Vets Group: Shinseki Needs To Ask For Bigger Budget, Hire More Staff. The Air Force Times (2/25, Kennedy) says a "new report from Veterans for Common Sense comes as a reminder of what the Veterans Affairs Department needs to fix: backlogged disability cases, too many suicide attempts and patients waiting weeks to see mental health providers." After "filing several Freedom of Information Act requests" with the departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, "as well as gaining information from lawsuits against" the VA, "Veterans for Common Sense issued the report 'Looking Forward: The Status and Future of VA.'" According to the Times, the report says "new VA Secretary Eric Shinseki will have to break his department's habit of budgeting low and claiming it can make do with what it has if he wants to impress the veterans groups that have been pushing for more funding since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. 'He will have to streamline processes,' said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense," who added that Shinseki "needs to hire more staff," ask "for more money," and "remove top leaders who are bogging down the claims process."
Advocates Hoping For Advanced VA Appropriations. The Federal Times (2/25, Neal) reports, "Congress' perennial tardiness in approving federal spending bills causes major headaches for VA managers: Good nurses can't be hired. Patient wait times can't be reduced. Equipment can't be replaced or maintained. Congress failed to approve a VA spending bill on time in 19 of the past 22 years," but veterans advocates "are hopeful a new bill will change that pattern. The 2009 Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act would require Congress to approve the 2011 veterans health care budget by Oct. 1 when it also passes the 2010 budget. Subsequent funding for veterans health care programs - but not the rest of the VA budget - would be finalized one year before VA needs the money." The Times notes President Barack Obama, "as a senator in the last Congress, co-sponsored legislation to advance VA appropriations and he supported the idea during the presidential campaign."
Impact: VA Budget

Obama Says He Wants To Improve Care, Benefits For Vets. The AP (2/25) reports, "President Barack Obama says he wants to raise the pay of America's fighting forces and improve" healthcare "and benefits for veterans." The President made his remarks during his "first address to Congress."
DAV Head Concerned About Possibility Of Using Third-Party Insurers. CQ (2/25, Johnson) reports, "A veterans' organization is concerned" that the Obama Administration "could include a provision in its fiscal 2010 budget that would make health insurance providers pay for veterans' service-connected care. The concern is that veterans would then be forced to pay premiums for care for which they already have 'paid in blood and service,' said David W. Gorman, executive director of the Washington headquarters of the Disabled American Veterans. Gorman said he heard of the provision from sources within" the Department of Veterans Affairs "and said it would be unacceptable." But House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner "said that, based on his discussions with Obama, going after third-party insurance companies to provide legally obligated coverage would be meant as 'an addition to the VA, not a substitute.'"
Congressional Democrats Propose More Money For Various Agencies. In continuing coverage, the AP (2/25, Taylor) reports, "Now that they have one of their own in the White House, Democrats in Congress are moving to give domestic government agencies 8 percent more money, on average, to spend this year atop the whopping $787 billion in economic stimulus funds." Just one "day before President Barack Obama gives Congress a budget blueprint for the upcoming 2010 budget year, the House is taking up a massive $410 billion spending bill wrapping together the budgets for a dozen Cabinet departments through next September." The bill funds "the annual operating budgets of every Cabinet department except for Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs. Those agencies are especially popular politically and were funded last fall."
Durbin Invites Iraq Vets To President's Speech. The AP (2/25) reports US Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) "invited two wounded Illinois soldiers as his guests" for President Obama's "address to a joint session of Congress. Both Sgt. Ralph McCallum II of Springfield and Sgt. Rafael Delgado of Chicago" were wounded while serving in Iraq. This story was also covered by Lynn Sweet in her blog for the Chicago Sun-Times (2/24) and "The Swamp," a Chicago Tribune (2/24, Oliphant) blog.
Impact: VA Reputation, Presidential Agenda

MHS To Enhance Collection Of TBI Information. Healthcare IT News (2/24, Monegain) said the Military Health System (MHS) "will spend $14.1 million to enhance the collection" of traumatic brain injury (TBI) "and associated behavioral health information for military service members throughout the entire continuum of care. The program is managed from MHS' Defense Health Information Management System program office in support of the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs overarching response to the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors." Vagent, Inc., chosen for the job by MHS, "will develop a clinical information technology solution to improve the workflow of patients' behavioral health information and integrate with the military's electronic health record."
University Researchers Studying Clinical Profiles Of Vets Suffering From TBI. The Spectrum (2/25, Hirt), the student newspaper for the State University of New York at Buffalo, reports, "A team of researchers led by Kerry Z. Donnelly, an adjunct assistant professor" in the school's Department of Counseling, "has been studying the clinical profiles of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans suffering" from TBI "to design treatments to better the return to civilian life." Donnelly "did not originally plan to set up a large-scale study of patients with TBI. 'Our original goal was to develop a standard of clinical care across our network [in upstate New York]." She added, "In subsequent revisions of the research proposal, we added" the "psychometric study" of the VA's TBI screening tool.
Impact: TBI, Mental Health