Commission calls for better veterans care, help for troops' family care-givers

A presidential commission urged broad changes to veterans' care Wednesday that would boost benefits for family members helping care for the wounded, establish an easy-to-use Web site for medical records and overhaul the way disability pay is awarded.

The nine-member panel, led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Donna Shalala, health and human services secretary during the Clinton administration, also recommended stronger partnerships between the Pentagon and the private sector to boost treatment for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The 29-page draft report was presented to President Bush in the Oval Office, just after the Senate addressed some of the issues Wednesday morning by passing sweeping legislation to expand brain screenings, reduce red tape and boost military pay.

Among the commission's proposed recommendations was a called for Congress to "enable all veterans who have been deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq who need post-traumatic stress disorder care to receive it from the VA" _ an indirect rebuke to Veterans Affairs.

Only recently, the VA has taken steps to add mental health counselors and 24-hour suicide prevention services at all facilities, following high-profile incidents of suicides involving veterans. In the past, the VA had failed to use all the money for mental health that was allotted to it.

"The experiences of these young men and women have highlighted the need for fundamental changes in care management and the disability system," the draft report read.

"Making the significant improvements we recommend requires a sense of urgency and strong leadership," it said.

The commission was meeting Wednesday to discuss the proposed recommendations and formally approve them. Earlier, members met with President Bush to present their initial findings.

Bush said his hand-picked investigative panel had interesting suggestions on improving health care for those wounded in battle. But the White House said not to expect action right away.

The report does not seek to directly criticize or lay blame for shoddy outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center that brought a public outcry for change and creation of the commission. It cited a need to move forward, explaining there was no need to "reiterate" the findings of news reports which uncovered substandard care from the Defense Department and VA.

Among the proposals:

_Boost staff and money for Walter Reed until it closes in the coming years. Also urges Pentagon to work with the VA to create "integrated care teams" of doctors and nurses to see injured troops through their recovery.

_Restructure the disability pay systems to give the VA more responsibility for awarding benefits.

_Require comprehensive training programs in post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries for military leaders, VA and Pentagon personnel.

_Create a "My eBenefits" Web site, developed jointly by the VA and Pentagon, that would allow service members and doctors to access private medical information as the injured move from facility to facility to receive treatment.

_Provide better family support, because one-third of injured Iraq war veterans reported that a family member or close friend had to relocate to care for them. It calls for training and counseling for families of service members who require long-term care and improved family leave and insurance benefits for family members.

"We owe our wounded soldiers the very best care, and the very best benefits, and the very easiest to understand system," Bush said. "And so they took a very interesting approach. They took the perspective from the patient, as the patient had to work his way through the hospitals and bureaucracies. And they've come up with some very interesting and important suggestions."

Bush created the panel March 6 to investigate problems in the treatment of wounded veterans following disclosures of roach-infested conditions and shoddy outpatient care at Walter Reed.

The White House event followed the Senate's vote by unanimous consent on legislation that seeks to end inconsistencies in disability pay by providing for a special review of cases in which service members received low ratings of their level of disability. The aim is to determine if they were shortchanged.

The bill also would boost severance pay and provide $50 million for improved diagnosis of veterans with traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder. The House was considering similar measures.

"Today, the Senate took action to provide real solutions," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "From inexcusably long waits for basic care and claims, to squalid living conditions, to daunting mazes of paperwork, our heroes deserve better than what they have received from this administration. As the president considers the results of a study he commissioned nearly five months ago to examine the extent of problems, we are acting to fix them."

White House press secretary Tony Snow said that Bush would not be acting immediately on any of the recommendations. Rather, he said that the panel's ideas would likely be integrated with other ongoing efforts to improve health care and overall treatment of returning soldiers.

"We're not seeing problems with the actual medical care provided," said commissioner Gail Wilensky, an economist and senior fellow at Project HOPE, an international health education foundation. "The problems we are seeing are in administrative handoffs that occur as somebody comes back to the United States."

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On the Net:

President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors:

http://www.pccww.gov/