VA Claims Backlogs, Reimbursement for Nursing Home Care

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Promises To Reduce Disability Claims Backlog; VA To Reimburse Certain Veterans for Nursing Home Care 03/05/09. Summaries of two recent developments related to health care for veterans appear below. KaiserNetwork.org

• Disability claims: Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on Tuesday during a speech to the American Legion said that he has "taken on the issue of the backlog" of disability claims at VA but admitted that he does not understand the problem, CongressDaily reports. He said that he has begun to develop "a credible 2010 budget" for VA, adding that the current economic recession "will likely collide with the new demands," such as treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury among veterans. Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), a member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) and Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) also spoke at the conference and cited the need to reduce the backlog and improve treatment of PTSD and TBI (Kreisher, CongressDaily, 3/3).
  
  
• Nursing home care: VA officials recently sent letters to 137 state veterans nursing homes nationwide to announce plans to begin the implementation of a 2006 law that requires the department to reimburse certain veterans for the cost of care at such facilities, Long Island Newsday reports. Under the law, VA must reimburse veterans with a 70% or higher service-related disability for the full cost of care at such facilities. According to the letter, VA will begin to issue reimbursements under the law within 90 days (Evans, Long Island Newsday, 3/3).