appropriately disciplined or removed,” but was immediately informed that Phoenix VA was operating under a “kinder, gentler” philosophy.
Since the wait-time scandal erupted 15 months ago, no Phoenix employee has been fired in connection with delayed medical appointments or falsified wait-time data.
However, because so many top Human Resources Department leaders quit during the controversy, Butler was promoted in December to acting director of the department. She became ill in February, the affidavit says, and subsequently took disability retirement from the VA.
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6.8 - Washington Examiner: VA secretary: Accountability is more than 'just firing people' (6 August, Susan Crabtree, 3.3M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)
Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald said more than 1,400 officials and workers "have been terminated" from the agency since he's been secretary but stressed that accountability is "more than just firing people."
Another 100 more, he said, are under investigation by the FBI for potential criminal behavior for cooking the books to make the backlog in patients appointments appear better than it was.
"For all of our critics, accountability in an organization is much more than just firing people," McDonald said at a Politico Playbook breakfast Thursday morning. "What we've got to do is make sure there's a sustainable system in place so that people are rewarded when they do well, people are held accountable when they don't do well – we're providing feedback."
No one in the VA Health Administration, he stressed, is getting a performance bonus for 2014 and no one's performance was rated as outstanding.
"How can you be rated outstanding if your secretary has to resign?" he said, referring to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's resignation in late May of last year.
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Since the VA appointment backlog first broke nearly two years ago, both he and Shinseki have worked to get average wait times for appointments down to 125 days and have required the agency's workers to work mandatory overtime to process the backlog of veterans' health claims.
He said he's trying to ease the strain on VA employees by allowing many of them to telecommute "so the two hours they used to commute, they can now do claims instead."
In addition, he said he has worked to raise VA doctors' salaries to make them more competitive with the private sector.
There is still far more work to do he said, pointing out that the biggest problem he faces is that he's not moving fast enough to fix the problem and that he takes full responsibility if there is "one veteran without a roof over their head" or who isn't getting adequate care.
He likened the problem of the VA healthcare backlog and homelessness plaguing the community to the metaphor of thousands of dying starfish that have been washed onto a beach and the tide recedes.
"It's such a large system and such a large need," he said. "It's how do you get [to] every single person?"
"I might not be able to clean up the whole beach, but it matters to every starfish [you throw back] in the water. But I want to clean up the whole beach," he said.
The House recently passed a bill, the VA Accountability Act of 2015, which makes it much easier for McDonald to fire poor-performing employees.
It still must pass the Senate and be signed by President Obama, who has threatened a veto.
Obama said the bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee, is "counterproductive" and would create a "disparity in the treatment of one group of career civil servants."
The president also argued that it would have a negative impact on the VA's ability to retain and recruit qualified workers.
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6.9 - Dayton Daily News: Lawmakers, vets call for ‘thorough investigation’ into VA scheduling (6 August, Barrie Barber, 3.3M online visitors/mo; Dayton, OH)
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is investigating a “scheduling irregularity” that led to delayed appointments for pulmonary care patients at the Dayton VA, according to a U.S. senator’s office.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, contacted VA Secretary Bob McDonald over concerns the Dayton VA had not scheduled callback appointments for about 1,000 pulmonary patients between October 2013 and May 2015 until an employee discovered a list of the patients in late May, officials said.
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“The reforms Congress implemented last year are working and I’ve called Secretary Robert McDonald to ensure the VA will continue to prioritize veterans’ care by putting an end to unofficial scheduling systems,” Brown said in a statement to this newspaper.
Congressional leaders and veterans groups have pressed for more information on how the Dayton VA handled appointment scheduling for pulmonary care patients.
“VA’s struggles with transparency and accountability seem to never end,” U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, said Thursday. “It would be a great step forward if it is true that this whistleblower does not face retaliation for speaking up.”
The patient list included 150 veterans who are now dead, though those deaths weren’t linked to delayed care, Dayton VA Director Glenn Costie told this newspaper last Friday.
“They were all receiving care somewhere in our system of care,” Costie said. “They just had not been called back for their pulmonary (follow-up).”
He added it appeared to be a ”standalone issue with a particular clinic.”
McDonald — who took the VA’s helm after a nationwide scandal over scheduling practices ousted his predecessor — assured Brown the VA was investigating the scheduling irregularity, according to the senator’s office. Brown is a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.
Costie was sent to temporarily take command of the Phoenix VA last year in the wake of the scandal, which started with allegations that veterans died while on a “secret waiting list” there.
So-called secret wait lists have been reported at other VA medical centers, according to Miller and published reports. But Dayton VA officials maintained last year that they had nothing remotely similar to such a list.
“When we first learned of the allegations out of Phoenix, we conducted our own internal audit of how our appointment system and wait lists work, looking for anything that could possibly be interpreted … correctly or otherwise … as a ‘secret wait list,’ ” Dayton VA spokesman Ted Froats said in a May 2014 statement. “I am pleased to share that the results of that audit were entirely positive.” Miller, a Florida Republican, on Thursday questioned how the audit could have missed the issue with pulmonary patients at the Dayton VA.
