Covid

MASKING SAVES LIVES

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Changes at VA Urged as Claims for Post-Traumatic Stress Rise

Hope this doesn't mean they're going to try to "up the bar" so claims won't be accepted. Faint hope, probably.

"WASHINGTON -- The surge in the number of veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder requires development of better tests to evaluate affected personnel and determine how best to compensate them, a panel of medical experts said Tuesday.

"'As the increasing number of claims to the VA shows, PTSD has become a very significant public health problem," said Nancy Andreasen, chairwoman of the committee that prepared the report.

"'Our review of the current methods for evaluating PTSD disability claims and determining compensation indicates that a comprehensive revision is needed," said Andreasen, head of the psychiatry department at Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa.

"Claims increased from 120,265 in 1999 to 215,871 in 2004 and payments jumped from $1.72 billion to $4.28 billion in the same period, a combined committee from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council said.

1 comment:

Monkey and banana said...

... and maybe they just learned they can go in and tell the doctor they had a bad dream and are anxious about getting back on track with their life - which they all are - and get a bag of goodies. maybe this is a system abuse?