Memorial Day news

As I do every year, I take today to highlight some health care news related to the military and our veterans. VA disability claims backlog grows. “The Department of Veterans Affairs anticipates that its claims backlog, defined as those older than 125 days, will grow ‘potentially up to 400,000’ in the next year, largely the…

“We are not going to let the fact there are not additional monies right now to prevent us from offering these additional services”

That is what Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said about his plan to expand urgent mental health care to thousands of veterans.  Specifically, the Shulkin plan would include mental health services for service members with less-than-honorable discharges. As reported in Modern Healthcare, Shulkin testified to Congress that of the 20 veterans who take their lives each day, about 14…

Our vets deserve better

The VA has been at the forefront of innovation in integrated care delivery.  ViSTA is the VA’s award winning IT system.  The VA has been aggresive in making sure veterans use generic drugs when these are available. Even if the VA provides high quality care, veterans are having increasing problems accessing this care. The issue…

Heroes without Health Insurance

This weekend is Memorial Day Weekend.  It is a time to celebrate the service of current and former members of the military. Although military veterans garner a lot of attention around Memorial Day, some veterans are not having their needs met the rest of the year. A recent study, for instance, finds that many veterans…