Madigan PTSD denials were about saving money, not lives

When AP reported in September of 2011 this,

A third of military suicides told of plans to die it stated that "About 46 percent had been seen at a military treatment facility sometime in the 90 days before death. The treatment services include physical and behavioral health, substance abuse, family advocacy and chaplains."

It should have caused the American public to flood their elected officials offices with angry phone calls, but not much has changed since this report came out.

Not much changed after this report came out in 2008.

VA denies money a factor in PTSD diagnoses
The Associated Press - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 3, 2008 6:12:45 EDT
WASHINGTON — A Veterans Affairs Department psychologist denies that she was trying to save money when she suggested that counselors make fewer diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder in injured soldiers.

Norma Perez, who helps coordinate a post-traumatic stress disorder clinical team in central Texas, indicated she might have been out of line to cite growing disability claims in her March 20 e-mail titled “Suggestion.” She said her intent was simply to remind staffers that stress symptoms could also be adjustment disorder. The less severe diagnosis could save VA millions of dollars in disability payouts.

“In retrospect, I realize I did not adequately convey my message appropriately, but my intent was unequivocally to improve the quality of care our veterans received,” Perez said in testimony prepared for delivery Wednesday before a Senate panel.

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the VA inspector general are investigating whether there were broader VA policy motives behind the e-mail, which was obtained and disclosed last month by two watchdog groups. VA has strenuously denied that cost-cutting is a factor in its treatment decisions.

“One question that was raised repeatedly about this latest e-mail was, ‘Why would a clinician be so concerned about the compensation rolls?”’ said Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who chairs the Senate panel. “As an oversight body, we must know whether the actions of these VA employees point to a systemic indifference to invisible wounds.”

VA Secretary James Peake has called Perez’s e-mail suggestion “inappropriate.” VA officials this week said her e-mail was taken out of context.
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Do you really think anything is going to change now that this report came out?

Madigan memo on PTSD costs sparked Army review
February 6, 2012
A memo about a psychiatrist's remarks about costs of treating post-traumatic stress disorder has helped spark what the Army Regional Medical Command calls a "top-to-bottom" review of a Madigan Army Medical Center forensic psychiatric team charged with screening soldiers under consideration for medical retirement.

By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter

In a lecture to colleagues, a Madigan Army Medical Center psychiatrist said a soldier who retires with a post-traumatic-stress-disorder diagnosis could eventually receive $1.5 million in government payments, according to a memo by a Western Regional Medical Command ombudsman who attended the September presentation.

The psychiatrist went on to claim the rate of such diagnoses eventually could cause the Army and Department of Veterans Affairs to go broke.

"He (the psychiatrist) stated that we have to be good stewards of the tax payers dollars, and we have to ensure that we are just not 'rubber stamping' a soldier with the diagnoses of PTSD," stated the ombudsman's memo.

That memo has helped spark what the Army Medical Command calls a "top-to-bottom" review of a Madigan forensic psychiatric team charged with screening soldiers under consideration for medical retirement.
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