Hey, you’re the one saying that I and my cite have it all wrong. I could just answer, so what exactly are we wrong about?
But let me see how I can encapsulate this:
Soldier gets seriously wounded on the battlefield. They’ve stitched him together just enough to make the flight home, but he’s still effectively not a whole lot removed, physically, from the shape he was in coming off the battlefield. And he’s days out of a six-week coma, not exactly the ideal candidate to be ready to take care of himself.
If he’s still in the Army, his butt’s theirs, but he’s also their responsibility, and not his own: it’s their responsibility to feed him, clothe him, house him. Once he’s discharged, my understanding is that all changes, VA or no VA. Right or wrong? It doesn’t seem like a guy just days out of a coma, with his head still needing to literally be put back together, should be his own responsibility yet.
Is the VA set up to do that level of immediate repair of battlefield wounds? The VA’s history isn’t one of taking soldiers practically off the battlefield, and reconstructing them. (In past wars, soldiers in this sort of shape probably wouldn’t have even been back in the U.S. yet.) Has that changed? (That’s where I got in that link loop on the VA site.)
How strong are the guarantees that the VA will ensure that they will see his reconstruction through, and not leave it up to him to make sure they do so? (For me, this is a big issue: he’s not in very good shape, and it’s up to somebody else to get him back to something as reasonably close to ‘normal’ as can be managed; if it’s left up to him to get himself back in for the next step, he’s as likely as not to drop the ball. If he stays in, he’s the Army’s problem.)
First of all, VA recognizes that many veterans do not live within driving distance to a VA Medical Center, that is why more and more VA outreach clinics are being opened. There is also a section at VA Medical Centers called Fee Services that will authorize outside treatment.
Upon registering for VA medical care, veterans are put into priority groups. Depending on where a veteran falls into these groups, will dictate the priority of treatment as well as cost.
Once you apply for enrollment, your eligibility will be verified. Based on your specific eligibility status, you will be assigned a priority group. The priority groups are as follows, ranging from 1-8 with 1 being the highest priority for enrollment. Under the Medical Benefits Package, the same services are generally available to all enrolled veterans. As of January 17, 2003, VA is not accepting new Priority Group 8 veterans for enrollment (veterans falling into Priority Groups 8e and 8g.)
Priority Group 1
· Veterans with service-connected disabilities rated 50% or more disabling
Priority Group 2
· Veterans with service-connected disabilities rated 30% or 40% disabling
Priority Group 3
· Veterans who are former POWs
· Veterans awarded the Purple Heart
· Veterans whose discharge was for a disability that was incurred or aggravated in the line of duty
· Veterans with service-connected disabilities rated 10% or 20% disabling
· Veterans awarded special eligibility classification under Title 38, U.S.C., Section 1151, “benefits for individuals disabled by treatment or vocational rehabilitation”
Priority Group 4
· Veterans who are receiving aid and attendance or housebound benefits
· Veterans who have been determined by VA to be catastrophically disabled
Priority Group 5
· Nonservice-connected veterans and noncompensable service-connected veterans rated 0% disabled whose annual income and net worth are below the established VA Means Test thresholds
· Veterans receiving VA pension benefits
· Veterans eligible for Medicaid benefits
Priority Group 6
· Compensable 0% service-connected veterans
· World War I veterans
· Mexican Border War veterans
· Veterans solely seeking care for disorders associated with:
exposure to herbicides while serving in Vietnam; or
exposure to ionizing radiation during atmospheric testing or during the occupation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; or
for disorders associated with service in the Gulf War; or
for any illness associated with service in combat in a war after the Gulf War or during a period of hostility after November 11, 1998.
Priority Group 7
Veterans who agree to pay specified co-payments with income and/or net worth above the VA Means Test threshold and income below the HUD geographic index
· Subpriority a: Noncompensable 0% service-connected veterans who were enrolled in the VA Health Care System on a specified date and who have remained enrolled since that date
· Subpriority c: Nonservice-connected veterans who were enrolled in the VA Health Care System on a specified date and who have remained enrolled since that date
· Subpriority e: Noncompensable 0% service-connected veterans not included in Subpriority a above
· Subpriority g: Nonservice-connected veterans not included in Subpriority c above
Priority Group 8
Veterans who agree to pay specified co-payments with income and/or net worth above the VA Means Test threshold and the HUD geographic index
· Subpriority a: Noncompensable 0% service-connected veterans enrolled as of January 16, 2003 and who have remained enrolled since that date
· Subpriority c: Nonservice-connected veterans enrolled as of January 16, 2003 and who have remained enrolled since that date
· Subpriority e: Noncompensable 0% service-connected veterans applying for enrollment after January 16, 2003
· Subpriority g: Nonservice-connected veterans applying for enrollment after January 16, 2003"
I do not know the situation with your father and where he fell into the priority groups, but I am almost certain that you can thank Congress and their budget. They continue to under-fund veteran’s health benefits in spite of the fact that we are in war. There is no longer enrollment acceptence in Priority Group 8 and Group 7 is slowly becoming a thing of the past. It’s just as frustrating for us as it is for veterans and their families. Trust me.
