Category Archives: Health Information Systems
Uncovering Disability Benefits for 11.25 Million Veterans
VA estimates there are approximately 17.6 million living veterans, while about 6.34 million receive service-connected disability compensation. That leaves roughly 11.25 million veterans—about 64% of the veteran population—not currently receiving disability compensation.
The modern DoD-VA Integrated Disability Evaluation System, or IDES, did not begin until 2007 and was later expanded worldwide. IDES primarily serves service members referred for possible medical separation or retirement; it is not a universal disability evaluation for every service member leaving the military. Millions of veterans separated before this integrated system existed, and many others left service without ever entering IDES.
VA has also documented claims filed 10 to 20 years after discharge, and some veterans have waited roughly 30 years before ultimately receiving service-connected benefits. The evidence does not show that most veterans wait 30 years, but it clearly shows that long delays are real.
Meanwhile, VA has obligated approximately $13.84 billion toward electronic health record modernization, with an independent lifecycle estimate cited by GAO of approximately $49.8 billion. VA also continues to spend billions on construction and infrastructure.
Those investments have created vast amounts of electronic medical and service data. DoD and VA already possess service treatment records, deployment histories, occupational information, exposure records, diagnoses, surgeries, traumatic injuries, hearing loss, chronic illnesses, and VA medical histories.
The call to action is straightforward: use that data to identify veterans who may have been missed.
VA should systematically identify veterans who are not receiving disability compensation but whose existing records show strong indicators of potentially service-connected conditions. Those veterans should then be proactively contacted, offered an expedited evaluation, and assisted through the disability claims process.
Before additional billions are committed to technology overruns or unnecessary construction, Congress and VA should evaluate whether those dollars could produce greater value by directing resources toward eligible veterans and putting compensation directly into their households.
The question is no longer whether the government has the information.
It does. The question is whether VA will use it.
Of the 11.25 million veterans not currently receiving disability compensation, how many have documented service-related conditions that have never been fully evaluated?
Congress should require VA and DoD to answer that question—and act on the results.
A position I held in Health Information Technology in the US Army
Presentation to grad school on my position Lots of interesting pictures from around the world and interesting facts and figures.
•I wanted to serve my country from a very early age….Father said: “It’s the only profession left”
•BA in History from The Citadel, 1991, commissioned as an Army officer the same year
•Led medical units, supervising 26 to 140 individuals, for my first eight years in the military
•Completed MS in Instructional Technology in 1997
•Worked in fixed-medical units for the next eight years in the field of Health Information Systems
•Currently a “consultant” to an executive physician responsible for managing Army Healthcare in Southwest Asia
Automating a Pharmacy business processes
pharmacy upgrade the intergration of technology
The Pharmacy in any military medical facility is at least 30% of the business. Two of my main customers have always been the pharmacy and family practice. I remember meeting with the two department chiefs when I was first CIO at Fort Benning. Their mouths dropped when I asked them what I could do for them.
Top 25 “Most Wired” Small and Rural Hospital’s in US
most wired news article CIO of facility that was select as top 25 in US
The best thing about this hospital winning this award was two of our folks, who where choosen by their peers were able to travel to San Diego, CA to recieve the award.
Stage 1 Standards for Meaningful Use
Federal Register Online [Page 2026] lol…is my favorite page because it starts the objective criteria for what your EHRs have to have to get the Medicare – Medicaid dollars. Most of the folks that put this together are from the Boston area and have been leaders in the field for decades. These items seem basic, but its taken years to get this far. I like it. I love the drug safety alerts. The federal government health care system has been doing this many years. I know avoiding one sentinel event makes this capability cheap. Another fun weekend reading the FR.
