United States
Department of Veterans Affairs |
Seal of the Department of Veterans Affairs |
| Agency overview |
| Formed |
October 25, 1988 |
| Employees |
235,000+ (2006) |
| Annual Budget |
$73.2 billion (2006) |
| Agency Executive |
Gordon H. Mansfield, Acting Secretary |
| Website |
| www.va.gov |
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system with
Cabinet-level status. It is responsible for administering programs of veterans
benefits for veterans, their families, and survivors.
The benefits provided include compensation, pension, education, home loans, life insurance, vocational rehabilitation,
survivors' benefits, medical benefits and burial benefits.[1]
It is administered by the United States Secretary of Veterans
Affairs.
History
It was formerly called the Veterans Administration, also called the VA, which was established July 21, 1930, to consolidate
and coordinate government activities affecting war veterans. The VA incorporated the functions of the former U.S. Veterans'
Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior
Department and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.
Long Beach VA medical center
On October 25, 1988, President Reagan signed legislation creating a new federal Cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs to
replace the Veterans Administration effective March 15, 1989.
In both its old and new forms, the VA drew its mission statement from President Abraham
Lincoln's eloquent Second Inaugural Address. The specific
phrase quoted by VA is: "...to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan..."
Function
It is a single-payer government run health care system [1] and the federal government's second largest department, after the Department of Defense. With a budget of more than $70 billion, VA employs
approximately 230,000 people at hundreds of VA medical
centers, clinics and benefits offices.
Organization
A VA medical center in Palo Alto
The Department of Veterans Affairs is headed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, appointed by the President with the advice
and consent of the Senate. The current acting secretary is Gordon H. Mansfield, who
rose to the position after Jim Nicholson resigned. The Department has
three main subdivisions, known as Administrations, each headed by an Undersecretary:
- Veterans Health Administration - responsible for providing health
care in all its forms, also for medical research
- Veterans Benefits Administration - responsible for initial veteran
registration, eligibility determination, and five key lines of business (benefits and entitlements): Home Loan Guaranty,
Insurance, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment, Education (GI Bill), and Compensation & Pension
- National Cemetery Administration - responsible for providing burial
and memorial benefits, and maintenance of VA cemeteries
Costs for care
As is common in any time of war, recently there has been an increased demand for nursing home beds, injury rehabilitation, and
mental health care.
VA categorizes veterans into eight priority groups and several additional subgroups, based on factors such as
service-connected disabilities, and one's income and assets (adjusted to local cost of living). Veterans with a 50% or higher
service-connected disability as determined by a VA regional office "rating board" (ie: losing a limb in battle, PTSD, etc) are provided comprehensive care and medicines at no charge. Other veterans with
lesser qualifying factors need to make co-pays for any care for nonservice-connected ailments as well as pay $8 per 90-day
prescription. VA dental and nursing home care are more restricted. Reservists and National Guard who served stateside in
peacetime settings or have no service-related disabilities generally do not qualify for VA benefits. (Detailed list of eligibility
criteria.) VA in recent years has opened hundreds of new convenient outpatient clinics in towns across America, while
steadily reducing inpatient bed levels at hospitals. It has expanded its programs for women veterans and outreach to the
homeless. VA is especially praised as a pioneer in developing electronic patient records which can be accessed by health
providers online (with secure passwords), far away from where the charts are kept. VA's research into better functioning
prosthetic limbs, and PTSD (combat stress) are also heralded. VA has
devoted many years of research into the effects of exposure to Agent Orange herbicide used
in Vietnam.
VA's budget—which has always been sparse—has been pushed to the limit in recent years by the War on Terrorism.[2] In December
2004, it was widely reported that VA's funding crisis had become so severe that it could no longer provide disability ratings to
veterans in a timely fashion.[3] This is a problem because
until veterans are fully transitioned from the active-duty TRICARE healthcare system to VA, they
are on their own with regard to many healthcare costs. The VA has worked to cut down screening times for these returning combat
vets (they are now often evaluated by VA personnel well before their actual discharge), and they receive first priority for
patient appointments. VA's backlog of pending disability claims under review (a process known as "adjudication") peaked at
421,000 in 2001, and bottomed out at 254,000 in 2003, but crept back up to 340,000 in 2005.[4]
Many veterans may not know that they may qualify for VA services with no copay required for
military related conditions. If a veteran is dealing with a problem that started or was aggravated due to military service, it is
still advisable for that person to go to a VA Regional Office and apply for a service connected disability. Service organizations such as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and
Disabled American Veterans (the claimant need not be a member), as well as
state-operated Veterans Affairs offices can also assist in this process. It will be beneficial for the affected veteran to
support their claim with proof of ongoing health care.
Security breach
In May 2006, a laptop computer containing the social security numbers of 26.5 million U.S. veterans was stolen from a Veterans
Affairs official's home. On August 3, 2006, a computer containing personal information on up to 38,000 veterans went missing. The
computers have since been recovered and on August 5, 2006, two men were charged with the theft.
Before the arrests, Veterans Affairs announced it would hire ID Analytics professionals to perform data breach analysis to
ensure veterans' personal information was not compromised. An offer to provide credit monitoring for veterans affected by the
potential data breach was later rescinded after a study of the recovered laptop concluded little to no likelihood data was
retrieved.
In early August 2006, a plan was announced to encrypt critical data on every laptop in the agency using disk encryption software from GuardianEdge Technologies, Inc, a San Francisco-based IT security
software vendor. [5] Strict policies have also been enacted
that require a detailed description of what a laptop will be used for and where it will be located at any given time.
Private Key Encryption (PKI) for e-mail had already been in use for some time but is now the
renewed focus of internal security practices for sending e-mail containing Social Security numbers or patient information. Smart
card-based logins for workstations has been in talks for several years but has yet to be implemented.
Related legislation
See also
External links
Notes
- ^ Benefits: Links, U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs, Retrieved 26 May 2007
- ^ Dennis Camire, "New fees, limits face ailing veterans," Albany Times-Union, 10 February 2003, A1.
- ^ Cheryl L. Reed, "VA chief orders inspector to probe disability rating
system," Chicago Sun-Times, 11 December 2004, A3.
- ^ Cory Reiss, "VA fighting losing battle against backlog of veterans'
claims," Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 27 May 2005, A7.
- ^ Veteran's Mortgage Blog, 25 May 2006, 9 August 2006, 16 August 2006.
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Agencies under the United States Department of Veterans
Affairs |
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