“The Department of Veterans Affairs says it plans to prioritize benefits for certain Agent Orange-exposed veterans, veteran suicide prevention, a new electronic health record system and caregiver benefits in 2020.”
“VA spokeswoman Christina Mandreucci described them as 2020 ‘milestones’ for VA.”
Agent Orange
“In January, ‘VA will do something past administrations did not: begin deciding presumptive claims for Blue Water Navy veterans,’ Mandreucci told Connecting Vets…”
Suicide prevention
“Members of Congress who head up committees dedicated solely to veterans’ issues made suicide prevention a top priority in 2019 and 2020, especially when the rate of veteran suicide — about 20 per day — hasn’t budged despite significant increases in federal spending funneled to VA.”
“VA says it plans to continue that focus this year…”
Electronic health records
“VA plans to ‘go live’ with a new electronic health record system in March at five sites: the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Wash. and its four community clinics, Mandreucci said.”
“The new electronic health records are planned to be universal — a single health record to follow a service member throughout their career and after and be available to any care provider they might see…”
Caregivers
“By summer 2020, Mandreucci said VA plans to make caregiver benefits available for veterans injured on or before May 7, 1975 ‘finally making these important benefits available to veterans from the Vietnam era,’ she said.”
“VA already missed the Oct. 1, 2019 deadline to roll out assistance to pre-9/11 veterans’ caregivers, delaying the expansion of the caregiver program to this summer at the earliest…” Read the full article here.
Source: VA to focus on suicide prevention, electronic health records and caregiver benefits in 2020 – By Abbie Bennett, January 2, 2020. Connecting Vets.
