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Probe: VA not doing enough for Iraq vets

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer Tue Mar 13, 7:35 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The Veterans Affairs' system for handling disability claims is
strained to its limit, and the Bush administration's current efforts to
relieve backlogs won't be enough to serve veterans returning from
Iraq and Afghanistan, investigators said Tuesday.

In testimony to a House panel, the
Government Accountability Office and Harvard professor Linda Bilmes detailed
their study into the VA's claims system in light of growing demands created
by wars. They found a system on the verge of crisis due to backlogs,
cumbersome paperwork and ballooning costs.

The House hearing is the latest to review the quality of care for wounded
troops returning from Iraq - from emergency medical care at military
hospitals, to long-term rehabilitation at VA clinics and eventual transition
to civilian life with VA disability payments.

According to their findings, the VA:

_Took between 127 to 177 days to process an initial claim and an average of
657 days to process an appeal, resulting in significant hardship to
veterans. In contrast, the private sector industry takes about 89.5 days to
process a claim.

_Had a claims backlog of roughly 600,000.

_Will see 638,000 new first-time claims in the next five years due to the
Iraq war - 400,000 by the end of 2009 alone - creating added costs of
between $70 billion and $150 billion.

_Maintained a system for determining a veteran's disability that was complex
and applied inconsistently across regional centers. Results varied; for
example, Salt Lake City took 99 days to process a claim, while Honolulu
spent 237 days.

_Had antiquated technology for processing claims, such as unreliable old fax
machines.

The findings drew fire from House members. Rep. John Hall (news, bio, voting
record), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on disability
assistance, floated the possibility that the Veterans Affairs Department
should be merged into the Defense Department.

"When our soldiers and military personnel return home and need help, they
should get the assistance they have earned without delay," said Hall, D-N.Y.

Colorado Rep. Doug Lamborn (news, bio, voting record), the panel's top
Republican, said the overstressed claims system was courting a "financial
and potentially emotional disaster."

Bilmes, a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government who
co-authored a paper on the war's economic costs with Nobel laureate Joseph
Stiglitz, described a failed system that could have been prevented after
years of warnings. She urged simplifying the disability ratings system,
reducing time VA staffers spend documenting disabilities, and conducting
random audits instead.

"The veterans returning from Iraq are suffering from the same problem that
has plagued many other aspects of the war, namely a failure to plan ahead,"
she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070313/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/veterans_care

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Want to know what's really going on in Iraq?
http://www.angelfire.com/co/COMMONSENSE/wakeup.html

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If they will stop telling lies about Democrats,
we will stop telling the truth about them." -

Aldai Stevenson, former Illinois Governor
and democratic presidential candidate.