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VA to Increase Mental Health Capacity in Response to Calls from Congress, VSOs
The Washington Post reports that in advance of a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing scheduled by Chairman Patty Murray for next week, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki yesterday announced that 1,900 mental health professionals would be hired this year to meet the growing demand for services. DAV and other major veterans’ organizations have repeatedly called for increasing VA’s capacity to meet the mental health care needs of veterans, particularly those transitioning out of the military. “The DAV continues to hear reports from veterans on the difficulty of getting mental health appointments, even though VA’s official policy requires a veteran to be seen within 24 hours of a crisis," said DAV Executive Director Barry Jesinoski.
House Subcommittee Moves Legislation to Make Vets Disability COLA Automatic
Legislation to provide automatic cost-of-living-adjustments (COLAs) for veterans disability compensation and DIC payments was approved this week by the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, the Army Times reports. The bill, H.R. 4142, was modified to eliminate the practice of “rounding down” COLA increases that DAV and other VSOs have long opposed. The full Committee is expected to approve the legislation next Friday.
Training, Testing and Quality Control Key to Solving Veterans Claims Backlog
At a hearing on Wednesday called by House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, DAV and other major veterans’ organizations urged Congress to keep VA focused on strengthening training, testing and quality control programs in order to reform their claims processing system. While reports of a growing backlog of claims have garnered national media attention, The Washington Post quoted DAV’s Jeff Hall cautioning the Committee that, “It is essential that Congress provide careful and continuing oversight of this transformation to ensure that the VBA achieves true reform and not just arithmetic milestones, such as lowered backlogs or decreased cycle times.” |