Senators call for Pentagon to take over extended treatment of wounded veterans from VA

indystar.com

WASHINGTON -- Sens. Evan Bayh and Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that soldiers with traumatic brain injuries should get extended treatment through the Defense Department instead of the Veterans Affairs Department, which they argued is less capable of handling such injuries.

The Democrats, who serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said they would pursue legislation to make that change.

"The VA does a great job," Bayh said. "But they've simply been overwhelmed by the number of these types of injuries and are still in transition in terms of how best to treat them."

Lucille Beck, the VA official in charge of rehabilitation services, argued that the quality of care is high enough that the Pentagon sends some soldiers to the VA for brain injury treatments.

"We are doing it now, and we are doing a good job," she said.

Traumatic brain injury is becoming one of the signature combat wounds of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, affecting about 1,800 soldiers.

The VA's inspector general gave mixed reviews to the department's treatment of brain-injured vets in a 2006 report. The report said patients and their families needed more individual attention. Beck said that's been addressed.

But Bayh said wounded soldiers could get better care through the Pentagon's health-care system, including getting advanced treatment through private hospitals. He proposed giving brain-injured soldiers an extra year on active-duty status so they could remain on the Pentagon's rolls.

Ana Smythe of the Military Officers Association of America said soldiers who lose an arm stay in the Defense Department's care until they have a working prosthetic arm.

"We need to do that same thing when it is dealing with brain injury," Smythe said.