If enough veterans, veterans groups, families of vets, lobby congress hard enough, maybe this will one day change. It would certainly make the jobs of VA workers a lot easier.
“Under the discretionary method, funding for veterans health care is determined by political processes and based more on political considerations than actual funding needs. The lack of a consistent and reliable budget process has prevented VA from adequately planning for and meeting the growing needs of veterans seeking health care. VA’s enrolled patient population has increased from 4.3 million in 1999 to 7.4 million in 2004, a 72 percent increase. However, appropriated funding for VA medical care only increased 41 percent from FY 1999 to FY 2005 when adjusted for inflation.
The VA’s funding crisis is exacerbated by Congress not passing the VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies appropriations bill prior to the start of the new fiscal year which begins on October 1. Unfortunately, failing to provide a VA budget on time is becoming an annual tradition. In the past five fiscal years, VA has not received its appropriation before the start of the new fiscal year. In the past two years, the appropriation was not enacted until after January 1 of the next year—more than one-third of the way through the new fiscal year.: Under the discretionary method, funding for veterans health care is determined by political processes and based more on political considerations than actual funding needs. The lack of a consistent and reliable budget process has prevented VA from adequately planning for and meeting the growing needs of veterans seeking health care. VA’s enrolled patient population has increased from 4.3 million in 1999 to 7.4 million in 2004, a 72 percent increase. However, appropriated funding for VA medical care only increased 41 percent from FY 1999 to FY 2005 when adjusted for inflation.
The VA’s funding crisis is exacerbated by Congress not passing the VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies appropriations bill prior to the start of the new fiscal year which begins on October 1. Unfortunately, failing to provide a VA budget on time is becoming an annual tradition. In the past five fiscal years, VA has not received its appropriation before the start of the new fiscal year. In the past two years, the appropriation was not enacted until after January 1 of the next year—more than one-third of the way through the new fiscal year.”
As I have been trying to show you, the military is not tossing these guys out on the street to care for themselves. The military cares for the soldier in facilities such as the one in Landstuhl then once they can safely transport them stateside, they are sent to facilities such as Walker Reed. From there, the military and VA work hand in had to transition the veteran from military care to VA care. The VA is simply the agency most equipped to care for these people, not the military. He is still fed, clothes, housed. . . only on the VA dime as opposed to military.
Once they are discharged, they will continue to receive ongoing treatment for the rest of their lives (assuming their disabilities warrant that) and will receive a monthly compensation as well as many other benefits (education, counseling, voc rehab, additional loan guaranty benefits, tax breaks, even free access to national parks). AGAIN, the military is not set up to administer these programs, it is the VA. A soldier is not eligible until released from active duty.
Yes and no.
The military does the immediate repair of battlefield wounds, usually at facilities such as Landstuhl and Walter Reed. However, VA is better equipped to continue ongoing specialized and critical care. It benefits the soldier both medically and financially to discharge and begin receiving services from VA as soon as possible.
Again, the Army is not equipped to follow and treat severely injured and disabled soldiers. That is the purpose of VA.
A service connected disabled veteran will always be entitled to treatment and care of those disabilities as well as receiving a monthly compensation and other benefits. VA has treatment, both medical and mental, that specialized in the specific needs of war-injured veterans. He is much, much better cared for and followed than he would be if he stays in the service.
The military’s purpose is national defense, the purpose of VA is treatment of disabled veterans. Two totally different animals.
As for the veteran dropping the ball. Of course we cannot drag these people in for treatment kicking and screaming if they do not want to go. However, there is a program through the VA in which guardians and fiduciaries are assigned to those veterans who are disabled to the point that they are unable to manage their own care, personal needs, funds, etc. The guardians and fiduciaries insure that these veterans are being well cared for medically and financially.
I apologize for the typos and confusing nature of my post. I am late for an appointment and typed this really fast and don’t have time to review.
SInce you’re the pro (as in “knows what she’s talking about”) here, I don’t think you CAN hog the thread as long as you are answering people’s questions and misconceptions, and there seem to be lots of them.
I still don’t think you’ve made a very good case. See below.
The question is, at what point in a soldier’s hospitalization and recovery IS the VA better suited to take over?
My question wasn’t, who pays for it, so much as who takes care of it, when a soldier’s not yet able to take care of himself?
Bolding mine.
