Senators examined legislation that supports disabled veterans in adaptive sports, including elite athletes who advance to global competition at the Paralympics.
The Veterans Hearing Aid Improvement Act would establish a two-year pilot program at a few VA facilities to provide eligible veterans with hearing aids without a prescription or follow-up fittings with an audiologist.
Data from the annual report helps the VA make decisions on prevention programs to fund and informs its long-term strategy for reducing veterans suicides. The agency said it was pushing back the report’s release date to February.
One lawmaker warned the shift from the public health sector to private care would result in “a cost explosion,” while another argued the plan would help the VA keep up with demand and give it “unprecedented flexibility.”
The study, published in Scientific Reports, found that veterans with a history of exposure to military burn pits had three times the level of carbon particles in their lungs compared to healthy individuals.
“Sheepdog” tells the story of a veteran’s journey to reclaim purpose after military service. It is “not a post-traumatic stress movie; it’s a post-traumatic growth movie,” the director says.
Criteria the VA developed in 1945 do not align with modern medicine, employment and the impact of disabilities on a veteran’s earnings potential, the Government Accountability Office says.
The House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on health heard two bills for advancing research and care for traumatic brain injuries, which have been sustained by nearly a fifth of the 2.5 million veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The VA stated that the higher number of allegations reflects a greater awareness of the avenues for filing complaints and confidence in the system to appropriately manage them.
Stephen J. Froom, of Colorado, a former military police soldier, argues in a petition to the Army Review Boards Agency that the military failed to consider his injuries and act to award him the Purple Heart in multiple instances.
