Rao bulletin 15 June 2016 html edition this bulletin contains the following articles
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- VA Privatization Update 04 ► Will Neither Improve Access Nor Reduce Costs
- Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (1937 - ) In Congress 1985 – Present ****************************** VA Mustard Gas Claims ► 90% Rejected in Last 10 Years
- Members of the U.S. military who were exposed to mustard gas in secret experiments during World War II (from left): Harry Maxson, Louis Bessho, Rollins Edwards, Paul Goldman and Sidney Wolfson.
- VA Fraud, Waste Abuse ► Reported 1 thru 15 JUN 2016 Maricopa County, AZ
- -o-o-O-o-o- Tempe, AZ
- -o-o-O-o-o- Cleveland VAMC
- VAMC Northport NY ► Unable To Perform Surgeries for Most Of 2016
- The interior of the three closed operating rooms at the VA hospital in Northport are seen through a window. ******************************** VA HCS Phoenix Update 21 ►
- VFW To Obama ► ‘No Confused Politics Here’
- Vet Unclaimed Remains ► Six Buried in Knoxville
Traumatic Brain Injury Update 52 ► VA National Vet Exam TBI Review Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald has granted equitable relief to more than 24,000 Veterans following a national review of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) medical examinations conducted in connection with disability compensation claims processed between 2007 and 2015. This action by the Secretary allows the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to offer new TBI examinations to Veterans whose initial examination for TBI was not conducted by one of four designated medical specialists and provides them with the opportunity to have their claims reprocessed. Equitable relief is a unique legal remedy that allows the Secretary to correct an injustice to a claimant where VA is not otherwise authorized to do so within the scope of the law. “Traumatic Brain Injury is a signature injury in Veterans returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and VA is proud to be an organization that sets the bar high for supporting these, and all, Veterans,” said Secretary McDonald. “Providing support for Veterans suffering from a TBI is a priority and a privilege, and we must make certain they receive a just and fair rating for their disabilities.” To ensure that TBI is properly evaluated for disability compensation purposes, VA developed a policy in 2007 requiring that one of four specialists – a psychiatrist, physiatrist, neurosurgeon or neurologist – complete TBI exams when VA does not have a prior diagnosis. Since 2007, medicine around TBI has been a rapidly evolving science. VA designated particular specialists to conduct initial TBI exams because they have the most experience with the symptoms and effects of TBI. As more research became available, VA issued a number of guidance documents that may have created confusion regarding the policy. VA has confirmed that its TBI policy guidance is now clear and being followed. “We let these Veterans down,” Secretary McDonald said. “That is why we are taking every step necessary to grant equitable relief to those affected to ensure they receive the full benefits to which they are entitled.” VA understands the importance of an accurate exam to support Veterans’ disability claims. The Secretary’s decision to grant relief will enable VA to take action on any new examinations without requiring Veterans to submit new claims. If additional benefits are due, VA will award an effective date as early as the date of the initial TBI claim. VA will contact Veterans identified as part of this national TBI review to offer them an opportunity to receive a new examination and have their claims reprocessed. More than 13,000 of these affected Veterans are already receiving service-connected compensation benefits for TBI at a 10-percent disability evaluation or higher, which means that the diagnosis has already been established. [Source: VA News Release | June 1, 2016 ++] ***************************** VA Privatization Update 04 ► Will Neither Improve Access Nor Reduce Costs Next month, the congressionally established Commission on Care will release its final recommendations on how to best reorganize the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Expect the report to call for “bold” reforms and to lay out a new plan to “improve” health care for veterans. Whatever the language, it will be critical to see this for what it is: a call to privatize the VHA. It is important to understand how the Commission arrived at this conclusion. Following the wait-time problems at the Phoenix VA, a bipartisan group of 28 Congressional representatives, myself included, passed a compromise bill to triage the immediate needs of veterans waiting for care and to begin to address the systemic issues at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and VHA. That legislation also established the Commission on Care, which was tasked with “examining veterans’ access to Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare.” Over the last two years, the Commission has held its meetings and heard testimony largely out of the public eye. As a result, without anyone noticing, a group of for-profit hospital executives and representatives of a Tea Party veterans group aligned with the Koch donor network has quietly attempted to lead the Commission to a point where its final recommendation is the privatization of the VA’s healthcare system. Put another way, the commissioners who stand to benefit the most from privatization are the ones leading the charge to dismantle the VHA. Let’s be perfectly clear: privatizing the VHA will neither improve access to care nor reduce total costs. Instead, it will turn public revenue into private profits while shifting the financial burden onto taxpayers and veterans, whose total cost of care may not be fully covered by any new voucher program. It will also likely to reduce, not improve, access to care. One of the strengths of the VHA is that it can provide a variety