VA: SAME-DAY CARE PROMISED NATIONWIDE!

Seeking to end years of scandal over patient treatment delays, the Department of Veterans Affairs is working to offer its patients same-day care at each of its medical centers by year's end.

The goal is part of a nine-point list of initiatives announced Friday, which is being implemented at clinics and hospitals across the nation to better care for veterans in the embattled health system.

Already, 34 facilities offer that same-day primary and mental health care. Colorado Springs is not on that list, though the capability is expected to expand, said Dr. David Shulkin, the VA's undersecretary for health, during a conference for health care journalists in Cleveland.

"This is not only possible - we're doing it today," Shulkin said. "What we need to do is to consistently do it across our 168 member centers."

The VA also plans to roll out an app across the nation that allows patients to schedule their own appointments. And the health care system is implementing a new, easier-to-use scheduling system for its staff, Shulkin said.

The initiative, called a "declaration of access" comes as the agency continues to face withering criticism over the falsification of appointment records across the nation - including at Colorado Springs' clinic at Centennial Boulevard and Fillmore Street.

A recent report by the agency's inspector general found 11.5 percent of veteran appointments for care in Colorado Springs were delayed by 30 days or more. The figure is nearly four times the national rate, and it's up 7 percent from before the new 76,000-square-foot clinic first opened.

The report also found that local clinic workers delayed adding scores of veterans to a list for the "Veterans Choice" program, which would have allowed them to seek private care. It impacted 229 of 450 cases reviewed, the report said.

The new goals are meant to help the VA move past those issues, Shulkin said.

"That is not what we believe represents the current VA today," said Shulkin, of treatment delays that first gained notoriety two years ago. "We've now moved beyond that, reaffirmed our values and making sure we're putting systems in place that work for veterans."

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Seven Dates = years of VA blocking C-123 Agent Orange exposure claims

I'd like to put seven events before veterans, our legislators and the public to illustrate VBA's tortuous and wrong-headed struggle to prevent C-123 veterans' Agent Orange claims. VA dragged out justice for years, with acts I feel violated VA21-1MR, VA's pro-veteran duty, the VA duty to process claims in a non-adversarial manner, the Veterans Claims Assistance Act and the Due Process Clause in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

This is an important matter because VA's misdeeds denied our veterans up to $150,000 in retroactive compensation generally awarded other Agent Orange veterans once claims are resolved. Plus, C-123 vets were denied years of vital medical care. Important issue, because it shows VA disregard for its own regulations and obligation for a pro-veteran perspective.

1. VBA's Agent Orange desk repeatedly informs veterans that JSRRC confirmation is required to acknowledge claims, saying VA cannot act and citing VA21-1MR requirements for JSRRC report
2. March 12 2013: VBA Agent Orange desk receives JSRRC director's confirmation of evidence for C-123 Agent Orange exposure which cites numerous government records
3. March 12 2013: VBA and VHA discuss JSRRC confirmation in their internal communications, its role and its availability to veterans and whether it triggers presumptive service connection; decision to disregard as irrelevant (violates VCAA and Due Process at this point)
4. May 9 2013: Two months after JSRRC official confirmation, VBA corresponds with C-123 veterans informing them JSRRC confirmation is necessary but does not reveal JSRRC confirmation already received two months earlier
5. June 10 2013: VBA Agent Orange desk drafts letter for Under Secretary Hickey to Oregon Governor, avoids mention of JSRRC and other government proofs received by VA, cites non-existent "specific scientific investigation" (which was instead a VHA staff consensus...no scientific study was ever done) against C-123 claims
6. July 10 2013: Mr. John Kruse (Director Benefits Team VA Congressional and Legislative Liaison) submits detailed letter from C-123 veterans re: JSRRC, VCAA violations and other issues to Secretary Shinseki, without response
7. May 2014: VBA begins receiving individual veteran JSRRC confirmations in May 2014 but does not act or inform veterans, stating it will delay and, await the IOM study (which resulted in the June 2015 Interim Final Rule)

Net effect: eligible deserving veterans were denied VA medical care and other benefits for over four years following CDC, NIH and US Public Health Service confirmation of our exposures, and for over two years following DOD JSRRC confirmation of our exposures which satisfied the VA's own regulation VA21-1MR but which VA ignored, violating Veterans Claims Assistance Act and Due Process Clause.

