Tag: VA

About Your VA Health Issues

As a veteran I am always watching on how the government treats our veterans…..recently it has not been good news and then I read something that made me sick….

Doctors and other medical professionals working for the Department of Veterans Affairs can now refuse to treat Democrats and unmarried veterans.

VA hospital bylaws previously barred medical staff from discriminating against patients “on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status or disability in any employment matter,” The Guardian reported.

But now, in response to President Donald Trump’s January executive order on “gender ideology,” “national origin,” “politics,” and “marital status” have been removed from the list, allowing medical staff to deny treatment based on their personal politics, according to the newspaper.

Similarly, the bylaws on staffing decisions no longer prohibit discriminating against candidates on the basis of national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, membership in a union, or affiliation with a “lawful political party.”

With more than 170 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics, the VA is the largest integrated hospital system in the U.S. It employs 26,000 doctors and serves 9 million patients annually.

In an emailed statement to The Guardian, VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz did not deny that doctors can refuse to treat patients based on their beliefs or that hospitals could fire physicians based on their marital status or political affiliation.

“All eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law,” he said in a statement, calling the rule changes a mere “formality.”

This sucks for our veterans that depend on the VA if the story is true…..

I am sure that this will be challenged in the courts and may make it to SCOTUS and if it does I have no confidence that the veterans will win that fight.

This is for all those veterans that voted for the idiot in the WH….WTF were you thinking?

Please keep abreast of the news around the VA and keep any affiliations to yourself or suffer the consequences.

I Reade, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those VA Promises

Today is Veterans Day and this will be my only post for I want to spend time remembering fallen comrades and looking back on my time in service to my country.

21+ Happy Veterans Day Pictures 2021 to Color & Draw for Facebook - Veterans Day 2021

Since my days in the Army there have been a wealth of promises to our veterans…..so far most of them have not come about…..and the Biden admin is no different…..we have new promises to do something…..

Denis McDonough was part of President Barack Obama’s administration when officials began a high-profile push to solve the problems of veterans homelessness, suicide and toxic exposure illnesses.

Now, a decade later and serving as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, McDonough acknowledges the frustration that the topics are still at the top of his agency’s to-do list.

“I’m not asking anybody for the benefit of doubt. Talk is cheap, full stop,” he said.

“I think I have a pretty good understanding of how to get things done. I think we’re out of the block strong. But again, I’m not asking for any benefit of the doubt. I understand we need to execute on this, and that’s what we intend to do.”

Department officials in August announced that for the first time, some veterans exposed to harmful burn pit smoke while serving in overseas war zones will get presumptive disability benefits, a move that could speed up help for tens of thousands of veterans of the most recent wars.

https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2021/11/09/va-secretary-promises-quicker-action-on-burn-pit-benefits-veteran-suicide/

This is strong talk….but vets have had a wealth of strong talk and yet nothing has changed for our many veterans.

I doubt that this will not change a thing….I hope I am mistaken…..

Please find the time to remember our fallen heroes….

Veterans Day 2021 Archives > Tolovana Inn, Cannon Beach, OR

Have a good holiday….Be well and be safe….

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–14Jul20

The most often used political prop is the American flag…..and that is followed closely by the veterans and their issues.

Candidates take every opportunity to make it appear that they actually care about the plight of our brave veterans. This is is a LIE….if they all cared so much then why are our vets having to beg for the benefits that were promised to them for their service to the country.

And then there are all the wasted funds and give aways to buddies of the managing teams….like the one from 2018……

The Golden Horseshoe is a weekly designation from Just the News intended to highlight egregious examples of wasteful taxpayer spending by the government. The ward is named for the horseshoe-shaped toilet seats for military airplanes that cost the Pentagon a whopping $640 each back in the 1980s. 

This week, our award is going to the Department of Veteran Affairs for awarding a $5 million contract to a company whose owners, according to a report by the department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), had a personal relationship with Peter Shelby, the VA’s then-assistant secretary for human resources and administration.The contract “resulted entirely in waste,” the OIG determined.

