Linked below you'll find three documents. Below this is a table of contents. That's the list of the articles in the first .pdf. The second and third documents are the House and Senate legislation of interest to those of us who have served - and those who were serving right there with us, our families!

THIS BULLETIN CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES

== VA Disability Compensation [01] ------------------- (Heads Up!)
== VA Disability Compensation [02] ----- (S2674/HR5509 Impact)
== Anesthesia Awareness ------------------- (Waking Up in Surgery)
== VA Benefits Guide ------------------------------------- (2008 Issue)
== Mobilized Reserve 12 MAR 08 ---------------- (Net Increase 74)
== VA Travel Nurse Program --------------------- (Three-year Pilot)
== VA Rating Schedules [03] ------------------ (Right to Challenge)
== Prosthetic Limb Development ------------------------------- (Arms)
== VA Burial Benefit [01] -------------------------------- (Correction)
== Military Records/DD-214 [02] ------------------ (USAF Backlog)
== Florida Taxes ------------------------------------ (Summary)
== Diet and Exercise Myths ---------------------------- (Tips)
== Tricare in the Philippines ------------------- (18 FEB 08 Briefing)
== Family Care Giving ----------------- (Medicaid Cash Allowance)
== Agent Orange Stateside Use [01] -------------- (Banned in 1979)
== Pentagon Data Breach ----------- (A National Security Concern)
== PTSD [18] ---------------- (Policy Change Clarification)
== Nebraska Veterans Cemetery ------------------- (Bill Introduced)
== VA Health Care Funding [12] ---- (S.2639 Mandatory Funding)
== VA Homeless Vets [08] -------------------------- (21% Reduction)
== Veterans Disarmament Bill ----------------------- (No such Thing)
== Tricare Cancer Trials ------------------------- (Permanent Benefit)
== Tricare Hearing Aids [0--------------------- (Retirees)
== TSP [10] ---------------------------- (FEB 08 Losses)
== IRR Musters ------------------------------------ (MAR thru JUN 08)
== Medicare Hospital Discharge ------------------------------ (Rights)
== Medicare Insurer Status --------------------- (Primary/Secondary)
== VA Lawsuit (Lack of Care) [02] ---- (DoJ Arguments Continue)
== Medicare News [01] ------------------------- (RAC Goes National)
== Shad [05] --------------------------- (Chemical Exposed Vets)
== REAP [01] ----------------------- (Multiple Tour Eligibility)
== Military Retirement Plan ----------------------- (Options)
== VA Veteran Support [01] --------------------- (Benefit 2007 Stats)
== SS Taxation [05] ------------------ (NRA Green Card Exemption)
== Veteran Legislation Status 14 March 08 ------ (Where we stand)

RAO Update.
House Legislative Update
Senate Legislative Update

Items 1 and 2, on the proposed changes to the VA Compensation Rating System are important - if you are currently receiving VA disability pay or a pension, or expect you might in the future - you need to read those, keep abreast of those, and make your opinion's known to your congressional delegation. Don't think you're safe just because you've been in the system or are already fairly elderly - the current proposals floating around right now are written such that you could find yourself caught short. You need to keep an eye on this - and, frankly, joining any of the veteran's organizations like the American Legion, VFW, MOAA, NCOA and many of the others is a Good Idea. I've included both of those items in the Flash Traffic/Extended Entry.

VA DISABILITY COMPENSATION UPDATE 01: Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), the ranking Member on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, introduced "America's Wounded Warrior Act," S. 2674, last week to overhaul DoD's disability retirement system and modernize the VA's disability compensation program. These reforms are an upshot from last year's Dole/Shalala Commission recommendations and would impact veterans in varied ways dependent on their disability status. Some elements of the bill would:

• Reform the military disability retirement system and streamline the transition of disabled servicemembers from DoD to the VA. Basically, it would simplify the claims process by eliminating the need for duplicative DoD/VA ratings and disability examinations.
• Require DoD to determine a disabled servicemember's fitness for duty, and if found unfit, provide a lifetime annuity based on the member's rank and years of service. VA would then establish compensation for service-connected injuries, disease, or wounds. Under this proposal, the offset between DoD's annuity and future VA compensation would be eliminated.
• Revamped the VA compensation system into three elements - replacement value of average loss of earning capacity; a new payment for loss of quality of life; and a new transition payment provided to servicemembers who participate in treatment or vocational rehabilitation programs or who are within three months of their retirement from service.