of services in one location, limiting the need for travel to multiple doctors’ offices. Eliminating that convenience will only increase the burden on our veterans, particularly those in rural areas. Most importantly, privatization would ignore the wishes of the men and women this system is meant to serve: a survey conducted for the Vet Voice Foundation found that 64% of veterans oppose privatization. To be sure, the VHA faces a number of systemic issues, but it is important to remember that this is a system that treats millions of veterans every year, and it treats them exceptionally well. It is not, as the commissioners supporting privatization would like you to believe, “seriously broken.” When tested, the VHA has proven that it is up to the challenge of caring for today’s injured servicemen and women. Independent research by MITRE, RAND and Grant Thornton/McKinsey found that the VHA performed the same or better than non-VA providers on 12 of 14 inpatient care effectiveness measures. The VHA also did the same or better on 16 outpatient effectiveness measures, compared with commercial health maintenance organizations. If the Commission on Care would like to see serious improvements at the VHA, it should use this opportunity to recommend legitimate funding increases for the agency. Today, the VHA faces mounting pressure to deal with injuries, including cases of traumatic brain injury and traumatic stress disorder, at a rate its people have never before experienced. For years, Republicans in Congress have deliberately underfunded the VA and VHA, leaving the agency unable to hire the doctors, nurses, and administrative staff it needs to care for our returning servicemen and women. No other agency is asked to do so much with so little, and we have recently seen the tragic consequences of continued underinvestment. Only by providing the VHA with the resources it needs — while continuing to ensure that they are used correctly — can we give our veterans the care they deserve. We must not be swayed by the misleading claims of a group that is only interested in its bottom line. The VHA is and should continue to be an example of what good government can do. Congress should ignore the calls of the healthcare industry and instead give the VHA the tools, resources and time it needs to provide our veterans with the care they have earned. It is my hope that the Commission will take this opportunity to truly try and improve healthcare for our veterans. [Source: Defense One | John D. Rockefeller IV | May 31, 2016 ++] 
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (1937 - ) In Congress 1985 – Present ****************************** VA Mustard Gas Claims ► 90% Rejected in Last 10 Years The military has acknowledged for decades it performed secret mustard gas tests on troops at the end of World War II but a Senate investigation released 31 MAY found 90 percent of related benefit claims have been rejected by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said she discovered shortfalls in the benefits process that took her breath away during a yearlong investigation into treatment of the test victims. The release of her findings is accompanied by a new bill – named after an 89-year-old former soldier from Missouri – that fast-tracks VA benefits for possibly hundreds of survivors. 
Members of the U.S. military who were exposed to mustard gas in secret experiments during World War II (from left): Harry Maxson, Louis Bessho, Rollins Edwards, Paul Goldman and Sidney Wolfson. About 60,000 servicemembers were exposed to mustard gas and another chemical agent called Lewisite as part of a clandestine defense research program in the 1940s. Of those servicemembers, about 4,000 had their entire bodies exposed to the chemical weapons. Mustard gas and Lewisite burn the skin and lungs, are linked to a variety of serious health problems and have been banned by the international community. McCaskill said she believes about 400 of the veterans could still be alive and eligible for benefits. “I think the people who are still living deserve to have their claims met and not denied, and I do think it is important to the families of those who have died for [the VA and Defense Department] to say, ‘We believe you’.” However, the majority of claims – 90 percent – made from 2005-2015 by potentially exposed veterans were rejected by the VA, McCaskill said. The VA said it was reviewing the senator’s findings. “VA greatly appreciates the service and sacrifices of every World War II veteran, and any veteran who may have been injured in mustard gas testing,” the department wrote in a statement to Stars and Stripes. “Nothing is more important to us than serving the veterans who have so nobly served our nation.” To be eligible for benefits, veterans must prove full-body exposure and have an illness linked to the chemicals. There are 14 covered health conditions, including lung cancer, heart disease and asthma. So far, only 40 veterans have been granted the health benefits, McCaskill said. Veterans have been frustrated by a lack of documentation, including an incomplete VA and Defense Department database of servicemembers exposed to chemical weapons and differing VA and DOD lists of the military facilities involved in the clandestine testing programs, according to the investigation titled “Cruel and Unusual Service.” “It has been very difficult for veterans to reach the very high standards held by the VA for proving this,” McCaskill said. “You make it all their responsibility to prove that it happened to them.” The senator unveiled a new bill, the Arla Harrell Act, that is named after a Missouri veteran who has been denied benefits four times over the past two decades, most recently in April, the Associated Press reported 30 MAY. Harrell, 89, lives in a nursing home. His repeated claims for compensation have been denied by the VA, as recently as last month. Harrell said he was exposed to mustard gas at a World War II-era military facility in Missouri called Camp Crowder, but the