Administration officials this year are re-upping a series of reforms to the veterans disability system they estimate would cut down on tens of thousands of unneeded medical exams and save billions of dollars. The moves, part of President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2020 budget unveiled earlier this month, call for revising rules regarding medical exams for veterans applying for benefits. The idea was discussed — though ultimately ignored — by Congress last year. But the new savings estimates around the plan could draw renewed interest this session. In last year’s budget, VA officials estimated the moves would cut about $80 million in spending annually, and nearly $1.2 billion over the next decade. This budget cycle, they’ve raised that estimate to about $250 million annually and nearly $2.7 billion by fiscal 2029. Many check-ups, reexaminations and VA appointments duplicating private-sector medical evaluations could be cut, saving veterans’ time and the federal government money. VA estimates that more than 180,000 unnecessary medical appointments were conducted in 2016 and more than 210,000 in 2017, a small but significant portion of the department’s workload. The reforms package also includes changing disability compensation benefits to remove annual income from the eligibility calculation, a move that could increase the number of eligible beneficiaries but also save time and staff in calculating those payouts. “This helps VA standardize the calculation and potentially automate payments, allowing veterans to get payments faster,” the budget document stated.  

Three years after a scientific body recommended that the Department of Veterans Affairs consider adding three conditions — bladder cancer, hypothyroidism and Parkinson’s-like symptoms — to the list of qualifying diseases tied to Agent Orange, affected veterans may soon find out whether they are eligible for disability compensation and VA health 28 care. During a Senate Veterans Affairs hearing 26 MAR on the VA budget, Dr. Richard Stone, the executive in charge of the Veterans Health Administration, said a decision on the three illnesses likely would come in the next 90 days.

Senate Bill 931, by Sen. Paul Rosino (R-Oklahoma City) and Rep. Nicole Miller (R-Edmond) establishes the Veterans Volunteer Guardianship Act to provide a platform to recruit local volunteers to serve veterans who can       no longer manage their own affairs and do not have friends or family members that are able to step in to help.  Court-appointed volunteer guardians will assist disabled veterans by providing continuity of management across a  broad spectrum of needs, including finances, personal care, and healthcare.

 “Up to ten percent of our state’s veterans don’t have a family member to assist them with significant and often stressful choices,” Miller said. “The Veterans Volunteer Guardianship Act gives the opportunity for all veterans   who need help managing financial, personal or healthcare decisions to have someone they trust accompanying   them through the process.”

  SB931 passed the House 94-0. It previously passed the Senate 47-0.

 “Oklahoma is home to thousands of disabled veterans, many who don’t have any family or friends to help them with decisions concerning their finances, healthcare and other personal affairs,” Rosino said. “This program will provide Oklahoma’s heroes with court-appointed, trained volunteers to look out for their best interests so they don’t fall victim to financial scams or make dangerous health decisions.”

These companion bills, S. 179 and H.R. 712, would direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out a clinical trial of the effects of cannabis on health outcomes of adults with chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

These measures would require the VA Secretary to conduct clinical trials that look into whether cannabis is able to reduce symptoms associated with chronic pain such as inflammation, sleep disorders, spasticity, and agitation and effects on the use or dosage of opioids, benzodiazepines or alcohol for veterans with PTSD.  

Research is necessary to determine the safety and efficacy of any drug.  At this time there are few definitive answers about risks and benefits associated with the use of cannabis on various medical conditions and illnesses.  Research is necessary to help clinicians better understand the safety and efficacy of cannabis use for certain conditions common in the veteran population such as chronic pain and posttraumatic stress. 

These bills are in line with DAV Resolution No. 023 which calls for comprehensive and scientifically rigorous research by the VA into the therapeutic benefits and risks of cannabis, cannabis-derived products as a possible treatment for service-connected disabled veterans.

Thank you for your support of our nation’s ill and injured veterans.  Please use the letters below to ask your elected officials to support S. 179/H.R. 712. 

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     About 21,000 nondeployable troops have been forced out of the ranks since the Defense Department’s “deploy or get out” policy began last summer, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan announced on Thursday.

     “A key element of strengthening our military and increasing lethality is ensuring our warfighters achieve  established physical, mental and security vetting standards,” he told members of the Senate Armed Services             Committee during a hearing on the fiscal 2020 budget request.

   “War is unforgiving, and our mission demands we remain a standards-based organization.”

     Last year, Defense Department officials estimated that about 11 percent of active-duty troops — some 235,000 —were rated as nondeployable. Almost half of that number were individuals missing medical exams or paperwork, troops nearing retirement and women service members who were pregnant.