However, the jury is still out on what the new DoD disability health care benefit and VA compensation levels would eventually look like. Currently, servicemembers who retire due to a 30% or higher military disability are eligible for lifetime family Tricare coverage (dependent children until majority age). However, the bill directs DoD to study and recommend to Congress new Tricare lifetime eligibility criteria under the new system. In the absence of a law change, the Secretary of Defense would establish eligibility by regulation effective the date of implementation of the new system. Additionally, the bill directs VA to study and provide a report to Congress within nine months and submit a proposal one year later detailing the new compensation and transition payment rate structure. Until the specific rate structure of the new VA compensation system is better understood, most veteran organizations and military advocates are withholding endorsement of this legislation. [Source: MOAA Leg Up 7 Mar 08 ++]

VA DISABILITY COMPENSATION UPDATE 02: The provisions of Senator Burr's America's Wounded Warrior Act (S 2674) and Representative Buyer's Noble Warrior Act (HR 5509), would drastically change the disability compensation system for America's veterans. These bills are loosely based on the recommendations of the President's Commission on Care for America's Wounded Warriors (Dole/Shalala Commission), but the USDR believes the specifics of these bills would do great harm to these veterans in the following ways:

• Will offset VA Disability Compensation by Social Security when the veteran ages 65.
• Applicable to all currently discharging veterans AND any veteran under VA's current compensation system who files a subsequent claim for additional benefits.
• Once under the new system the veteran cannot return to the current system.
• The present protection for ratings in effect for 10 or more years would no longer apply.
• Would require the VA Secretary to examine or consider:
(a) The extent to which disability compensation may be used as an incentive to undergo treatment.
(b) The appropriate injuries to be covered under the new disability rating system.
(c) Age as a determining factor when considering average loss of earnings capacity
• Amends the law to provide the Secretary with authority to adopt and apply a rating schedule for specific injuries. This provision would expressly limit VA authority over the Rating Schedule and places the authority in the hands of Congress. If the Congress can not correct the Sustained Growth Rate formula of Medicare Law how can it be expected the Congress would do any better with the much more complex Disability Rating Schedule?
• Provides for a quality of life payment, but only for those enrolled in the new compensation system.
• Allows or suggests: That VA "may take into account the effect on potential future earnings caused by the age of the veteran at the time a disability rating is assigned." This provision would allow VA to compensate an older veteran at a lower percentage of disability than a younger veteran for the exact same disease or injury. Is this not age discrimination?
• Provides that
(a) As frequently as [the VA] considers it appropriate, [the VA] must reevaluate and ... adjust the disability rating for any veteran receiving compensation;
(b) The VA must ... take into account any adjustments in the rating schedule that occurred since the last assignment of a rating;
(c) The frequency of reevaluations would be determined by an examining physician. This places physicians back in the rating business, allows for frequent adjustments to a veteran's rating based on perceived improvement, and further allows reductions based on a change in the rating criteria even when no improvement in the disability is shown

For these reasons, USDR is encouraging veterans to contact their legislators and strongly urge them to oppose S2674/HR5509 and any other legislation which is detrimental to and/or discriminatory against this nation's veterans. To facilitate doing this they have prepared a letter available at http://capwiz.com/usdr/issues/alert/?alertid=11114251&queueid=[capwiz:queue_id] which can be used as is or modified for forwarding to all legislators representing your zip code by the click of a button. [Source: USDR Action Alert 7 Mar 08 ++]