VA Clinic in Pensacola

New VA clinic opens in Pcola Monday 09/12/08. The Joint Ambulatory Care Clinic is located near Pensacola Naval Hospital and is the largest clinic within the VA Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System and will provide improved services for veterans in the Florida Panhandle and South Alabama. The Clinic encompasses over 200,000 square feet and cost $45 Million to construct. ChipleyPaper.com

HR 1527

House Passes Veterans' Health Bill, Cost-of-Living Increase 09/11/08. The House on Wednesday voted 417-0 to approve a bill (HR 1527) that would establish a three-year pilot program to allow "highly rural" veterans enrolled in four of the Department of Veterans Affairs' 21 health care networks to receive health services through outside providers, CQ Today reports. The bill defines highly rural as veterans seeking primary care who live more than 60 miles from the nearest veterans' facility; veterans seeking acute hospital care who live more than 120 miles from a facility; and those seeking tertiary care who live more than 240 miles from a facility. The bill also would allow veterans to access care at other facilities if VA determines that travel would be difficult for veterans or subject them to hardship. Separately, the House on Wednesday voted 418-0 to approve a bill (S 2617) that would provide a cost-of-living increase in disability benefits for veterans and dependents and indemnity compensation for the families of veterans. Kaisernetwork

VA Criticized Over Destroyed Specimens

House panel knocks VA over destroyed specimens 09/10/08. Lawmakers on Tuesday castigated Veterans Administration health officials for ordering the destruction of biomedical specimens on Legionnaires' disease and other infectious diseases that two prominent researchers had collected over a quarter-century. AP

Philadelphia Region VA

'Perfect storm' means VA expansion 09/10/08. Veterans receiving treatment at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in University City and four regional clinics are at their highest levels ever, according to hospital officials. More than 57,000 veterans are expected this year and even more in the years ahead. A hospital spokesman calls veterans’ health care “a growth industry” and a local congressman has described the current landscape as “a perfect storm” because of Vietnam veterans entering their 60s and two current wars. Metro

U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs Comments On GAO Report

Defense Department Failing To Effectively Monitor Health Of Returning Troops, New GAO Report Shows 09/09/08. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) commented today on a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, the latest in a number of reports on the Department of Defense’s failure to adequately assess the post-deployment health of returning servicemembers. The report issued September 4, 2008 by the Government Accountability Office, found several problems with DOD oversight of the post-deployment health reassessment (PDHRA). U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs

VA Errors

Study finds errors in Pa. VA hospital treatments 09/09/08. Some 55 prostate cancer patients were given too-low doses of radiation treatment at the local Veterans Affairs hospital in the past six years, and federal investigators want to know why. AP via PhysOrg.com

2006 Veterans Suicide Rate

Suicide Rate Among Young Male Veterans Reaches Record High in 2006, Department of Veterans Affairs Reports 09/09/08. The suicide rate among young male veterans who served during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan reached a record high in 2006, the latest year for which records are available, according to data released on Tuesday by the Department of Veterans Affairs, USA Today reports. Kaisernetwork.org