DoD Overhauling Disability Evaluation System

American Forces Press Service ^ | Jim Garamone

[SandRat]

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2007 – The Defense Department is putting in place reforms to its disability evaluation system and working to ensure the decisions of the Disability Advisory Council are fast and fair, Pentagon officials said today.

The system is used to evaluate servicemembers’ disabilities and separate or retain them, as appropriate. Servicemembers who are separated with at least a 30 percent disability rating receive disability retirement pay, medical benefits and commissary privileges. With a rating below 30 percent, veterans receive severance pay, but no benefits.

In the past, each service had its own disability evaluation system. Now DoD has put in place an overarching DoD-level framework with a single information system, Pentagon officials said. Each service manages its caseload under that framework.

The war on terrorism has taxed the system, officials said. Medical and transportation advances have allowed more servicemembers to survive more serious wounds than in previous wars. In fiscal 2006, service eligibility board caseloads were 13,162 for the Army, 5,684 for the naval services, and 4,139 for the Air Force. In 2001, the numbers were: 7,218 for the Army, 4,999 for the naval services and 2,816 in the Air Force.

DoD officials acknowledge that servicemembers have complaints about the system. According to recent media reports, servicemembers have complained that the military services are not consistent in evaluations and do not follow the Department of Veterans Affairs schedule of rating disabilities. They say it takes too long for evaluations to be processed, the process is unnecessarily complicated, and personnel running the system are inadequately trained in its nuances.

DoD is aware of these problems and is working to address them, said Marine Maj. Stewart Upton, a Pentagon spokesman. “We are in the midst of a business-process review that will generate improvements to program effectiveness,” he said. “We are especially concerned with a balance of what constitutes prompt adjudication, while maintaining reasonable flexibility within the system to ensure recoveries are not inappropriately rushed.”

He said the services have increased the number of people involved in the process.

DoD is committed to providing quality health care to servicemembers and a “full and fair due process” for disability evaluation and compensation, he said.

In fiscal 2006 most cases were processed within 70 days, officials said.

The disability process begins with medical evaluation boards at military hospitals. Attending physicians evaluate each patient, looking at conditions that may make the servicemember unfit for duty. If the condition or wound is judged to make the servicemember unfit, the board refers the case to a physical evaluation board. The board has a mix of medical officers and line officers. They determine if the problem is service-related or not. The panel further recommends compensation for the injury or condition and recommends the disability rating.

The Army has three boards at Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Walter Reed Army Medical Center here; and Fort Lewis, Wash. The Navy has a board at the Washington Navy Yard here. The Air Force board meets in San Antonio.

“Servicemembers are afforded due process to ensure their cases and concerns can be fairly considered,” Upton said. “Servicemembers also have rights of appeal at specific points in the process should they disagree with their ratings.”

[SandRat]

Spread the word far and wide

[AbeKrieger]

The US government should protect and assist those who were injured in battle and take a long look at reforming the Workers' Comp and the disability/SSI system (especially within Big Union) and start throwing some of THOSE freeloaders off the big gubment teat. Don't whip our brave soldiers while MILLIONS steal public assistance every day, and get away with it.

[omnivore]

I hope they do improve these systems. There is at least one other big problem with the VA system, I don't know if it is also a problem for people still in the service. That is that the VA severely restricts the amount (or percentage) of a settlement that can go to a lawyer to help a veteran prepare a claim. The ostensible reason is to prevent veterans from being ripped off by the lawyers, which is good. But what it means is that some veterans can't find a lawyer to help them with their claim. And that is a real problem.

I knew a disabled veteran who had this problem years ago. His claim had been turned down by the VA, and he wanted to take it to the Court of Veterans Appeal. Could not find a lawyer who would touch it, partly due to limited ability to pay, also because, since lawyers can't do these cases for "big money," they have no knowledge of or experience with the intricacies of the parts of the US Code that relate to veterans, so they don't even want to get into them pro-bono, it would take too much time to learn the ropes, for a part of the law that is a cul-de-sac, in that it has no potential for profit to a lawyer in any case. Anyway, he did all the research and wrote it up himself, I just proofread it and made suggestions on wording (I'm not a lawyer). He won his case on the appeal. But he was lucky because he was smart enough to figure out the law himself and could write well enough. Many disabled veterans can't do that.

But it should not have to be this way. I'm convinced, by this experience, that many of the problems faced by disabled veterans in the recent past, have been because they could not figure out how to get their rightful benefits out of a VA system that is designed by lawyers but deliberately tries to prevent veterans from getting useful legal help on their cases. A better system, one our troops deserve, would be either one that is much simpler to make and appeal claims to, or one that would have a provision for fair enough payment to lawyers working for veterans, to ensure that veterans would have decent representation helping them on their claims. Right now the system is set up to be very adversarial against the disabled veterans, and that is just plain wrong.

[ops33]

You are correct. I believe that the law limiting payment a lawyer can receive dates back to the time after the Civil War and the amount was set to limit the chances of veterans being gouged by their lawyers. I seem to recall early in my career a court case challenging the amount, I think the payment was $10.00, as unrealistic and, in effect, denied a veteran from getting a fair hearing because no lawyer would take the case for such an realistcally low fee. Case went all the way to the Supreme Court and the law was upheld as Constitutional.

[omnivore]

Thanks for the background. This problem indicates a true sickness infecting government, the VA specifically. The system is designed by lawyers (politicians, mostly lawyers, and senior bureaucracy administrators, who are almost all lawyers), specifically to screw over anybody who is not a lawyer. And the people who suffer in this case are the disabled veterans, the people who most deserve help, support, and benefits.

But the same dynamic is at work in other areas. Environmental (EPA, Dept. Interior) and OSHA and other regulatory bureaucracies are designed by lawyers, for lawyers, and to hell with anybody else. So the advantage goes to big corporations, which have lots of lawyers, and the people who get screwed are the small companies, especially one-person operations, which can't afford the big legal support. Lawyers, especially in government bureaucracies, are a disease.

But it's clear that the disabled veterans are personally the most tragic victims of this whole screwed up system. My heart goes out to them. But with such a messed up system, and so heavily defended by anti-disabled-veteran lawyers drawing government paychecks, I don't know what we can do.

My take is that the VA is a "captured agency," captured by elements of the left with law degrees, and now covertly dedicated to screwing over veterans in any way they can, from within the system. Perhaps it's not merely a vendetta against patriotic Americans who join the military, but may actually be a deliberate strategy to supress recruitment. Certainly, any administration that was serious about increasing recruitment, would start with a complete housecleaning and revamping of the VA, such as RIFing all the lawyers and other bureaucrats, and focusing on actually providing the highest quality service to veterans who need it. The medical care level of any VA hospital should rival or exceed that found in the greatest luminary medical centers such as Mayo Clinics, and the personal quality of care in any VA hospital should be on the level of the "boutique" hospitals such as those in Beverly Hills, etc., where celebrities get their plastic surgery done.