Efforts By VA, Pentagon To Improve TBI Treatments Seen As Benefitting Civilians.  The Los Angeles Times (10/6, Healy, 776K) reports, "Through January 2009, nearly 9,000" US troops "in Iraq or Afghanistan had been evaluated or treated for traumatic brain injury, or TBI -- the catch-all medical term for concussions and more severe injuries cause by a forceful blow to the head." The "scope of the problem," however, "is almost certainly much larger" because a "recent assessment by the Rand Corp. estimates that at least 180,000 -- and as many as 360,000 -- US troops serving in those wars may have sustained a head trauma capable of causing brain injury. That has put the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department, which provides care to those returning from combat, on high alert to an injury that is epidemic among civilians. Their substantial budgets have funded a host of projects that promise to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury well beyond the battlefield, brain injury experts say."
Impact: TBI treatments

Anti-Fraud Rules Delay Cashing Of GI Bill Checks.  In continuing coverage, the Navy Times (10/6, Maze, 54K) reports, "The latest in a string of problems that have held up Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits is that some banks are refusing to immediately cash $3,000 emergency benefits checks issued by the Veterans Affairs Department." Over "14,300 veterans showed up at VA regional offices on Friday and Saturday to take advantage of an unprecedented offer from VA to provide up to $3,000 in emergency funds while students wait for their GI Bill claims to be processed. Another 10,600 people applied online for checks that will be arriving in the mail." The "problem, according to VA officials and representatives of major veterans' organizations, is anti-fraud rules established by most banks that require large checks, especially handwritten checks, to be held until they clear before being cashed. VA officials are asking banks to help veterans by cashing the emergency checks as quickly as possible, and have set up a toll-free number for banks or other financial institutions to call so they can verify a check."
      VA Praised For Way Its DC Office Handled Distributing Emergency GI Bill Payments.  In a related story, Bob Brewin, writing in his "What's Brewin'" blog for NextGov (10/3), gave a "real 'Hooah' for the top" VA leadership, "who decided early on Friday to keep all 57 of the department's 57 regional offices open until every veteran waiting in line picked up an emergency GI bill check." Based "on reports I have received from individual veterans and veterans groups," the Washington DC "office on 1722 I Street N.W. was nearly overwhelmed by a crowd of 300 vets waiting for payment at about noon on Friday. VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts told me that to speed processing on I street, VA dispatched more computers and staff to handle the crowd," and "since it was lunch time, they ordered pizza for one and all, she said. VA likely was able to quickly assess the situation at the Washington regional office because Roberts told me Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould and Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs Tammy Duckworth were hanging out there to greet veterans."
Impact: GI Bill payments