Save VA money? At what cost?
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- May
- 16
You have to wonder if the Veterans Administration exists to help veterans or to help help itself when you see reports like this, which appeared today Military Times.
It seems that an e-mail sent by the coordinator of a post-traumatic stress disorder program at an un-named VA hospital suggests that VA doctors can keep costs down by not diagnosing PTSD and giving diagnoses of adjustment disorder instead.
Adjustment disorder is considered a short-term diagnoses and doesn’t qualify vets for benefits or disability retirement pay.
Meanwhile, it’s estimated that 30 percent of combat veterans are suffering from PTSD. They deserve a correct diagnosis, the best treatment available and whatever disability pay they are entitled to.
This entry was posted
on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 2:24 pm by Rich Liebson. 
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I heard that the Stratton VA (Albany) has withdrawn the psychiatric component of treatment from the Vet Center. This info came from to us from the Stratton VA director, Mary Ellen Piche.
First the active duty unit does a crap job of evaluating because they leave it on the troop, then the data on the whereabouts of the discharged troop is difficult to access so as to help Vet centers locate them and finally the VA often doesn’t follow through. We are lucky in this region to have great Vet Centers and relatively new clinics that work efficiently. But, places like the Brooklyn VA give out drugs with crap followup… out west it is down right criminal the way some VA facilities neglect the vets. Recently the VFW celebrated Lt.Gen.Dr. James B. Peake’s appointment to the head of the VA. This clown was in position to stop the decline of Walter Reed Hospital’s 2nd Stage housing into a rodent farm. Time for a big change!