“How did an internal audit miss exactly what it was looking for, again calling into question VA’s ability to be open and honest with the American people,” he said in a statement. “After at least 110 facilities have been caught with secret wait lists, how can anyone still claim this is a standalone issue?”
National veterans groups also have asked for answers on the delay in appointments at the Dayton VA.
“I think there needs to be a thorough investigation of these findings, and if it’s determined that 150 patients died as a result of not receiving proper care while under the VA’s watch, then
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somebody needs to be held accountable,” Roscoe Butler, American Legion deputy director for health care, said Thursday.
“The situation in Dayton illustrates in all-too-graphic detail the long, long road VA must travel in order to restore its image as a Tier 1 provider of health care to veterans,” Jerry Manar, deputy director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ National Veterans Service division, said in an email.
“It also illustrates the managerial incompetence in the Veterans Health Administration by showing that even after a year of herculean effort to ensure all veterans are scheduled for appointments, substantial pockets of veterans continue to fall through the cracks.”
The names of pulmonary care patients were kept on an electronic file “on a secure VA server,” Froats said in an email Thursday. He said policy on scheduling appointments had not been followed.
Froats wrote “appointment callbacks were always taking place,” but when the scheduling irregularity was discovered and the scope of the issue understood, employee schedules and assignments were adjusted to make appointments for the hundreds of waiting patients happen faster.”
The patients were “under the active care of other Dayton VAMC providers during this time period,” he wrote.
Most veterans have been scheduled for follow-up appointments, and are expected to be completed by December, according to Froats.
A scheduler who originally managed the appointment list for pulmonary patients was removed from the position, but remains employed at the VA, according to Froats. He added that “the situation remains under review.”
Froats said last week that the VA Office of the Inspector General was notified about the incident.
Congressional lawmakers this week expressed concern over the scheduling issue. “The reports are very concerning and we must get to the bottom of what happened,” U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said in a statement. “I look forward to hearing from the VA about this.”
“Incidents such as this have been far too frequent since the scandal last year in Phoenix, and our veterans deserve better,” Sen. Johnny Isakson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, said in a statement. “I appreciate the VA’s swift response to this incident, and I will continue to work with the VA to ensure that those responsible are held accountable and that proper steps are taken to prevent this from happening again.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, said this week that he was waiting for more information.
“Our nation’s veterans deserve the best treatment and I will continue to fight until this issue is resolved,” he said in a statement.
Staff writer Josh Sweigart contributed to this story.
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6.10 - The Hill (Video): Rubio: God blessed GOP candidates, Dems can't find one (6 August, Peter Sullivan, 1.9M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)
Sen. Marco Rubio took a shot at Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton late in Thursday's Republican presidential debate on Fox News.
The Florida senator was asked a combined question about God and veterans.
“God has blessed us,” Rubio said. “He’s blessed the Republican Party with some very good candidates. The Democrats can’t even find one.”
The line was met with a huge cheer in the crowd in Cleveland.
Rubio went on to tout reform of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
“When I’m president, we are going to have a VA that cares more about our veterans than about the bureaucrats who work at the VA,” he said.
Rubio spent much of the debate emphasizing his theme of moving toward the future, portraying Clinton as the candidate of the past.
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6.11 - The Hill: Huckabee decries the 'social experiment' of transgender troops (6 August, David McCabe, 1.9M online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) late Thursday decried the idea of transgender people being allowed to serve openly in the military during the GOP debate.
“The military is not a social experiment,” he said. “The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things.”
“It's not to transform the culture by trying out some idea that some people think would make us a different country and more diverse. The purpose is to protect America. I’m not sure how paying for transgender surgery for soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, makes our country safer.”
He then moved to a broader argument about military readiness.
In July, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced the creation of a working group to examine “the policy and readiness implications of welcoming transgender persons to serve openly.” He also said that questions about whether to discharge “those diagnosed with gender dysphoria or who identify themselves as transgender” would be handled by the undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness.
In recent years, the medical system of the Department of Veterans Affairs has also moved to improve the care it provides to transgender people.
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The military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy ended in 2011, but that only lifted the prohibition on service based on sexual orientation.
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6.12 - Army Times (Video): Jon Stewart vs. VA: How TV host raged against red tape (6 August, Kevin Lilley, 1M online visitors/mo; Springfield, VA)
During his 16-plus-year run at the desk of "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart trafficked in the same military-themed segments as many of his television brethren: He did pushups for charity, he went on a USO tour with a magician and a noted mailman, and he ... did more pushups for charity.
Tests of upper-body strength aside, one of Stewart's unique, lasting contributions to military matters may be his frequent, frustration-filled salvos at the Veterans Affairs Department. He's cranked out several "Daily Show" segments over the years that have have helped spotlight VA problems for a broader audience — an effort that's not gone unappreciated.
"I don't think there's a person in the media who's done more to elevate veterans' issues, and to push for policy change," said Paul Reickhoff, head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which presented Stewart with the 2013 IAVA Civilian Service Award. "There's a lot of kind of empty clapping going on, but actually understanding the nuance of policy ... things that matter, Jon Stewart's been in a league of his own. And I guess the best example I would give is the [VA] backlog."