VA has said there is no proof of the testing there. The bill orders an expedited review of Harrell’s case and every other denied benefits claim. During the review, the VA must assume all the claimants experienced full-body exposure to the chemicals despite any lack of documentation. The Defense Department would also be required to build a new list of testing sites based on veteran claims and other evidence. McCaskill said the Army Corps of Engineers discovered and has photographic evidence of vials and gas chambers that prove the testing was conducted at Camp Crowder as Harrell has claimed. VA Secretary Bob McDonald was provided the new evidence last week and directed staff to review Harrell’s case, according to the department. “Due to privacy laws as they apply to any public discussion of any individual veteran’s claim, we cannot address the specifics of Mr. Harrell’s case,” the VA statement said. [Source: Stars and Stripes | Travis J. Tritten | June 1, 2016 ++] ***************************** VA Fraud, Waste & Abuse ► Reported 1 thru 15 JUN 2016 
Maricopa County, AZ — Police arrested an undocumented immigrant who had been using a deceased veteran’s identity to get medical and Social Security benefits. Rene Ortiz Quintana, 69, took the identity of Ruben J. Gallardo, who has been dead since 1994, to get Social Security, VA and other Federal, state and local benefits since 2012. Quintana received benefits totaling $29,062.19, according to ABC News. Quintana, who has lived in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant for around 50 years, used Gallardo’s information to an Arizona identification card, a state health card, a Phoenix health plan card and a VA choice card. The choice card allows veterans to get medical care at Non-VA facilities. Police charged Quintana with fraudulent schemes, theft and seven counts of identity theft along with six counts of forgery. It is not clear whether the immigrant will have to pay back the money. [Source: Fox News Latino | May 27, 2016 ++] -o-o-O-o-o-_Tempe,_AZ'>-o-o-O-o-o- Tempe, AZ — A man is accused of telling a tall tale about his supposed military service to obtain veteran status for his driver's license and vehicle plates. The Arizona Department of Transportation says the agency's detectives have arrested 45-year-old Eric Wolfe on suspicion of forgery and using falsified documents. Wolfe was booked 7 JUN into the custody of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office filed a direct complaint against Wolfe for three felony counts of forgery and possessing a forged instrument. Wolfe's initial court appearance was JUN. ADOT officials say Wolfe submitted a falsified DD form 214 in March to a Motor Vehicle Division representative to get the special license designation. That form is a separation document military members receive when they are formally discharged from the military. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, however, determined Wolfe never served in the U.S. Air Force as he claimed. 
Wolfe also allegedly used the forged documents to get license plates designated for veterans in March and last month -- one for his car and another for his new motorcycle, investigators say. ADOT's Office of the Inspector General says it's continuing its investigation of Wolfe to determine if he used the fraudulent credentials to defraud businesses and other organizations for a business, Project 22 LLC and a non-profit organization called Freedom K-9 Rehab. On the Arizona Corporation Commission website, Wolfe is listed as the sole member of Project 22, a limited liability corporation. He's president and director according to that same database for Freedom K-9 Rehab, again, a non-profit organization. Wolfe purported he founded Project 22 because he lost too many comrades to suicide. He supposedly partnered with the Arizona Animal Welfare League where he allegedly works as a dog trainer to train dogs to become service dogs to help veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. [Source: The Augusta Chronicle | Sandy Hodson | May 18, 2016 ++] -o-o-O-o-o- Cleveland VAMC — A former director of two Veterans Affairs medical centers in Ohio who provided confidential information to companies seeking work with the VA received was sentenced to more than 4 ½ years in prison 10 JUN and ordered to pay $390,000 in restitution. Attorneys for William Montague, 64, had asked a federal judge in Akron to sentence him to just over four years. Instead, he was given 57 months. The Brecksville man had pleaded guilty to 64 corruption-related counts in September 2014 and agreed to cooperate with the government. Montague served as director of a Cleveland VA medical center from 1995 until his retirement in 2010. He became interim director of a VA medical center in Dayton in March 2011 for nine months after an investigation found that a dentist at the facility didn't regularly change latex gloves or properly sterilize equipment, prompting concerns that patients may have been infected with diseases such as hepatitis. Prosecutors said in an indictment that while Montague served as director of both facilities, he funneled undisclosed information to companies seeking VA contracts to give them a head start on competitors. The companies paid Montague through a consulting business called House of Montague that he formed in 2008. One of those businesses was owned by Michael Forlani, a central figure in long-running corruption probe that ensnared top Cuyahoga County officials and dozens of business owners. An indictment included excerpts of telephone conversations between Montague and Forlani captured by FBI wiretaps. The indictment said Montague continued to help Forlani after the FBI raided Forlani's offices in August 2008. According to the indictment, Montague, while a VA director in Cleveland, interceded on behalf of Forlani, whose company built a $125 million office and parking garage complex next to the Cleveland medical center and was seeking to lease space to VA affiliates. The indictment said Montague accepted gifts and money from Forlani for information about VA projects in Ohio, Erie, Pennsylvania, and Buffalo, New York. Forlani was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2013 after pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy and fraud charges. [Source: The Associated Press | June 10, 2016 ++] ******************************** VAMC Northport NY ► Unable To Perform Surgeries for Most Of 2016 The top health official for the Department of Veterans Affairs quietly met with administrators at the Northport VA Medical Center Friday, seeking answers as to why Long Island’s only veterans hospital has been unable to perform surgeries for most of 2016, federal officials said. [Source: Newsday | Martin C. Evans | May 31, 2016 ++]  