In February 2018, the recently appointed Shelby awarded a one-year contract to a service-disabled veteran-owned small business. The small business, which remains unnamed in the IG report, was supposed to provide leadership and development trainings, in addition to talent assessment services that could be employed for hiring and promotion decisions.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/waste-fraud-and-abuse/va-spent-5-million-entirely-wasteful-contract-went-friend-dept

So the moral of this story is when your politician uses the local vets as a prop and promises to do miraculous thongs for them…..he is LYING!

Our veterans deserve better than this country has done dating all the way back to World War One.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–10Jan20

As an amputee I found this report very disturbing…..

……there was a movie about the repossession of body parts for none payment….and I thought it was fiction……

It seems that a veteran has had his replacement leg repossessed for non-payment…..

Do I have your attention now?

A decorated military veteran who served in Vietnam and Iraq has claimed that his prosthetic legs were taken away after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would not cover the cost.

Jerry Holliman, 69, told the Clarion Ledger that he was in his room at the Veterans Home in Collins, Mississippi just a couple days before Christmas when a man walked in and took away his prosthetic limbs. According to Holliman, the VA said it would not cover the cost of the limbs, while Medicare said there’d be a copay required.

“Medicare did not send me to Vietnam,” Holliman, who received Bronze Stars in both wars in which he served, told the Ledger in an article published Thursday. “I was sent there by my country…with the understanding that if something bad happened to me, that it would be covered by the VA.”

The newspaper reported that Holliman received his prosthetics in August from the national company Hanger, which produces them. Holliman said, however, that after he received a few training lessons from Hanger staff, he was told the VA would not cover the cost and to check with Medicare.

According to Holliman, the Medicare paperwork said there would be a copay, and Holliman did not want to pay since he expected the VA to cover the costs in the end.

(Clarion Ledger)

Another example of just how badly the veterans are being screwed by the government…….do not blame Trump alone…this, sh*t has been going on for decades.

Every candidate, no matter the party, says they will protect our veterans and their words are hollow for they NEVER maker good on that promise…NONE OF THEM!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought For A Saturday

Veterans get screwed again!

The VA has been getting some bad press lately and unfortunately it just got worse.

A US Office of Special Counsel report based on complaints from three whistleblowers was sent to President Trump Wednesday, exposing scheduling and staffing issues at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis that led to a delay in medical care for veterans. While the center says it has since remedied those issues, one such delay led to a mistake called “unconscionable”: A veteran didn’t receive the at-home care he needed, and ended up losing his leg as a result, per the Indianapolis Star. The report details what happened in June 2017 after the veteran was discharged from the center following treatment for diabetic ketoacidosis and an ulcerated foot abscess. Someone was supposed to come to his home to change his bandages; when that assistance got delayed, his foot became infected, leading to an amputation below the knee.

“It is unconscionable that after serving his country, a veteran lost his limb not on the battlefield, but because of mistakes made by the agency entrusted to take care of him,” special counsel Henry J. Kerner says in his letter. Department of Veterans Affairs investigators found the unnamed chief and assistant chief of social work services at the center had told social workers to stop entering home consults into patient records because they felt it was “outside the social workers’ scope of practice.” In a letter last August sent to Kerner and seen by Task & Purpose, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie agreed with the investigators’ findings, noting the alleged issues led to a “system breakdown.” A rep for the VA center told the Star they’ll address the special counsel’s report in a statement

This goes to Trump? Will he read it? Will he do something to fix the VA? Or will he do what he always does…..NOTHING?

Closing Thought–02Apr19

Our veterans have to burden a lot on their shoulders…..they are looked up to as “heroes” whenever the need arises and ignored the rest of the time….they served this country honorably and the nation treats them horribly.

Our veterans have to deal with a VA that is inadequate for their needs……they try to live with PTSD unsuccessfully for many….and then I read this story…..

Inspectors with a government contractor found that veterans were harmed at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) nursing homes in more than two dozen states, USA Today reported Thursday.

The inspections, conducted at 99 VA facilities, found problems resulting in “actual harm” to patients in 52 facilities, according to USA Today. In three facilities, inspectors found issues that put veterans’ health and safety in “immediate jeopardy.”

Eight nursing homes put veterans in harm and jeopardy, the newspaper reported, citing reports from the inspections conducted last year from April through December.