Stewart's VA coverage topped the IRS and other entries in a viewer's choice poll, selected as the show's "favorite federal takedown" as part of a career-in-review special. It also made Rolling Stone's list of the host's top targets.
"The least we can do is keep the promises we made to the individuals who have given so much, and I will continue to be an annoyance to the people who do not do that," Stewart said after accepting the IAVA honor.
The coverage even earned its own recurring prop: A super-sized swear jar:
That April 2014 rant reacted to reports of mismanagement at a Phoenix VA facility that included 1,700 veterans signing up for appointments and never appearing on the official wait list. It was far from the only time the VA made headlines during Stewart's tenure:
• A 2009 clip (note the standard definition) takes the Obama administration to task for its proposal to bill private insurers for VA care. Stewart suggests some alternate defense-related fundraising methods to cover the costs, such as sponsorship rights to the Medal of Honor. In the aftermath of the Comedy Central coverage, Rieckhoff said, "we got invited into the White House. ... We knew that it was hurting them to get hit on Jon Stewart":
• A September 2013 clip addressing the ever-present VA backlog and disease outbreaks at VA facilities in Pittsburgh and Buffalo, in which Stewart asks the question nobody else would ask: Is the VA being run by "Breaking Bad" character Jesse Pinkman, "driving around to VA hospitals and throwing money out the window?":
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• A nearly eight-minute show-opening segment from June 2014 that traces VA's problems back to the Truman administration, rips its 80s-era technology still in use by the agency ("You're running OS Tandy 1000!") and features Stewart all but climbing over his desk at the two-minute mark:
• A dissection of the VA Choice program from March of this year, one that ridiculed the agency for the since-changed policy of using as-the-crow-flies mileage determinations for eligibility — a measure not particularly useful to "non-crows," Stewart points out:
• Other entries include May 2014's "World of WarriorShaft," in which Stewart smacks down both Republican lawmakers and President Obama for failing to address VA matters, and May 2013's "Red Tape Diaries," where Stewart summarizes then-VA Secretary (and retired Army Gen.) Eric Shinseki's backlog-clearing pledge in a way VA likely wouldn't appreciate: "In two more years, they’re hoping to have you wait only four more months.”
"If you want to talk about the exposure of Shinseki's leadership failures," Rieckhoff said. "I don't know if anybody was more effective than Jon Stewart. We had been trying to make the case for years that Shinseki was failing. ... When Jon Stewart tore into it, it really started to change the conversation."
Stewart's final "Daily Show" airs tonight at 11 p.m. Eastern. His show, which has an ongoing program to help former service members break into the entertainment industry, also ran one last contest to support former service members: The winner of a charity raffle will attend the final taping, with proceeds from the drawing going to The Mission Continues, a group that encourage community service among veterans as a way to channel their skills and support their transition into civilian life.
"We've had a lot of different celebrities at our events; the vets are good at sniffing out who the fakes are," Rieckhoff said. "Jon Stewart is an authentic guy."
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6.13 - WTNH-TV (ABC-8, Video): World War II Veteran reunited with his wallet he lost 70 years ago (6 August, Rose Shannon, 1M online visitors/mo; New Haven, CT)
A 91 year old Army veteran has recently been reunited with a wallet he lost 70 years ago while serving in World War II.
Eligio Ramos had completely forget about the wallet until a letter arrived at his Fresno, California home on June 18.
“I was having breakfast at home with my dad like our usual routine three days out of the week, and I was reading through the mail when I stumbled upon the letter, ” Ramos’ daughter Sylvia Gonzalez told ABC News Thursday. “I said, ‘Dad! Look! Somebody found your wallet you lost in 1945 in Austria.”
The letter was from Dr. Josef Ruckhofer, a eye doctor in Salzburg, Austria, informing Ramos that while cleaning out his family’s farmhouse, he found the wallet. According to VA public
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affairs specialist Carmichael Yepez, during the war, Dr. Ruckhofer’s grandfather allowed Ramos and the 250th field artillery stay the night in the farmhouse. At the time, the artillery was traveling from village to village liberating people from concentration camps.
Before leaving, Ramos left the wallet under a floorboard.
Inside the wallet, there were many photos of family members, Ramos’ military ID and money order receipts. A reunion celebration was held at the Fresno VA hospital.
“Everything in the wallet is of sentimental value,” Ramos’ son Rosando Ramos said at the celebration. “He had a ton of pictures in his wallet in case he didn’t make it back. He wanted to have his family with him in his heart.”
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6.14 - Military Times: McDonald stays focused on long-term despite elections (6 August, Leo Shane III, 606k online visitors/mo; Springfield, VA)
Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald may have only 16 months left to accomplish an overhaul of his department, but he's not looking at the calendar yet.
"I don't know that I'm going to be gone (after the 2016 presidential election)," McDonald told audience members at a Politico media forum Thursday. "And I'm not acting like I will be gone."
