Veterans Care Panel Wants Red Tape Slashed
A presidential commission on Wednesday urged broad changes to veterans' care that would boost benefits for family members helping the wounded, establish an easy-to-use Web site for medical records and overhaul the way disability pay is awarded.
The commission's report recommends every injured vet get a treatment plan and a recovery coordinator, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod. It also mandates care for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury; training and counseling for family members; and improvements in conditions at Walter Reed Hospital.
The nine-member panel, led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Donna Shalala, health and human services secretary during the Clinton administration, also recommended stronger partnerships between the Pentagon and the private sector to boost treatment for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.
A 29-page draft report was presented to President Bush in the Oval Office, just after the Senate addressed some of the issues Wednesday morning by passing sweeping legislation to expand brain screenings, reduce red tape and boost military pay.
The commission formally approved the recommendations later in the day.
"Gone will be the days of injured soldiers telling the same information to doctors over and over again," said Shalala, who said the proposals seek to provide more customized, personalized care to injured Iraq war veterans.
She called the report a set of recommendations that could be implemented right away. About six of the 35 proposals require legislation, while the rest call for action primarily by the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs.
Among the recommendations was an indirect rebuke of the VA — a call for Congress to "enable all veterans who have been deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq who need post-traumatic stress disorder care to receive it from the VA."
Only recently, the VA has taken steps to add mental health counselors and 24-hour suicide prevention services at all facilities, following high-profile incidents of suicides involving veterans. In the past, the VA had failed to use all the money for mental health that was allotted to it.
"The experiences of these young men and women have highlighted the need for fundamental changes in care management and the disability system," the report read.
"Making the significant improvements we recommend requires a sense of urgency and strong leadership," it said.
Report: The President's Commission On Care For America's Returning Wounded Warriors
The report says significant improvements require "urgency," but when asked when those changes might be implemented, White House spokesman Tony Snow could not say, adds Axelrod.
The report does not seek to directly criticize or lay blame for shoddy outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center that brought a public outcry for change and creation of the commission. It cited a need to move forward, explaining there was no need to "reiterate" the findings of news reports which uncovered substandard care from the Defense Department and VA.
Among the proposals:
"We owe our wounded soldiers the very best care, and the very best benefits, and the very easiest to understand system," Bush said. "And so they took a very interesting approach. They took the perspective from the patient, as the patient had to work his way through the hospitals and bureaucracies. And they've come up with some very interesting and important suggestions."
Bush created the panel March 6 to investigate problems in the treatment of wounded veterans following disclosures of roach-infested conditions and shoddy outpatient care at Walter Reed.
The White House event followed the Senate's vote by unanimous consent on legislation that seeks to end inconsistencies in disability pay by providing for a special review of cases in which service members received low ratings of their level of disability. The aim is to determine if they were shortchanged.
The bill also would boost severance pay and provide $50 million for improved diagnosis of veterans with traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder. The House was considering similar measures.
"It has been hurry up and wait for the results of this commission report and now the White House is telling our vets to wait even longer," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "That's why the Senate has moved ahead with our Wounded Warriors Act. The public is waiting, our veterans are waiting."
Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, agreed.
"It is important for the American public to understand that the Walter Reed fiasco is not over," he said. "Everything is not fixed. The follow-through will be the most important part."