The facilities found to cause harm are in 25 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/436383-veterans-were-harmed-in-va-nursing-homes-across-half-the-us

This is shameful and will go mostly ignored….the MSM is as fickle as the people when it comes to our veterans…..

As a veteran I get pissed when I read these types of stories……because the people will remain silent and continue the pretense that the veterans actually matter.

A closing thought…..

To Help Our Veterans

I have been very critical of our president in the past……I will have to give him his props on one subject…..Veterans.

He has given them lots of lip service in the past but has shown little truly concern for their welfare….that is until yesterday…..

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday aimed at stemming a persistently high number of veteran suicides, urging expanded outreach by awarding grants to community programs. The order creates a Cabinet-level task force that will seek to develop a national roadmap for suicide prevention, bringing in state and local organizations to raise awareness among the high-risk group. It directs the task force led by Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie to finalize a plan in 12 months, the AP reports. “Veterans suicide is a tragedy of staggering proportions,” Trump said at a signing ceremony surrounded by military families and veterans’ organizations. “Today we can help end this crisis.”

He said the problem of veteran suicide can only be solved if the entire country works together to build communities that support and protect veterans from the first moment they return to civilian life. “They courageously fulfill their duties to our nation, now we must fulfill our duties to them,” Trump said. Currently, about 20 veterans die by suicide each day, about 1.5 times higher than those who haven’t served in the military. The government says about 14 of those 20 were not under VA care, pointing to a need for improved outreach. According to the White House, the new task force will look to create a grant system similar to the Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing program, which provides funding to state and local programs. The effort, which is being dubbed the PREVENTS Initiative, will also aim to better coordinate research on suicide prevention across agencies, including Veterans Affairs, Defense and Homeland Security. PREVENTS stands for “President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide.”

I hope this is a real effort to help and not some “feel good” order.

I think we can save a bunch of money by admitting that war is the biggest contributor to the causes of vet suicides….end these worthless endless wars and the suicide rate may go down.

But DC will do what DC always does…..stretch this out for maximum cash outlay and issue a report that will not change a goddamn thing.

Screw The Vets!

Closing Thought–30Nov18

This country is failing the people at every turn…..the most blatant crap is the promise the veterans get with every election and with every election they continue to be crapped on by the very country they have signed on to protect.

This administration is NO different…it has been lying to the vets from day one……and veterans still support this goddamn poser in the White House why?

The latest debacle against the veterans is from the Trump people…..

A major snafu has hit benefit payments to student veterans under the GI Bill—and congressional aides tells NBC that they have been told the veterans are never going to be paid back. The aides say they were told by the Department of Veterans Affairs that the VA will not be making retroactive payments to veterans who were underpaid for their housing allowance because it would mean reviewing around 2 millions claims, further delaying implementation of a new system, which has already been pushed back to Dec. 2019. Under the Forever GI Bill signed into law by President Trump last year, students are supposed to be paid housing allowance based on where they take the most classes, not on where the school’s main campus is located.

Tanya Ang, vice president of Veterans Education Success, tells the Military Times that the VA’s excuse of retroactive payments creating too much work isn’t good enough. “That could be hundreds of dollars for some students—per month,” she says. “If this was a disability benefit, this would never fly.” The issue, which is the result of new legislation being introduced before the VA’s outdated computer system could handle it, has contributed to a backlog of claims that has forced some veterans facing final hardship to abandon their studies, the Tennessean reports. The agency is still working to process more than 58,000 claims, reports the Star Tribune. The paper’s editorial board calls the delays a “national disgrace.” “Those courageous enough to go into battle should face zero delays in getting the education benefits they’ve earned,” they write. (Read more GI Bill stories.)

It was not amusing to hear Speaker Ryan to stand before the military at the Pentagon and lie his ass off about what the veterans mean to this country…..they mean absolutely NOTHING from the White House down.

We hear about the obligation the people have to the country they love….sadly the country has NO such obligation toward its people.  This is the republic you keep voting for….boy are you guys morons!

Our veterans and service people deserve so much better than this country is giving them……and the country does not deserve the vets loyalty any longer.

The VA Needs Saving!

