Vets’ groups and pols to meet, discuss VA miscues
U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch said he plans to convene elected officials and veterans’ groups to examine how the Boston VA diagnoses and treats traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Two weeks ago I contacted (regional VA director) Vincent Ng and asked him to meet with me and some of the veterans advocates and our veterans service officers to look at the protocols that they are using to diagnose both TBI and PTSD,” Lynch told the Herald yesterday.
“There are some examples where we have misdiagnosed a disability within the veteran’s community, I think we have to take a much more careful look at how we are doing that,” the South Boston congressman said.
The Herald reported yesterday that Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey is calling on the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs to probe the Boston VA and how it handles brain injury claims, citing the paper’s special report last week highlighting alarming error rates in TBI diagnoses and a local Marine whose brain mass was overlooked by agency doctors.
John A. MacDonald, a spokesman for Veterans Assisting Veterans, said he was “cautiously optimistic” to see local pols “jump to action,” but promised to push them to follow through and deliver results.
“I fear we will have meetings and nothing gets resolved,” MacDonald said. “But I hope we will have meetings and get real results to help veterans and improve the VA in a positive way. That’s what we wanted out of this.
“This is great news that the elected officials are finally responding,” he added, “but we are going to keep an eye on this and we are going to hold them accountable.”
Lynch said a time and place still needs to be worked out, but he would like to have the meeting when the House is not in session the week of May 22, at the VA hospital in Jamaica Plain, where some of the mistakes have taken place.
State Sen. Michael Rush, Tom Lyons from the VA Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans, Boston Veterans Services Commissioner Giselle Sterling are likely attendees, Lynch said, along with veterans service officers from Brockton and other towns, representatives from AMVETS, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Wounded Warriors, among others.
Lynch said Markey and other delegation members will be invited, adding, “I was a little surprised to see the article. I thought we were on our way toward resolving this issue, but that’s OK. I think we need to keep the pressure on.”
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, who reached out to the House VA committee, received a reply from Tennessee U.S. Rep. David P. Roe, the committee’s chairman, saying he shared Moulton’s concerns and promised to direct his staff to “conduct vigorous oversight” of how the VA manages TBI claims, including additional hearings, if necessary.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh told the Herald he was alarmed by the reports of incorrectly processed TBI claims, which shortchanged vets’ benefits, and promised to work with federal officials to help correct the problem quickly.
“This has to be addressed immediately,” Walsh said. “There should be no situation where a veteran slips through the cracks, (or) gets misdiagnosed.
“We have the greatest medical facilities in the world here in Boston and there’s no reason our veterans don’t receive the best care in the world.”