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WASHINGTON - Citing the confusion veterans face when trying to arrange benefits, the House Veterans' Affairs Health Subcommittee passed a bill Thursday creating an ombudsman office within the Veterans Affairs Department (VA).

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., was adopted by unanimous voice vote, along with the adoption by voice vote of a substitute amendment from Veterans' Affairs Health Subcommittee Chairman Michael Michaud, D-Maine.

The bill instructs the VA secretary to create an office of the ombudsman, and designate the head of the office.

The office would act as a one-stop shop for information on benefits administered by the VA, including medical, housing and education. When testifying in support of his bill before the Health Subcommittee on June 14, 2007, Hodes said the VA has separate hotlines for different benefits, and the process can be confusing to veterans returning from overseas.

Michaud's substitute amendment expanded the duties of the new office. Under the amendment, the VA secretary will designate an ombudsman director in each of the department's three administrations, health, benefits and cemeteries. The ombudsman director in each administration will report to the head ombudsman.

The amendment also defines the official duties of the office of the ombudsman as providing patient advocacy and problem resolution, provide assistance in understanding benefits, provide information on claims submissions and field complaints from veterans.

The VA secretary will also designate six regional ombudsmen throughout the United States for both the health and benefits administrations.

However, the VA does not support the bill. VA Undersecretary for Health Michael Kussman testified at the Health Subcommittee hearing on the bill that it would create an unnecessary level of bureaucracy within the VA. Kussman added the VA already has officers such as patient advocates and benefit counselors, and many state level veterans departments also have counselors.

COMMENTS

• I think what the VA has done to our soldiers is disgusting. These men are good enough to fight and die, or become disabled and they are denied benefits. My own father saw the action at Pearl Harbor and it ruined his life, he died at 66 years of age, and my Mom was left alone after the VA took back his benefits right after he died. They even asked her for the money back! After several years of appeals, they denied her any benefits. Where do you go? Who do you see? A dear friend of mine is getting the same lousy treatment from them. It is disgusting that in this country we deny our Veterans and their families after they give their lives, or become disabled because they were protecting the very people that deny them. Denise Cutrona Posted September 6, 2008 8:37 PM
• The VA withheld $974 of payments from Feb 06 to Oct 06. Repeated queries by me and my congressman refuse to address the issue of "where is the money". All we get is "our records show that all is correct." Where do you go when the VA won't talk to you OR your congressman? The average vet NEEDS an additional RESPONSIBLE layer to help resolve their problems. Ellsworth L. Mitchell Posted August 28, 2008 10:08 PM
• Long overdue, but unlikely to help in an arena where upper level management may be more motivated with managing their careers than with the mission and vision of the VA. I believe the men and women providing the care are dedicated whether they be veterans themselves or not. It is also my belief that the bureaucracy of close friends and associates who manage the workplace through fear and favors that obstrubts the true mission of the VA. I know of many veteran'S benefits that were turned down and delayed only to be granted after multiple resubmissions of documentation and dogged persistence from the provider. But when provider's time is overstretched there is no one left to fight for the rights of the veteran and the bureaucracy who controls the workplace and controls the allocation of funding once again wins. Aleesa M. Mobley Posted July 1, 2008 1:36 PM