    But the remaining 126,000 faced a range of short- and long-term injuries, or simply failed to meet military fitness standards. Military officials said those individuals would be given up to 12 months to prove their deployability or  be pushed out of the services.

Administration officials this year are re-upping a series of reforms to the veterans disability system they estimate  would cut down on tens of thousands of unneeded medical exams and save billions of dollars.

 VA spokesman Curt Cashour said the change reflects a larger number of exams and rising health care costs. A  steady increase in benefits claims combined with more complex and expensive exams translates into larger   savings if the reforms are enacted.

Administration officials argue that court rulings on the veterans disability process have shown that current VA   medical standards for benefits are excessive compared to the legal evidence needed to establish eligibility.  Many   check-ups, reexaminations and VA appointments duplicating private-sector medical evaluations could be cut,   saving veterans time and the federal government money. VA estimates that more than 180,000 unnecessary  medical appointments were conducted in 2016 and more than 210,000 in 2017, a small but significant portion of  the department’s workload.

The reforms package also includes changing disability compensation benefits to remove annual income from the eligibility calculation, a move that could increase the number of eligible beneficiaries but also save time and staff  in calculating those payouts.

 “This helps VA standardize the calculation and potentially automate payments, allowing veterans to get payments  faster,” the budget document stated.

            The VA announced March 19 that its healthcare providers will now be able to offer the newly approved Spravato nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression. The treatment will be made available to veterans based on their individual medical needs, combined with providers’ clinical assessments. The move follows the March 5 Food  and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Spravato (esketamine) nasal spray. Spravato was approved for use in conjunction with an oral antidepressant for the treatment of treatment-resistant depression in adults.

The VA revealed this week that the first of a two-phase expansion of its comprehensive family caregiver support program will be delayed-yet again.

To avoid lengthy delays in processing applications and providing support services to family caregivers, the VA MISSION Act of 2018, requires VA to first “implement” and then “certify” a new IT solution to manage the expansion of the program to all severely injured veterans who depend on family caregivers. 

Once the IT solution is certified by VA, the first phase of expansion would begin by accepting applications from veterans who were severely injured in the Vietnam War and earlier. The second phase would begin two years after the date of certification for veterans severely injured between May 1975 and September 2001.

When VA missed the first IT “implementation” deadline of October 1, 2018, VA officials gave assurances they were working to meet the next and more important “certification” deadline of October 1, 2019.  The VA now says they are working to certify the IT solution by June 2020, a full eight months later.  Even this new deadline is uncertain and it is unclear today whether VA has even implemented the new IT solution to test its capabilities in supporting the caregiver program expansion.

We urge you to visit your elected officials during the week of March 18-22, while they are in your district, or use the prepared email or write your own to contact your elected officials to voice your concern over another delay by VA in supporting dedicated family caregivers who for decades have sacrificed so much of themselves to care for their severely injured veteran.

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            “VA continues to miss deadlines and not get it right, “Senator Patti Murray said in a phone interview Wednesday.     “And we have got to make them step up to the plate and make this work.”  In a Feb. 28 letter to Wilkie, Murray and nine other Senate Democrats, including ranking members on the Veterans’ Affairs and Armed Services committees, contend VA already is months behind in needed upgrades to information technology to begin to    extend caregiver benefits to qualified veterans of the Vietnam and Korean War eras by Oct. 1, 2019, as Congress directed.

 The letter also charges VA officials with a lack of transparency as they draft regulations to implement caregiver  expansion, and criticizes some steps VA has said it wants to take to hold down future program costs, for example,    by tightening access to caregiver benefits and changing methods for calculating caregiver stipends. The letter warns Wilkie that VA lacks authority to make some of the changes eyed without getting Congress to make changes in law.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA reintroduced legislation to let Veterans Affairs doctors prescribe medical marijuana in the 33 states where it’s legal. The bill also would direct VA to research how medical marijuana might help manage chronic pain and reduce opioid misuse. “There is now abundant evidence that, where medical marijuana is available, opioid abuse goes down,” Schatz previously told POLITICO’s Sarah Owermohle.  The bill has a chance to pass Congress: The Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act, (116) / H.R. 1151 (116), is also backed by numerous veterans organizations and pain groups. “It will be difficult for even the most ardent cannabis opponents to deny veterans access to cannabis, especially considering worries about opioid addiction,” Cowen analyst Vivien Azer wrote in a note to investors late last year