HIs comments came just days after the one-year anniversary of his appointment to the top VA post. His confirmation was unanimous in the Senate, and the former Procter & Gamble CEO made repairing congressional relations one of his top priorities in the ensuing months, reaching out to lawmakers in both parties in an effort to accelerate reform efforts through Capitol Hill.
“I’m not a political person,” McDonald said Thursday. “My political party is veterans.”
Those efforts have met with mixed success. Veterans groups have privately begun floating the idea of the next commander in chief keeping McDonald on as part of the new Cabinet, to maintain the steady improvements they’ve seen in the last year.
But McDonald also has come under blistering attacks from critics who say reforms aren’t happening quickly enough, and accusations that he’s more interested in defending the bureaucracy than fixing its problems.
The latest fight came in recent weeks as department leaders requested about $3 billion in funding transfers to cover shortfalls caused by an increase in the number of veterans using non- VA medical care programs.
Congress approved the funding patch just before the start of its August recess, but only after weeks of criticism from Republicans and Democrats that the VA hasn't been able to anticipate its fiscal needs, even with steady budget hikes over the last decade.
Conservatives also have accused McDonald of trying to undermine the new Choice Card program, approved last year to give veterans more options to seek medical care outside the VA.
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McDonald brushed off those allegations.
"Last year, VA mismanagement was not getting enough veterans care. This year, mismanagement is getting too many veterans care," he quipped.
"Congress has a role to play in this. We need to work together to identify what needs to be done. But I don’t have much tolerance for using veterans as political pawns."
He said strong support to help veterans and improve his department still exists in Congress, and he has repeatedly dismissed concerns of a growing rift between lawmakers and VA officials.
"I think what you’re going to see is, over time, Congress is going to work with me to run this more like a business. When I came in, that’s what they asked for,” he said.
"I’ll take the accusations, as long as we get the job done for veterans. I’m not running for anything this year."
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6.15 - KREM-TV (ABC-2, Video): Idaho veteran says VA plans to seize his guns in error (6 August, Lindsay Nadrich, 559k online visitors/mo; Spokane, WA)
Veteran John Arnold said he received a letter on July 30 telling him Veterans Affairs representatives were planning to come pick up his guns.
Dozens gathered in front of Arnold's home Thursday to support his right to keep those gun.
"A couple days ago it was going to be me sitting here with john and today it's quite a few folks that so it's veterans veterans taking care of veterans," said Arnold's friend Ranger Rick.
Arnold had a stroke one year ago. In January, paperwork filed with the VA stated that Arnold was financially incompetent and could not handle his own affairs.
Arnold claimed the box that was checked was done in error and he was always competent to handle himself. However, the VA said that due to the paperwork, Arnold was no longer allowed to buy, sell or possess firearms.
"If somebody else makes an error and they cause you grief they should fix it," said Arnold. "That's all I want is that stuff to get fixed."
Many community members showed up to support his right to keep them.
Arnold received a letter that his firearms would be taken away July 30. An inspector was scheduled to go to Arnold's home August 6 to complete and inspection and seize the guns.
Arnold said he was amazed at the support he received Thursday. Community members showed up to support him and two state representatives made appearances as well. Representative Heather Scott from Idaho and Representative Matt Shea were both in attendance.
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"It's absolutely amazing and it gives you a new found hope that there are still people out there," said supporter Maria Bosworth.
A field officer with Bonner County Veteran Services made an appearance at the gathering at Arnold's home Thursday afternoon. He announced to the crowd that the VA inspector would not be coming to Arnold's house that day. The Veteran Service officer also said Arnold may appeal the paperwork stating he was incompetent to handle his funds.
Arnold said he would work with that officer to get things straightened out.
"I just hope everything calms down and I can live in ease in my life instead of worrying about everything and the worry shouldn't be there," said Arnold.
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6.16 - El Paso Times: Editorial: VA continues to resist reform at all costs (7 August, 420k online visitors/mo; El Paso, TX)
The French army at Verdun in 1916 wasn't this deeply entrenched.
In two separate developments last month, the Veterans Administration demonstrated yet again that its concrete-encased bureaucracy is willing and able to resist reform at all costs.
Early in July, Department of Veterans Affairs inspectors produced a 35-page analysis of the private-care alternative Congress created in 2014 to help alleviate the enormous backlog of veterans seeking health care through the VA.
Inspectors found the program, designed as a release valve for the crush of VA patients, was itself awash in delays and incompetence. Research of patients seeking care through nine VA facilities found tens of thousands of authorized doctor visits were never scheduled or carried out.
As reported by The Arizona Republic's Dennis Wagner, one private contractor took an average of 146 days to return 50 unfilled-appointment authorizations for oncology patients. In another case cited in the report, 94 of 150 rheumatology appointments booked by one private provider involved waits greater than 30 days.
Has nothing changed with the VA? Government-supplied care? Private care? It all appears the same. No one, it seems, can provide prompt, quality health care to American veterans.
At first blush, anyway.
There are a number of explanations for this latest failure of care, and few reflect negatively on the private health-care system that represents the only real hope for sick veterans.