VA Agrees C-123 Personnel Exposed to Agent Orange, But Pretends They Aren't Veterans & Blocks Benefits

Last Thursday Congressional staffers, veterans service organizations, legal scholars and C-123 veterans met with the VA's Office of General Counsel Mr. Richard Hipolit. Despite all their disagreement about VA's approach to preventing medical care and other benefits for Reservists they agree were harmed by Agent Orange exposure, agreement was reached on one important issue: Ebola.

Actually, on any situation like ebola, but that disease was offered as an example by the C-123 Veterans Association spokesperson. If a C-17 transport crewed by Active Duty, Air Guard and Air Force Reservists were sent on a humanitarian mission to West Africa, and the crew returned home and went about their regular lives but developed ebola after a week, only the Active Duty aircrew would be cared for by the VA.

VA officials agreed with the example that because the Guard and Reserve members' ebola didn't develop while they were on active duty but after, as is the natural course of ebola and so many other toxin and biologically-induced illnesses, the VA would not offer any medical care to them. The VA's interpretation of "veteran" status of veterans* exposed to anything is that an illness (read "injury") must manifest itself during the duty period.

So, if no overnight cancers, if no overnight ALS, if no weekend ebola, the aircrews and maintainers who were asked to volunteer are are their own when these ailments appear once off duty, even if scientifically and medically tied to their duty exposures. Surviving families are also to be abandoned by VA when mom or dad Reservist dies from the illness contracted while serving.

Even when the Institute of Medicine "emphatically" informed VA that C-123 crews were exposed to Agent Orange, and even though the Secretary signed a March 17 2015 memo agreeing with that finding and restating the VA's duty to protect, VA has found (actually, created) a means to prevent caring for ill aircrew and maintenance veterans. By deciding we aren't veterans, even if we were legally qualified as veterans before flying C-123, after flying C-123s, or both.

Clearly, VA OGC's flawed legal perspective also fails every real-world test.

Their agency, responsible for meeting the medical and other needs of those who volunteer to serve, is so eager to block C-123 veterans' benefits that it has constructed a flawed legal theory...so flawed that today's Reserve Components would be unlikely to volunteer if properly informed of the risks.

Actually, our airmen are and always have been patriotic enough to volunteer and probably would do so in any situation...but they'd be foolish, knowing that the VA has determined in advance to abandon them.

VA's proposed language to address C-123 servicemembers but withdrew it under severe criticism. OGC said they would reconsider the entire situation. The proposed legislation would, if enacted, protect C-123 Agent Orange victims by making them veterans by statute, but not resolve the conundrum DOD faces with Reserve Component volunteers left unprotected in all other situations. Like ebola.

* While VA Office of General Counsel binding opinions and BVA decisions clearly say otherwise, OGC maintains under 38 U.S.C. § 101 (24) that Agent Orange-ill C-123 aircrews and maintainers were exposed in a proper duty status but weren't "injured" at the same time as the exposure. Statutes explain that Reserve Component members who are injured on Reserve duty earn "veteran" status thereby and thus are protected by appropriate veterans benefits. Yale School of Law produced very relevant point papers disagreeing with OGC, a position joined by all veterans service organizations, and members of the House and Senate.

DOD Refused (Again) To Designate C-123s As Agent Orange Exposure Sites

Asked for the third time, DOD declined for the third time to recognize former Agent Orange spray aircraft as "Agent Orange Exposure Sites." While we are not aware of the political reasons which prevent this logical step, we understand the reluctance DOD has in anything likely to assist veterans in claiming Agent Orange exposure.

Usually DOD cites lack of medical information or some other dodge, but this time they simply and honestly said, "no."

In a touch of DOD humor, we were referred back to the VA, where both we and DOD already know how C-123 veterans' claims are treated.