The interior of the three closed operating rooms at the VA hospital in Northport are seen through a window. ******************************** VA HCS Phoenix Update 21 ► 3 Senior Officials Removed The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced 8 JUN that it has removed three senior officials at the Phoenix VA Health Care System. The move follows an announcement in March in which VA proposed the removal of Lance Robinson, the facility’s Associate Director; Brad Curry, Chief of Health Administration Service; and Dr. Darren Deering, Chief of Staff. In addition to other causes, the three were removed for negligent performance of duties and failure to provide effective oversight for not ensuring Veterans were either properly scheduled for appointments or placed on an appropriate wait list. “We have an obligation to Veterans and the American people to take appropriate accountability actions as supported by evidence,” said VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson. “While this process took far too long, the evidence supports these removals and sets the stage for moving forward.” All three employees can appeal the removal decision, should they wish to exercise that right. As General Schedule employees, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Curry have 30 days from the effective date of their removal to file an appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board. As a Title 38 employee, Dr. Deering has the right to appeal his removal through VA’s administrative grievance process. He will have 15 days from the date of delivery of the decision to formally grieve the decision to the Secretary of VA. The employees will not be paid during the appeals process should they exercise that right. [Source: VA OPIA Notice | June 8, 2016 ++] * Vets *   
VFW To Obama ► ‘No Confused Politics Here’ In defending his administration’s handling of the economy, President Obama took a swipe at the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States yesterday by alleging it was confused by rightwing media pundits and outlets. During a speech in Elkhart, Ind., the president said “I'm concerned when I watch the direction of our politics. I mean, we have been hearing this story for decades — tales about welfare queens, talking about takers, talking about the 47 percent. It's the story that's broadcast every day on some cable news stations, on rightwing radio. It's pumped into cars and bars and VFW halls all across America, and right here in Elkhart. And if you're hearing that story all the time, you start believing it. It's no wonder people think big government is the problem. No wonder public support for unions is so low. No wonder that people think the deficit has gone up under my presidency when it's actually gone down.” “I don’t know how many VFW Posts the president has ever visited,” said VFW National Commander John A. Biedrzycki Jr., “but our near 1.7 million members are a direct reflection of America, which means we represent every generation, race, religion, gender, and political and ideological viewpoint. We don’t have confused politics, we don’t need left or rightwing media filters telling us how to think or vote, and we don’t need any President of the United States lecturing us about how we are individually affected by the economy. “Our nation was created and continues to exist solely because of the men and women who wear the uniform,” he said. “Let’s not denigrate their service, their sacrifice or their intelligence." [Source: VFW Action Corps Weekly | June 3, 2016 ++] ***************************** Vet Unclaimed Remains ► Six Buried in Knoxville The flag was at half-staff, the parking areas overflowing, many cars bearing military and veteran plates or insignia. Around 200 people gathered 6 JUN to ensure that six East Tennessee military veterans who died unclaimed were remembered in death. Active-duty servicemen and servicewomen from each branch of the military escorted the remains of Sgt. Deborah Elaine Easler; Spec. 4th Class Leonard David Fairchild Jr.; Seaman Recruit Michael Lee McRill; Pvt. Calvin Coolidge Cherry Jr.; Pvt. Richard Eugene Traxler; and Fireman Robert Lowell Burk into the chapel at East Tennessee Veterans Cemetery on Gov. John Sevier Highway. Cesar Correa, pastor of NorthStar church's South campus, delivered a eulogy, reading names, dates and branches of service, and what few other details were known. "As I thought about these men and this woman, I couldn't help but wonder, what were their stories?" Correa said. "We know so precious little about these veterans, their lives, their hopes, their struggles. … How sad it is for us that we know so little of them." Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, whose father served in World War II, said he is "in awe" of veterans and expressed remorse that untreated post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues might have marred their years after service. "As a nation, this is an indictment of us, that we have homeless veterans who are not getting the care they need," Burchett said. "This should never happen in this great country of ours." This is the sixth such ceremony Berry Funeral Home has helped coordinate in Knoxville.  
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