The VA bureaucracy has resisted reform from the beginning. The Patient-Centered Community Care program, known as PC3, suffered at its onset from the usual government-program plague
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of delays and cost overruns, but it suffered infinitely more from the bureaucracy's determination to kill it.
Patient participation in the original 2014 reform, the $10 billion "Choice Card" program giving vets in rural areas a private-care option, was grossly limited by VA rules restricting eligibility.
The agency hated the program, and last week won a stare-down with Congress over its funding. On Thursday, Congress approved moving $3.3 billion from the Choice Card program into other VA programs.
Meanwhile, VA whistleblowers had their first chance to hear from the new VA chief watchdog at a Senate hearing last week. They were not much impressed.
The new VA inspector general, Linda Halliday, told senators that whistleblowers often "are not in a position to know all the facts, or they overemphasize the(ir) viewpoint."
That does not bode well for rooting out corruption and incompetence.
"I was incredibly disappointed to the point of being horrified," said Dr. Katherine Mitchell, one of the key whistleblowers at the Phoenix VA hospital.
The more the VA changes and "reforms," the more its deep-seated desire to remain exactly the same becomes clear.
It is going to be a long, hard struggle to refashion this agency into something more responsive to the veterans it serves.
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6.17 - WJHL-TV (CBS-11): VA employees to get promotions back after administration mistake (6 August, Allie Hinds, 272k online visitors/mo; Johnson City, TN)
The Veteran’s Affairs secretary asked VA leaders to be more available to the media, so Thursday the Mountain Home VA invited us to come and ask questions.
We had a long list of questions for the leaders, one was on an issue we first told you about last month.
Some VA employees’ promotions were taken away because of what the VA called an administration mistake in the promotions process.
Some of the employees got these promotions as far back as two years ago, and with the demotion they also lost raises.
The VA first told us this affected more than a dozen employees, Thursday they said they have determined it affected eight.
The VA said Thursday the employees will most likely get their promotions and raises back soon, but there are still some technical issues to sort out.
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“They will receive a bill for being overpaid during that period of time. We are very certain that that bill will be waived for them but we have to go through all of those steps to make that right,” Mountain Home VA Associate Director Dan Snyder said.
Some employees we talked with said they are concerned about losing those two years of experience on their resume since it was technically a mistake.
Snyder said that is a downside. Though the promotions will likely be given back and the employees won’t have to pay back the money earned, those two years of pay grade is gone from their work experience.
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6.18 - Federal Times: Stephen Warren resigns from VA post (6 August, Amber Corrin, 226k online visitors/mo; Springfield, VA)
After more than two years in a dual role as CIO and principal deputy assistant secretary for IT at the Veterans Affairs Department, Stephen Warren will step down as of Aug. 28, according to an internal VA e-mail announcing the news.
Warren's departure comes one month after industry IT veteran LaVerne Council was sworn in as VA CIO and assistant secretary for information and technology. With Council's arrival at the VA, Warren returned to his role as principal deputy assistant secretary for IT.
The VA CIO role oversees an IT portfolio of more than $4 billion, and has been a hot seat in recent years amid IT security issues and nationwide scandals with the agency's patient scheduling and claims processing systems.
In his time at the VA, which goes back seven years, Warren has worked dutifully to fix the agency's IT troubles, according to some who worked with him.
"Steph worked for me for four years, and was an outstanding partner in the things we accomplished during that time," said former VA CIO Roger Baker. "For those that forget, those things included completing the consolidation of VA IT, stopping 45 failing programs, delivering the GI Bill system on time, and deploying the [Veterans benefits Management System] nationally six months ahead of schedule. None of that could have been done without Steph Warren."
In the internal email to VA personnel, obtained by Federal Times, Council said that Warren's work has been instrumental in launching the efforts she is leading to boost the VA's cybersecurity.
"Stephen's leadership helped lay the foundation for the organization that we will continue to improve upon and bring to greatness," Council wrote.
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6.19 - Federal Computer Week: Deputy CIO Warren exits VA (6 August, Adam Mazmanian, 117k online visitors/mo; Vienna, VA)
Stephen Warren, the career senior executive who led IT at the Department of Veterans Affairs over a rocky two-year period, will leave VA on Aug. 28 to take the CIO post at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Warren's exit comes on the heels of LaVerne Council, a former top private sector CIO, taking the reins at the Office of Information and Technology at VA. Warren, as deputy CIO, ran the $4 billion IT department for almost two-and-a-half years on an acting basis.
Council recently announced the formation of a team to craft a cybersecurity strategy for VA, to be headed by Susan McHugh-Polley, a VA senior executive. Warren had been closely identified with VA's cybersecurity efforts, and briefed reporters monthly on the threats identified and thwarted by the use of the Einstein 3 network defense provided by the Department of Homeland Security.
"Stephen's leadership helped lay the foundation for the organization that we will continue to improve upon and bring to greatness," Council said in an email to VA staffers obtained by FCW.
Warren recounted his tenure in an email to FCW.