Every American veteran should be concerned in what is happening to the institution that tasked with their care…..

The institution that is there to aid all veterans with their health and entitlements (and yes if one uses the VA then they are using entitlements) and in years past there has been scandal after scandal…..but it soldier on….and then we elected a dude who was always harping about Vets and behind the scenes is screwing them……

“On any veterans issue, the first person the president calls is Ike,” says a former administration official. If the name Ike doesn’t ring a bell, at least in relation to Veterans Affairs, that’s appropriate. A ProPublica expose by Isaac Arnsdorf explains he’s “reclusive” Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter, one third of “a previously unknown triumvirate” that has clandestinely been exerting influence over the VA—never mind that none of them have served in the military or worked in government. Palm Beach doctor Bruce Moskowitz and lawyer Marc Sherman round out the trio, which is referred to within the VA as “the Mar-a-Lago Crowd,” as that location serves as their informal HQ. Arnsdorf ran into some walls on the interviewing front: the men, a VA rep, and a White House spokeswoman declined to answer questions.

His reporting is therefore based on hundreds of documents he got using the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with former administration officials. The story he has pieced together is one of significant power: The men have the president’s ear and influence over personnel, with those who “were at odds with the Mar-A-Lago crowd,” including those in a slew of top positions (secretary, deputy secretary, chief of staff, director of electronic health records modernization), “pushed out or passed over.” Arnsdorf alleges that decisions have to be run by them, officials fly to consult with them on taxpayers’ dime, and initiatives pushed by the men in some cases have benefited their own interests. Read the full piece for much more on an “arrangement … without parallel in modern presidential history.”

This does not surprise me at all……as usual he, Dear Leader, was all talk and action is questionable where the veterans are concerned…….once again someone that is big talk that has never served…there ought to be a law!

Time for veterans to take control of their benefits (watch for a Veterans Day march)…..something on the line of the Bonus Army from the past….(dammit Google it!)

So I Have Written!

Turn The Page!

VA Makes The Headlines Again

As usual the VA is making the news….this time it is because Trump has Twitted the replacement of the head of the VA……many think it was because Shulkin got a couple of freebies….but in reality it is because of his objection to the privatization of the VA…..

In hindsight, the only thing surprising about last week’s ouster of Department of Veterans Affairs chief David Shulkin was that President Trump fired him via Twitter. The agency’s size (360,000 employees, $186 billion annual budget) is second only to that of the Pentagon. Its internal turf wars may be just as epic. Consequently, Shulkin’s downfall had less to do with a European travel junket than with a bureaucratic brawl regarding the scope and pacing of VA reform.

Shulkin’s replacement—Trump’s official physician, Rear Admiral Ronny L. Jackson—has his work cut out for him. “As a job, [VA chief] may very well be several orders of magnitude more difficult than dealing with President Trump,” writes Independent Institute Research Fellow Craig Eyermann, creator of the Government Cost Calculator at MyGovCost.org.

Since the VA became a cabinet-level agency almost 30 years ago, seven of its nine chiefs have left office before their term expired. The agency’s culture of corruption goes back decades further, as the late historian and Independent Institute Research Fellow Ronald Hamowy has explained. Making the VA an effective and efficient servant of the nation’s veterans must therefore go hand in hand with ridding the agency of its toxic culture. “And so it must go,” Eyermann writes, “whether the VA wants it to be, or not.” For a sound approach to reforming the VA and many other government agencies, see Better Than Government: A New Way of Managing Life’s Risks, by Independent Institute Senior Fellow John C. Goodman.

Reform Coming to the VA, Whether It Wants This or Not, by Craig Eyermann (MyGovCost News & Blog, 4/2/18)

Failure to Provide: Healthcare at the Veterans Administration, by Ronald Hamowy (3/18/10)

Better Than Government: A New Way of Managing Life’s Risks, by John C. Goodman (10/6/16)

It is sad that the vets are nothing more than a tool to be used during a campaign and then thrown aside once the election is won.

Our veterans have been asked to do a lot and have never been given the respect they deserve….we owe the vets more than we could ever pay and yet they are lied to daily and they hope for the best….and they NEVER get it.