[Vision2020] VA Email: Save Money, Do Not Diagnose PTSD

[Tom Hansen]

>From the Army Times at:

http://www.ArmyTimes.com

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VA e-mail: Save money, do not diagnose PTSD

By Kelly Kennedy - Army Times Staff writer

Read the e-mail, obtained by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in 
Washington and VoteVets.org at:

http://tinyurl.com/45tqv9
   
Two veterans advocacy groups have asked for copies of all documents 
relating to the Veterans Affairs Department’s post-traumatic stress 
disorder policies after an e-mail surfaced asking VA doctors to keep costs 
down by giving diagnoses of adjustment disorder instead.

Veterans diagnosed with PTSD are eligible for health benefits and, in some 
cases, disability retirement pay. Adjustment disorder, on the other hand, 
is considered a short-term diagnosis, and does not qualify veterans for 
benefits, said Brandon Friedman, vice chair of VoteVets.org, one of the 
advocacy groups.

“They can say, ‘Ah, you’ve got something temporary, it’ll go away, so we 
don’t need to pay you for the rest of your life,’ ” Friedman said.

He said several veterans have told him they were diagnosed with adjustment 
disorder rather than PTSD, and that they felt they had received the wrong 
diagnosis.

“We hear anecdotal evidence all the time that VA is trying to cut costs by 
not diagnosing PTSD,” said Friedman, a former infantry officer who served 
in Iraq and Afghanistan. “But we’ve never actually seen proof that it was 
being done in an organized way.”

The e-mail, which Friedman said came from a VA hospital’s PTSD program 
coordinator, was apparently sent to several VA employees at that hospital. 
A psychologist from the hospital in turn sent it to VoteVets.org, Friedman 
said.

“Given that we are having more and more compensation-seeking veterans, I’d 
like to suggest you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out,” 
the e-mail states. “Consider a diagnosis of adjustment disorder, r/o [rule 
out] PTSD. Additionally, we really don’t ... have time to do the extensive 
testing that should be done to determine PTSD.”

The e-mail also states veterans are appealing their compensation and 
pension ratings based on diagnosis from his staff.

VA Secretary James Peake acknowledged in a statement that the e-mail did 
come from a VA facility, but said it’s not official policy.

“A single staff member, out of VA’s 230,000 employees, in a single medical 
facility sent a single e-mail with suggestions that are inappropriate and 
have been repudiated at the highest level of our health-care 
organization,” he said. “The employee has been counseled and is extremely 
apologetic.”

VoteVets.org and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington 
filed a Freedom of Information Act request May 14 asking VA for all 
documents relating to PTSD, said Naomi Seligman Steiner, spokeswoman for 
the latter group.

“We’re not head-hunting,” Friedman said. “There are a lot of great people 
who work at VA who have helped me and my friends. We had to file the FOIA 
to get to the bottom of this. Is it from the head of the VA? The 
presidential administration? Or individual hospitals? I would like to know 
where this directive is coming from.”

Peake said his staff “works hard” to make sure mental health issues are 
accurately diagnosed.

“VA’s leadership will strongly remind all medical staff that trust, 
accuracy and transparency is paramount to maintaining our relationships 
with our veteran patients,” he said. “We are committed to absolute 
accuracy in a diagnosis and unwavering in providing any and all earned 
benefits. PTSD and the mental health arena is no exception.”

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"People who ridicule others while hiding behind anonymous monikers in chat-
room forums are neither brave nor clever." 

- Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch (August 21,
2007)

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