Dept. of Defense and VA miss important deadline

Dept. of Defense and VA miss important deadline


Yesterday came and went without the DoD and the VA meeting the July 1, 2008 deadline to make several improvements to the medical evaluation board (MEB), physical evaluation board (PEB), and to report to Congress on the advisability of consolidating the DoD and VA disability evaluation systems. These requirements were part of the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act and were passed into law as PUBLIC LAW 110-181 [H.R. 4986].
There are many important and vital rights that were granted by Congress in passing the law. Those rights depend on the DoD and the VA acting swiftly to publish regulations to improve processes, eliminate discrepancies between military and VA ratings, assign independent medical doctors to those members at the medical evaluation board, and to report to Congress.

I write this to draw attention to the fact that this has not happened yet, and to point out that those going through the physical disability evaluation system may have to demand their rights.


The following are several important rights that impact all those going through an MEB or PEB:
Assignment to the Servicemember of an independent physician at the MEB to provide review of MEB findings, advice, and counsel.
Setting time standards for processing of cases, setting a maximum number of cases heard at each MEB and PEB and the requirement to establish additional MEBs and PEBs when this number is exceeded.
The requirement that the DoD and VA set up procedures that ensure the "elimination of unacceptable discrepancies and improve consistency" between military and VA ratings.
Training and qualification standards for several key players in the process, including MEB physicians, PEB personnel (presumably including Board members), Physical Evaluation Board Liaison Officers (PEBLOs), and Judge Advocates.
Until they publish the required regulations, if going through disability processing, I would advise being aware of these important provisions, how they may impact your case, and demanding compliance when appropriate.
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GAO finds Army medical evaluations lacking

GAO finds Army medical evaluations lacking

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jun 10, 2008 17:10:17 EDT

The Army does not keep good enough records to properly determine which soldiers with medical issues are eligible to deploy, according to a new Government Accountability Office study released Tuesday.

And GAO estimated that 3 percent of soldiers deploying from Forts Benning and Stewart in Georgia and Fort Drum, N.Y., who are required by their medical issues to go before the medical evaluation board did not do so before they deployed.

In other words, soldiers who might have been discharged from the military for medical conditions that make them unable to do their jobs were instead deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. The GAO chose those bases because they had large numbers of deployed soldiers during the year previous to the study.

“In some cases, soldiers were not evaluated because commanders lacked timely access to profiles,” the report stated. “In other cases, commanders did not take timely actions.”
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/military_medicalissues_deploy_061008w/