Warning!....va Reviewing Ptsd Claims!

[Gimpy]

BOHICA!....BOHICA!....BOHICA!

Here it comes folks.....................

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VA Reviewing Approved Stress Claims


Associated Press | August 12, 2005

WASHINGTON - The government is going to take a new look at the claims of about a third of the military veterans who now get disability payments for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Veterans Affairs Department will begin a yearlong review next month of 72,000 cases after an internal study found inconsistencies in the way the claims were decided, including many cases approved though they lacked required medical evidence.

Millions of dollars a year could be involved.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental illness characterized by
subjective symptoms like flashbacks and nightmares, can be difficult to diagnose and quantify.

The review will cover veterans whose claims were approved between 1999 and 2004 and who receive full disability benefits - $2,299 a month - for PTSD alone or in combination with other conditions, said VA spokesman Phil Budahn.

The review won't consider the other side of the question, whether some veterans were wrongly denied benefits, and that has some critics upset.

"We need to pay as much attention to improper denials as we do to improper grants," said Illinois Rep. Lane Evans, ranking Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Budahn said the VA could look at that later, "but first we're just
going to keep our focus on the problem that's been identified."

Randy Reese, national service director for Disabled American
Veterans, complained that the review would divert resources from the VA's backlog of several hundred thousand disability claims yet to be processed.

Last year, the VA spent $4.3 billion on PTSD disability payments, not including medical care.

The number of vets receiving compensation benefits for the illness rose nearly 80 percent between 1999 and 2004 - from 120,265 to 215,871. During the same period, benefits for all types of disabilities grew by just 12 percent, to about 2.5 million.

So far, about 10 percent of the stress syndrome increase comes from veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Budahn said.

Some experts say PTSD is diagnosed too readily. "PTSD went from being problematic being accepted as a condition, to being almost too easily accepted," said Wilbur Scott, a University of Oklahoma sociologist who has written about the disorder.

Budahn attributed the increase mostly to rising awareness of the
illness, thanks to education efforts by the VA, veterans'
organizations and health care workers.

If the current review finds a veteran's claim does not include
adequate proof of a "stressor" - the specific event or events that
trigger the mental illness - the veteran will be asked to provide
more information and could ultimately lose benefits.

Proof of a service-related triggering event is one of the VA's few
hard and fast requirements for PTSD disability benefits. The
inspector general's report last May found that more than 25 percent of the PTSD cases reviewed lacked adequate proof of a service-related stressor.

"Some disabilities are inherently prone to subjective rating
decisions, especially conditions such as PTSD where much of the information needed to make a rating decision is not physically apparent," VA inspector general Richard Griffin said. "This subjectivity leads to inconsistency."

Valid stressors can be difficult to prove.

"Sometimes it's a bureaucratic nightmare to get the evidence. People in wartime aren't sitting there with a steno pad keeping good records," said Mary Ellen McCarthy, Democratic staff director for the House Veterans subcommittee on disability assistance.

The VA said it would work with vets to help them prove their cases. It will also be on guard for possible fraud - one vet in the sample review last spring submitted as evidence a personal account written by someone else and published on the Internet.

Some Iraq war vets with PTSD say identifying a single, specific
stressor can be arbitrary.

"I think the whole year over there (in Iraq) was my stressor, but
they actually wanted a specific incident," said Jesus Bocanegra, 23, of McAllen, Texas. His disability status won't be part of the review because it was approved this year. "I just gave them two."

Col. Charles Hoge, chief of psychiatry and behavior services at
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, said that while most service members with PTSD can identify incidents that affected them deeply - for instance, their worst firefight, losing a buddy or seeing injured children - "the reality is that there are also stressors that are ongoing."

Hoge has found evidence of PTSD symptoms in about 15 percent to 17 percent of service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"For most people who go into a war environment, it will affect them in some way," Hoge said. "An important minority of people are going to be affected to the degree that they need treatment."

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/...81205,00.html?

Epocosanitized_SRC=eb.nl

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[SparrowHawk62]

I welcome a review. In my case I have proven my "stressor", it's a specific account of a shipmate drowning. There are more events that are forever locked in my mind that also prove to be stressors...
Is PTSD to widely the diagnose when dealing with service persons who have been there, done that and earned the tee shirt? No friggen way! Events that are replayed over and over again and cause trauma are not just made up. An event might bother some one for years and not effect an other. Doesn't mean it's not PTSD. Something may "trigger" ones stressor and cause them to suffer from PTSD years after the event.
Suffering from PTSD has personally cost me two jobs, trouble with relationships with other people, a strong dis-like for persons in an authority position, a fear of crowds and loss of sleep. Not to mention headaches, night sweats and other lesser symptoms.
What's crazy is that they will not review denied claims. Only goes to show that this is a cost saving measure and opening new claims would not solve the so called over payment problem. I would foretell a strong amount of appeals, that will further complicate matters and delay new claims.