"Building one of the largest consolidated IT organizations; developing and deploying the new GI Bill system that today processes original enrollment requests with no required human interaction; moving the benefits determination process from a completely paper-based process to one that is now almost completely in digits; and a dramatic increase in the volume and type of information that we share with [the Department of Defense] to make sure veterans are receiving the care that they desire," Warren said in the Aug. 6 email.
Warren, an Air Force veteran, has been with VA for more than seven years. He told FCW that the death of his brother in Iraq led him to the department. He became acting CIO at VA after the departure of Roger Baker in March 2013.
Warren's time at VA was marked by run-ins with Congress and criticism over IT security. For more than four years, information security has been tabbed a material weakness by the VA's Office of Inspector General. In June 2013, only a few months after Warren took over as acting CIO, it was disclosed by former VA Chief Information Security Officer Jerry Davis that VA networks had been penetrated by nation-state sponsored cyberattackers, putting at risk personal data on 20 million veterans.
More recently, Warren has had to respond to the scheduling scandal at VA hospitals in which staffers used workarounds in the computer scheduling system to meet performance quotas. He put in place a plan in June 2014 to acquire a commercial, off-the-shelf scheduling system to replace the existing software.
Warren appears to be going out with some successes. In the area of cybersecurity, the deployment of the Einstein system has thwarted tens of millions of penetration attempts, and after years of wrangling, the VA has reported 100 percent success in encrypting laptops and desktops connected to the VA network.
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"Even with these successes there are areas where we need to continue to up our game. Technology continues to change, services to veterans continue to increase and improve, the threat to our data never diminishes," Warren told FCW.
Warren starts work at the OCC on Sept. 6, where he will lead a department responsible for a $106 million IT budget, per the federal IT Dashboard. The CIO post there has been vacant since March 20, 2015. The previous CIO, Edward Dorris, now leads IT at the National Credit Union Administration.
A replacement for Warren as deputy CIO at VA has not been announced.
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6.20 - Alaska Public Media: Choice Improvement Act helps close VA funding gap (6 August, Zachariah Hughes, 65k online visitors/mo; Anchorage, AK)
A move by the Obama Administration has freed up money in Alaska to close a funding gap in healthcare for veterans. But officials in Alaska say it isn’t a silver bullet for difficulties vets have faced the last few months connecting with care.
The Choice Improvement Act signed by the President July 31st lets Alaska shift about $20 million between programs in order to restore services that have slowed in recent months.
“Essentially what it did here in Alaska is it gave us the flexibility to get that money moved over from the Choice Act to our non-VA Care Coordination funds,” said Shawn Bransky, interim associate director for Veterans Affairs in Alaska. That money will plug holes in healthcare until the end of the fiscal year on September 30th.
The funding shortfall came in part because of national changes to how the VA pays outside providers for healthcare. The Choice Act passed in August of 2014 is credited with reducing wait-times, but has also proved far more expensive than anticipated.
In Alaska, which served as the model for VA reforms, the program backfired, extending wait- times and suddenly making routine care more complicated.
Before VA funding was turned off eight weeks ago to reign in budget overages, Alaska’s veterans were having difficulty with the third party company, TriWest, handing care under the Choice Program.
Particularly for veterans around Kenai, the Mat-Su Valley, Fairbanks, and Juneau, everything has gotten harder, according to the state’s Director for the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs Verdie Bowen.
“If someone was at one of those clinics and they needed–like, let’s say a radiology appointment–when the funding was pulled they had to go to the Veterans Choice Card, which added another layer that they had to go through,” Bowen said. Prior to the changes that radiology appointment would have been made through the VA, Bowen explained, “And it would be done pretty quick.”
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While the $20 million in restored funding will help paying for faster care, the complicated mix of national, state, and local programs isn’t always as nimble as patients and providers need it to be. And even though the money is back, there is still some accounting that has to take place before the effects are felt.
“The local VA is probably doing a stellar job trying to sort that money back out, but it would be difficult for them to turn it back on overnight,” Bowen said. “They’re gonna have to try and work out those issues with each one of those veterans that are in that care system.”
The Alaska VA also has a new interim director, Dr. Linda Boyle, a 25-year veteran of the Air Force.
And next week the nation’s Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs, Robert McDonald, will be in Alaska. He is planning to attend meetings in Wasilla, Kotzebue, and Point Hope.
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6.21 - FierceGovernmentIT: VA to have comprehensive cybersecurity plan by month's end, says official (6 August, Molly Bernhart Walker, 43k online visitors/mo; Washington, DC)
A major push at the Veterans Affairs Department's Office of Information & Technology will result in an enterprise-wide cybersecurity plan by the end of August, said Dr. Paul Tibbits, deputy chief information officer for architecture, strategy and design at VA OI&T at a conference last week.
VA's spokesman for the chief information officer Mark Farrell confirmed that, after only one month as VA's chief information officer, LaVerne Council formed an Enterprise Cybersecurity Strategy Team, or ECST. That group is charged with delivering an enterprise cybersecurity strategy plan for VA.
"The plan will help VA achieve transparency and accountability while securing veteran information," said Farrell.
