| THE VA: TEAR IT
DOWN BRICK BY BRICK -- PART 10
Kurt Priessman offers solutions with,
"Restore Accountability and Rights to Due Process."
| Editor's
Note from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... It's time
for this series to be written. I do not agree with all
of Kurt's ideas about the VA, but, as a former government
employee with many years of service, Kurt knows the system
inside-out. The proposals in his commentaries should
be open to discussion. You may comment at the bottom
of the page. Kurt's
bio and archive of articles can be found here. |
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THE VA: TEAR IT DOWN BRICK BY
BRICK -- PART 10
Restore Accountability and
Rights to Due Process
by Kurt Priessman
 Admittedly,
it has been a struggle to figure out how to format the arguments
for and against tearing down the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Here is my attempt.
An
overwhelming majority of commenting readers feel that the
President and the Congress must accept and recognize that veterans
no longer have confidence that the Department of Veterans Affairs
(DVA) is their principal advocate despite what the Veteran Service
Organization (VSO) leadership says. They want the DVA and all its
personnel including leadership held to the same accountability as
veterans. Here are some suggestions to restore veterans’ rights,
accountability, and the law. Some do not cost a dime compared to
the unlawful conduct and negligence of the Department and its
Administrations.
First,
Congress and the Courts must find and impose penalties for
violations of law. Failure to accomplish this clearly shows that
the United States government and the Congress do not have the best
interests of the military and veterans in mind.
1. End
protections for anyone who fails to comply with or willfully
disobey applicable laws including political appointees and
government employees.
2. Employ
independent Justice Department investigators and prosecutors in
the VA Inspector General’s
Office to investigate and prosecute criminal activity by the
DVA. It is time to end the non-prosecution of DVA employees,
managers, and senior executives.
3. Find
that willful violations of United States Code (USC) by the
Department and/or its non-supervisory employees is punishable by
incarceration for no less than five years and a fine of no less
than $100,000 per incident.
4. Find
that an adjudicator, supervisor, manager, senior executive,
political appointee, or attorney found guilty of violating a
veteran’s civil and legal rights under the law shall serve no
less than ten years and pay a fine of no less than $250,000 per
incident.
Next, the
Department of Veterans Affairs must undertake an immediate and
total revision of the Veterans Benefits Administration, including
an outside audit of executive and supervisory personnel, and an
end to the work credit system of claim processing, replacing it
with such non-adversarial processes as recommended by
Prof. Linda Bilmes. The emphasis is on timely award, not
denial.
1. Negate
the Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) and the Appeals Management
Center (AMC), and expand to every US Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit a Court
of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC).
a.
Establish twelve courts meant to provide the second level of
appeal with sufficient resources to absorb BVA and AMC caseload
or use Title 5 Administrative Law Judges to handle caseload.
2. The
DVA must within 120 days, develop new non-adversarial procedures
in concert with specific pro bono legal organizations.
a.
The Department must immediately provide 200 hours of training
with those organizations and test all personnel on knowledge of
these procedures immediately.
3. The
VBA must digitize all records within nine months including the
inept VA Records Management Center (VARMC). The Administration
will use whatever means necessary and failure to accomplish this
task will result in the dismissal, not retirement, of the
Undersecretary, his Deputy, and the Director of Claims and
Compensation. It will use savings from document storage and
retrieval to pay for the digitization.
4. If for
any reason the Department cannot or does not complete the above
two items, it must contract disability compensation, dependency
and indemnity compensation (DIC), and pension claims under the
new rules to a non-affiliated organization(s) that can meet all
requirements established by Congress within one year. Phase out
of the VBA will commence immediately and not exceed three years.
Here are some
suggestions concerning Title 38 that cost very little. Congress
could take action to:
1.
Amend Title 38 in its entirety to reflect that the DVA is not an
advocate and is adversarial. Review every rule the DVA
interpreted and promulgated, especially those in contradiction
to the intent of Congress, inserting clear unambiguous language
that insures compliance with the mission of the Department.
2.
Stop writing legislation pitting one group of veterans against
another for limited resources. Treat all veterans equally.
Restore veterans’ rights, including equal treatment of veterans
under the law, despite the period of service.
3. The
appointment of
members of advisory commissions should rest with veterans.
There is an inherent conflict of interest with appointments by
the DVA and DOD.
Here are some
ideas that cost a great deal, including the belief that the
Veterans Health Administration overly administrates healthcare to
reduce disability compensation.
1.
Establish the Veterans of the Armed Forces Disability
Compensation and Pensions Trust Fund that requires the
Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to
share the expense of the fund and coordinate all requests with
the Congressional Budget Office to insure placing adequate
amounts in annual funding to fund ongoing and future disability
compensation and pension. Funding and benefits disbursed by the
fund shall not be subjugated, offset, or used by any other
program in any other Department or by any Act passed by the
Congress, or by Executive order.
2. The
Department of Veterans Affairs (VBA) shall immediately increase
the amount of payment for disability ratings below 100%
proportionately and increase the 100% amount by no less than 75%
and shall not consider other income if the disabled veteran is
not working full-time. The DVA (VHA/VBA) shall immediately
update the schedule for rating disability to reflect current
ICD-9/ICD-10 diagnostic coding and current US medical
terminology and definitions of degree of disability
regardless of other considerations.
3. The
President and the Congress shall increase funding for Veterans
Healthcare in direct relationship and proportion to the
expenditures of the Trust to insure sufficient funding of
healthcare costs, diagnostic and specialty procedures, and
administrative collateral costs.
4.
In conjunction with funding the increases, the Department of
Defense, including its TRICARE Program, and the Department of
Veterans Affairs, including its CHAMPVA Program, and Medicare
and Medicaid shall insure the immediate coordination and
incorporation of contractual provider agreements and provider
networks and facilities to insure benefit coverage, shared
payments, and access to care. Coverage and pricing must attract
providers, specialty care, and provide coverage in rural areas
and to homeless veterans. The veteran, without exception, shall
have the right of choice as to providers.
5. The
Congress shall end and shall not include in any legislation any
offset of disability compensation or pension with any other
income rightfully earned or paid by the recipient to include-
a.
US Military Retirement Pay, Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS),
or Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) or Thrift Savings
Plan (TSP) annuities, Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay
(CRDP) and Combat Related Special Compensation (CRSC),
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) and Survivor
Benefits Plan (SBP), or Social Security or Social Security
Disability Income.
Finally, there
continues to be the sense that the denial of claims is aided by
the refusal of the government to declassify verifying
documentation.
1. The
Department of Defense, all Departments of the Armed Services,
and the Department of Veterans Affairs must declassify all
documents from all wars and military actions, up to and
including the highest classification through 1996, or when said
event occurred 14 years or more years ago, without exception.
2. The
DOD/DVA must meet with the legal representation of the veteran
for matters that are still classified.
3.
Failure to produce all information, including those in any
archive, shall immediately result in an award and payment of a
claim presented by a veteran, without need of establishing any
other evidence (including nexus).
Please
consider this; a last article will finally tear it down.
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Coming up ...
FRI 16 OCT ... What do We do with
the Jobs, People and Property?
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This article is ©2009 by Kurt
Priessman and is provided exclusively to VA Watchdog dot Org.
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TOPICS:
veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs,
Kurt Priessman, THE VA: TEAR IT DOWN BRICK BY BRICK
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