Health: PBS Frontline and Veterans – VA Updates

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Below is a small collection of very recent reports of America’s Health Care and Veterans Issues and Care, coming out yesterday or within the last few days.

Once again the Frontline report is a must see!

FRONTLINE: Sick Around America: Watch the Full Program | PBS

As the worsening economy leads to massive job losses-potentially forcing millions more Americans to go without health insurance-FRONTLINE travels the country examining the nation’s broken health care system and explores the need for a fundamental overhaul. …

Watch The Program

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Q&A on document shredding incident

U.S. Veterans Administration’s

1. What happened?

• An audit of mail processing procedures at four Veterans Adminstration regional offices by VA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) found 36 claims documents had been inappropriately placed in shred bins for disposal. VA immediately ceased all shredding activities while a nationwide review was conducted of all documents in shred bins. Approximately 500 documents that could potentially affect a claimant’s entitlement to benefits were found improperly placed in shred bins at various regional offices. These regional offices are taking appropriate action on all of the documents found.

2. What is VA doing to keep this from happening again?m >>>>Rest Here

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More Incompetence at VA Under…..

cheney/bush/rushlicans! Possible Corruption?

VA program to schedule patient appointments on verge of collapse

The Replacement Scheduling Application Development Program, which VA began building in 2001, “still has not developed a single scheduling capability it can provide to the field, nor is there any expectation of delivery in the near future,” wrote Dr. Michael Kussman, undersecretary for health at the Veterans Health Administration, in a March 20 memo to Stephen Warren, acting assistant secretary for information and technology.

SNIP

The botched effort comes on the heels of another scheduling program — a five-year, $75 million failed project started in 2001.

SNIP

“VA has a decade-long history of initiating IT programs, only to experience extensive delays and major cost overruns,” said Gerald Manar, deputy director of the National Veterans Service at the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “The fact that VA has frittered away eight years and millions of dollars in developing the RSA, with no viable results and no end in sight, is extremely disappointing but, based on its track record, not surprising.”

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Waiting on VA — No Longer, CIO Named

Update: Within minutes of posting this item, the White House announced Roger Baker’s appointment as CIO at the Veterans Affairs Departrment. It still doesn’t change, however, what a tough job he has in fornt oif him. read below.

After today’s news, which Nextgov editor at large Bob Brewin broke, Baker may have second thoughts about the job that might await him if he is nominated and confirmed.

From the White House announcement: >>>>>Rest Here

Today, April First, is also supposed to be Tammy Duckworths’s Confirmation Hearing

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Senator Murray intro’s the: Women Veterans Health Improvement Act of 2009

Senator Patty Murray, (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has introduced bi-partisan legislation to prepare the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the influx of women veterans who will access care there in the coming years.

According to her office’s press release the bill, named the Women Veterans Health Improvement Act of 2009, will, “address unique needs of women veterans, provide improved care for Military Sexual Trauma, and explore the effects service in Iraq and Afghanistan has had on female veterans.” >>>>>Rest Here

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Bloomberg 3? NYC Veterans 0

by Veterans Joe Bello & Luis Carlos Montalván

Every Memorial and Veterans’ Day, elected officials praise veterans and the sacrifices they have made while in uniform. However, that sacrifice does not end when they return home to their families and communities.

For many veterans, the hardest and most enduring sacrifice begins the moment they return home. The combat load they shouldered for their country endures long after war is over.

For most, it lasts a lifetime.

This is especially true in New York.

New York has sent over 70,000 troops to Iraq and Afghanistan and has the fourth largest veteran population in the country. Overall, there are almost 12,000 service members from the state currently deployed in both the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of combat, many of whom are from the New York City area.

However, six years into the war in Iraq, and eight into the war in Afghanistan, many Active Duty, Reserve and National Guard veterans have come home to a city administration that does a lot of talking and thanking but nothing, other than a breakfast at Gracie Mansion on Veterans’ Day, in terms of actual, tangible services. >>>>>Rest Here