Only 5% PTSD veterans get evaluated among other problems

Report: 6 in 10 VA claim denials are in error
Army Times
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Dec 13, 2012

A new report on an old problem contains some sad statistics about veterans’ benefits claims:

• Thirty-one percent of claims filed with the Veterans Affairs Department are likely to be denied — and 60 percent of those denials will be erroneous.

• Sixty percent of claims will take longer than 125 days to be processed, more than 7 percent of claims will be misplaced, and 4 percent will be completely lost.

• A veteran calling VA’s benefits hotline has just a 49 percent chance of being connected to someone and receiving a correct answer.

The report, “The Veterans Disability System: Problems and Solutions,” was released Dec. 12 by the nonprofit National Center for Policy Analysis.
read more here

Here is more of the report from NCPA

The Veterans Disability System: Problems and Solutions
As of 2011, there were 22.2 million veterans currently living in the United States. Of these:

■ Some 8.57 million (38.6 percent) former military service personnel were enrolled in the health program (VHA), whereas 84.4 percent are not enrolled. [See Figure I.]
■ Another 3.47 million (15.6 percent) are currently receiving cash disability compensation.
■ And 870,000 (3.9 percent) had claims pending.
■ About 4 percent of claims applications will be lost.
■ About 63 percent of VA Regional Offices improperly manage claims-related mail.

Treatment for Mental Disorders.
Moreover, once veterans successfully navigate the disability claims process and begin receiving treatment, they find that the groundbreaking programs promise to veterans suffering from physical and psychological trauma have not been implemented. In fact, of veterans of recent conflicts:

■ Only 15 percent of veterans with a primary diagnosis of post-traumatic stress receive the minimum 8 psychotherapy sessions within a 14-week period, compared to the VA’s goal of 60 percent.
■ Only 5 percent of post-traumatic stress patients were evaluated at required intervals to determine the severity of their symptoms in 2010, compared to the VA’s stated goal of 80 percent.
■ The VA has completed only one third of its annual milestones in the development of a new objective method to diagnose mild brain trauma, whereas its stated goal was to deploy and implement the new method by 2011.

Did you know that PTSD gets worse if not treated properly? Folks when you think about the fact this nation of over 300 million people can't get it right for this many veterans, we have a huge problem.