[Advisor]

They ought to review the 25% of the cases where no stressor was included.

[Gimpy]

Advisor, you need to talk to Doc Fred and some others who post around here I think before jumping to conclusions about that "25%".

[SparrowHawk62]

Originally posted by Advisor They ought to review the 25% of the cases where no stressor was included.

I'll wager that 75% of the 25% will be found to have a stressor! Some times it's not easy to put a finger on just what it was that caused the PTSD. Could be a series of events lumped together that would be one stressor. A few will get weeded out after all the appeals are completed, but when you deal with the mind, there's a whole lot of gray area!

[Advisor]

Just taking the figures from the report posted above.
"The inspector general's report last May found that more than 25 percent of the PTSD cases reviewed lacked adequate proof of a service-related stressor. "

[Packo]

Gimpy,

Thanks for posting this. Read it yesterday and was again appalled but not surprised. The VA has never been a friend to the Vietnam Veteran and beyond. The system was designed for the hero's of WWII and all else can kiss their asses. I fought these bastards for 12 years from within not only doing therapy with Vets but assisting them with the horrendous claims process. They have never been our "friend" and never will be. We just have to keep fighting them. I could tell you all stories that when I tell them to Iraqi Vets almost makes them vomit. I tell them straight up what to expect from this most adversarial system. What a bunch of assholes. Also, be afraid, be very afraid of VA terms like recognizable stressors. That could be, "no combat action ribbon awarded, no CIB, CMB, or decoration for valor, no purple heart". That's the kind of shit they consider "recognizable stressor". All others, truck drivers, mp's, hospital corpsmen, cooks, clerks, and supply guys, mortuary workers, no matter what they saw, if they don't have a formentioned, "recognizable stressor", then nothing happened to them, and we all know different.

Pack

[SuperScout]

Thank you for giving us a snapshot of your personal and professional experience with the VA. I have long held the same position vis a vis the VA and the post WWII veterans. It is a sacred cow that should have been led off long ago the slaughter house of inefficiency. Another sacred cow that comes to mind is the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and how they have screwed over Native Americans since its inception. The VA is no different.

[Gimpy]

Paco. For your kind words, but most of all for what you do to help those young heros returning from OIF and OEF as well as the other vets you assist.

It's a crying shame how 'adversarial' the damn VA benefits system (not the health care system) has become over time. You're right.....................they've never been our 'friend' and NEVER will be. The system of VA adjudication for ANY type of disability compensation is rampant with irresponsibilty, incompetence and proven, documented cases of corruption.

Anyone who has spent any considerable time and/or effort dealing with these assholes will confirm that. Like I've said before, I fought them for nearly 30 years and was turned down every single time I submitted a request for an increase in my disability rating NO MATTER how much proof and documentation I supplied to support my claim! Only after extensive appeals and lenghty delays and in most cases NO ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE except my personal appearence before the 'adjudicators' did I get any of these appeals granted!

The VA health care system has made great progress in recent times and is on course to continue with its success in the treatment of veterans.

The VA Benefits System is in dire need of some SERIOUS housekeeping and complete revision!

Yo Southern Bro,

[Packo]

Gimp and Scout,

Everything you both say is true. I do point out to our new brothers and sisters that not all the VA is the adjudication process. I have always had the best of luck with the Voc Rehab people. Also, there are some caring people in the Clinics and hospitals, but y'all know my last experience with the Hospital in Charleston put me off from ever using them again for anything beyond minor. They can look but never touch me again. I heard an interesting story from one of my retired Master Sgts, who was in Force Recon in Vietnam and is trying to get a claim for PTSD and having a hard time of it. He served with Marine Vet....so he's not bull shit. He has a Recon buddy who works high up in the VA. His advice to my patient was, and this is sickening but true, to find a VARO that is more sympathetic to PTSD. Then get a P.O Box in that town and have your claim moved there. He stated, in this analogy, that if your going to a place that hates all Marines, and your a Marine, find a place that likes Marines. This is how convoluted the system is that you have to shop VARO's to find one that does their friggin' job. Another great VA story. Pighmpr was just turned down on his claim for Prostate Cancer for "no evidence". His doctor, my friend, who did his radioactive seed implants sent the RO all the documents about Hmprs cancer and the operation he performed and was still turned down for "no evidence". Of course his VFW Rep, a great man I used to work with, is going to bat for him and it will get straighten out, it's just the same shit. Deny, then go through the appeal process....tough shit! Madness!

Pack