The team will develop and review cybersecurity requirements and operations – encompassing everything "from desktop to software to network protection," said Farrell in an Aug. 6 email.
During a July 31 panel discussion at the OSEHRA Open Source Summit in Bethesda, Md., Tibbits said the plan will look at physical elements of VA facilities as well, such as increasingly Internet connected mechanical equipment like elevators and air conditioning units that may be vulnerable to cyber intrusion.
Given VA's healthcare mission, medical device security will also be a major consideration in the strategy.
"We need to work very closely with the biomedical engineering people...we have included in that discussion the VLANs[, or virtual local area networks,] and medical devices," said Tibbits.
Farrell said the team is led by Susan McHugh-Polley, a senior executive program manager, and comprised of leaders, subject matter experts and support staff from areas throughout OI&T.
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"I would say by the end of the month we should have our pathway forward, mapped out there as best we can do it in that time period," said Tibbits, later adding, "we should have something suitable for publication."
Farrell said that a full copy of the plan will be presented to Congress but may not be made public. A summary of the plan will likely be publicly available, however.
Prior to this review the VA had pushed for existing protocols to be fully implemented as part of a post-OPM breach "30-day cybersecurity sprint" orchestrated by the Office of Management and Budget. The primary focus was implementing PIV and two-factor authentication at the department.
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6.22 - Daytona Times: American veterans deserve better treatment (6 August, Harry C. Alford, 24k online visitors/mo; Tampa, FL)
My mentor, the late Arthur A. Fletcher, said this: “If your life becomes so miserable that you want to commit suicide, just check into a VA hospital. It won’t take long.”
Art told me that 15 years ago. Today, the status of Veterans Administration hospitals has gotten even worse. No matter how many news articles detail the bevy of scandals, Congressional hearings and Inspector General reports, it just keeps getting worse.
Wrong direction
Veterans are the jewel of our population. They put their lives on the line, with far too many giving up their lives in defense of our great nation. There has been no great civilization that did not hold its soldiers in high esteem. The direction we are headed in will make our civilization less than great. We must address this urgent and dire situation.
World War II was the biggest threat ever faced by our nation. Japan attacked our Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor; that started a war with their imperial government. while Germany immediately declared war against us at the same time. Thus started what would be called “America’s greatest generation.” Our citizens joined the military in historic and robust fashion.
We implemented a military machine never before realized by any nation. In the end, 407,000 American soldiers gave their lives to save our nation. Meanwhile, Japan lost 2.6 million military personnel and Germany spent 5.3 million military lives in its losing effort.
G.I. Bill worked
From that point on, the United States has led the world in democracy, freedom and quality of life.
Congress rewarded our military with the G.I. Bill of Rights. This program educated our veterans and provided 100-percent mortgages and medical help. The foundation of the new American middle class is the product of this program.
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But somehow the program has gone awry. The Veterans Administration is like a sick puppy trying to serve the needs of our veterans. As the Vietnam War ended, attention and due pressure was placed on the VA, but it seems to have been of little avail.
A veteran has earned the status that affords assistance to him or her. They help save our nation and deserve the best.
However, today the Veterans Administration is filled with bureaucrats so spoiled by their unions they do not give our veterans the assistance they need. They don’t provide adequate care, while the majority of the VA’s management receives annual bonuses. The unions are so powerful that it is almost impossible to fire one of these bureaucrats for malfeasance and neglect.
Died while waiting
In the hospitals, alarming rates of veterans lose their lives while waiting and waiting for assistance that never comes. Over one-third of the patient backlog of VA hospitals has already died, and no one bothers taking them off the list.
One thing we need is organized legal assistance for our veterans. My cousin was a pioneer in this area. He performed his duty as a Marine. When he finished his term, he knew he needed medical help. This was an early sign (in the 1960s) of what would later be called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He demanded 100 percent medical disability plus damages. Everyone laughed but him.
He got his niece, a very good attorney, to provide him legal advice. He filed an exhaustive lawsuit representing himself that went on for years. In the end, James Crawford was successful. He got his 100 percent disability, plus a settlement. He then started a consultancy helping other vets.
Deserve better
Many of our vets are homeless. Too many of them need mental assistance, but we just ignore them as they wither away. These heroes deserve so much better. I tear up whenever I see “Wounded Warrior” ads on television. They have to appeal to the public for assistance. Where is our government?
Let’s start a legal defense fund for our vets. VA hospitals are just too big to correct. We should put them up for sale and privatize them to hospital corporations that know what they are doing.
Let’s begin this transition now! Goodbye to the no-good bureaucrats. Hello to the professionals who know how to make a hospital run like a profitable corporation.
Harry C. Alford is the co-founder, president, and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce®. Contact him at [email protected].
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6.23 - Victor Post: VA probes link between suicide, sleep, The Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence is working on solving sleep problems to reduce suicide among veterans (6 August, Julie Sherwood, 16k online visitors/mo; Canandaigua, NY)
New research shows that the suicide rate for female veterans is nearly six times the rate for other women, and their suicide rate is so high it approaches that of male vets.