I agree with you - that’s what the VA is set up to do, and does very well: ongoing treatment. This guy’s looking at some pretty heavy-duty, one-time surgeries, as they’re trying to discharge him. Not ongoing treatment and physical therapy.
And this soldier isn’t ready to take advantage of them, which buttresses my contention that he should still be in the military. Once he’s ready for voc rehab and the like, he should be discharged, for sure.
Again, my bolding. Same idea as before.
As soon as possible in what sense? Why even wait until they’re wounded? That sentence has no meaning.
The Army certainly IS equipped to treat severely injured soldiers; it’s been doing it in every war this past century. But you’re right that it’s not equipped to follow soldiers. Once they can take care of themselves from day to day and get around on their own - sure, their care should fall to the VA.
Yes, but once again, your terminology suggests you’re talking about vets who’ve already had their major reconstructive surgeries and are at least at the point of having to relearn how to work inside of their bodies as they have become.
OK, that’s a substantive answer to at least one of my questions.
But presumably, we’re still talking about the vet who has been through the larger part of his physical reconstruction - the reconstructive surgery that must be done before there’s anything to do therapy with - who is put into this program.
You don’t just take a wounded soldier off the battlefield and hand him directly to the VA. The question is, what stages of the wounded vet’s reconstruction and rehabilitation are the military hospitals best suited to do, and what parts is the VA most capable of handling? You seem to have answered that. And if the military is discharging soldiers well before they’re at the point where the VA’s role is appropriate for the soldier’s condition, then I’d call that ‘shoving them out the door.’
All the military does is pass the buck. Get the wounded soldier out of the military and off our budget and onto the VA’s…
Whe I got out of the army back in '74 I was held for a month and a half on medical hold. They would not let me out until I was healthy enough to go on my own.
Maybe I am rushing and not making myself clear, I dunno, but it feels like I am saying
the same thing over and over but still not being understood.
First of all, yes, I did say ongoing, however, VA is very much equipped in picking up where the military leaves off for immediate treatment as well no matter where in the treatment that falls. Many wounded soldiers are transported from Landstuhl to the U.S. and into VA facilities as soon as it is safe to transport. Some of them severely injured and still in need of major surgeries and treatment. VA is more than capable in administering this type of treatment so why should we expect that the military not hand them off to VA as soon as it is safely possible? Why should we expect the military to perform duties that have clearly been established as VA functions?
Again, DoD’s purpose is national defense, one purpose of VA is treatment of those who are injured while on active duty.
What would be the point of his remaining on active duty when he clearly cannot perform his functions as a soldier? It not only benefits the military to discharge the soldier, but the soldier as well as he will not be eligible for additional until he leaves active duty status.
You take a wounded soldier off the battlefield, begin treatment, determine whether or not he will be capable of fulfilling his duties, if not, you begin the process of transferring him from DoD (discharge) and into the VA system, where his needs will be better met as a disabled veteran unable to return to duty.
VA medical centers are the best suited in the country in administering the unique, specialized treatment needed by war injured, even the most severely wounded – prosthetics, amputations, injuries due to explosives, exposures to certain agents (mustard gas, radiation, Agent Orange, environmental hazards (Gulf War). . . ), post traumatic stress disorder. The VA’s role is appropriate the very minute that it has been determined that a soldier will be unable to return to his duties and it is safe to physically transfer him to a VA facility if needed. There are veterans representatives who are stationed at military hospitals to help assist the proccess before it even takes place. No one is “shoving them out the door”.
The military “passes the buck” to the agency whose purpose it is to receive “that buck”. There is no reason to keep a soldier in the service if he is not going to be able to perform his duties.
Things are very different now and a lot more efficient than they were more than 30 years ago.
My guess is that you received a one-time disability severance pay from the military (which is based on rank), and has nothing to do with a VA disability rating for disabled veterans. A military disability severance payment is a payment DoD gives to a soldier discharging due to a disability. In most cases, these soldiers file a disability claim with VA and received a VA rating which may or may not be the same percentage of the disability percentage they were given by DoD. VA rates under their own criteria.
In this situation, VA compensation is withheld until the severance pay is recouped, then the veteran will begin receiving VA compensation based upon the rate chart I mentioned above, that has nothing to do with rank or pay.
OK, this is the needed response to the article I cited in the OP. If the VA is equipped to deal with severely wounded soldiers all but fresh from the battlefield, then there is no reason to keep them in active-duty status in order to ensure that they get proper care.
When my late father in law was still with us, he tried to get help through the VA with problems with his feet. These problems arose because of frostbite and gangrene suffered while a POW in Germany. The length of time he typically had to wait for an appointment was very long, and he had to be seen in Augusta, which is quite a distance from here. From what I understand from other relatives of VA patients, the VA isn’t doing a very good job of keeping up with the veterans of previous wars, let alone all the new ones this (bullshit) war is producing.