“It is alarming,” said Dr. Jan Kemp, associate director for the Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, at Wednesday’s Community Council meeting at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center.
Kemp said research and treatment to prevent suicide among all veterans continues to ramp up at the Canandaigua VA, designated as a VA Center of Excellence for research into and education about mental health issues. The Canandaigua campus is also home to the national VA Suicide Hotline call center.
The VA is always working to “do better” on research and treatment, she said.
One of the latest developments involves a link between sleep disorders and suicide. Kemp said there is mounting evidence that insomnia and other sleep problems are closely related to suicide. “We need to fix both these issues,’’ she said.
Kemp joined other professionals managing departments within the VA to update community and veterans groups about issues at the VA during Wednesday’s event, which the VA hosts quarterly. Regarding efforts to solve veterans’ sleep problems and thus help prevent suicide, Kemp said — along with research — the center has begun an intervention program with veterans and has hired a new epidemiologist. The center is also increasing its community outreach to educate more people about suicide prevention and its relationship to sleep.
According to the August 2015 Center of Excellence newsletter, an estimated 70 million Americans are affected by a lack of sleep and other sleep disorders, making insufficient sleep a public health epidemic. For veterans — who may have been exposed to traumatic events and may have post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or other mental health conditions — sleep problems are especially common.
“We don’t know why precisely there is a connection between sleep and suicidal thoughts and attempts and even death, but there is a connection,” according to Dr. Wilfred Pigeon, chief of clinical research at the Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention. Pigeon, who explains the link between sleep and suicide in the publication that was available to those attending Wednesday’s event, stated that “one thought is simply that this additional stressor of sleeping poorly is one more stressor on top of many stressors that a person may have in their life.”
One of the ways the Center of Excellence is tackling the issue is by doing studies on people who have suicidal thoughts and sleep problems, stated Pigeon, who is also associate professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center and leads the sleep and suicide studies for the Center of Excellence.
“We try to treat their sleep problems, then observe whether the severity of their suicidal thoughts decrease over time," Pigeon said. "It we can alleviate their suicidal thoughts, then there’s a chance that their risk of suicide may be lessened.”
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 67 7 August 2015
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6.24 - The Southeast Sun: Roby VA hospital reform bill passes (6 August, Ryan McCollough, 7.9k online visitors/mo; Enterprise, AL)
Veterans needing health services could see improved facilities and updated technology at local hospitals if Rep. Martha Roby (R-Alabama) gets her wish.
Roby’s new legislation, which was passed by the House after being introduced July 28, calls for top Department of Veterans Affairs officials to take over failing VA medical centers in order to bring the hospitals up to par.
Roby’s bill, “The Failing VA Medical Center Act,” requires top VA officials to intervene at the worst performing VA medical centers, sending a “rapid response team” of managers and medical professionals to turn them around. The Fort Rucker VA clinic, as well as clinics in Dothan and Monroeville, fall under the control of the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System.
Numerous times over the past few months, Roby has asked for VA leaders to do something with the problems that plague the CAVHC. During her time on the floor, Roby stated she was given a multitude of reasons why changes were not made.
“Communication and coordination between various levels of management are still badly out of sync at a time when we can least afford it,” Roby said. “It seems like every time I think we are in a position to make real progress in Central Alabama something falls through the cracks. The ball gets dropped. An opportunity gets missed. And every time, VA leadership can point to the various layers of bureaucracy for why problems persist —promises, excuses but not action. I believe it’s time to change that by breaking through the bureaucracy to get results on behalf of our veterans.”
According to U.S. Census records, 6,066 veterans call Coffee County home and another 6,730 reside in Dale County.
Roby’s bill makes VA involvement in failing health centers a requirement, not an option. She said she hopes things get “shaken up” if needed.
“It’s called the Failing VA Medical Center Recovery Act, and it offers the VA new tools to turn around the worst of our health care centers and puts responsibility for doing so squarely on the Secretary of Veterans Affairs,” Roby said. “ Under my bill, VA will recruit teams of the best managers and medical professionals that can rapidly deploy to failing medical centers to take over and take charge. These takeover teams would be managed through the newly-authorized Office of Failing Medical Centers and would have new legal tools needed to make a difference at each location. This is the anti-bureaucracy. This is the team no complacent VA employee wants to see coming because they know that the status quo is about to get shaken up. Just like at a failing school, that can serve as motivation to keep performance from dropping off.”
Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 68 7 August 2015
Todd Stacy, Roby’s communication director, said Fort Rucker’s clinic is not specifically named in the Congresswoman’s address, however since the clinic is part of the CHVAC system, changes could come.
One thing is for certain; Roby is tired of seeing change happening in other places while her district remains stagnant.
“I’m glad the Secretary used his authority to take control of the situation in Phoenix,” Roby said. “But my question is, why not Montgomery? Why not Tuskegee? Why not come and take control of the worst or second worst situation in the country, especially after we have repeatedly asked and pleaded him to do so? I’m tired of asking, and that’s why my bill requires the VA to step in and take charge.”
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Veterans Affairs Media Summary and News Clips 69 7 August 2015