Lawmakers want answers on VA claims news report - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Lawmakers want answers on VA claims news report

FORT DRUM, N.Y. — New York congressional leaders have asked Army Secretary Pete Geren to investigate a report that the Army is blocking Department of Veterans Affairs officials from helping injured Fort Drum soldiers prepare their disability claims, potentially leading to reduced benefits.

Meanwhile, a national soldiers’ advocacy group said it planned to seek a military Court of Inquiry probe into Fort Drum situation.

In a letter to Geren, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., expressed concern and said the allegations “should be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.”

“If these allegations are true they run counter to our nation’s pledge made to our men and women in uniform,” Clinton wrote Geren. “It is our duty to eliminate obstacles standing in the way of our disabled service members and veterans.”

On Feb. 8, National Public Radio reported that the Army surgeon general said he was mistaken when he denied the Army had told VA not to help injured soldiers at Fort Drum to challenge their disability ratings. Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker said it was a “misunderstanding,” NPR reported, and VA may help soldiers.

An Army ad hoc group investigating military disability benefits, known as a “tiger team,” recently told VA officers in Buffalo not to assist Fort Drum soldiers with their disability benefits applications, NPR reported Feb. 5.

On Feb. 7, NPR reported on a memo summarizing a meeting at Fort Drum between VA workers and members of a tiger team. According to the memo, one member of the team told VA not to counsel soldiers on their disability benefits because “there exists a conflict of interest,” NPR reported.

Schoomaker told reporters Feb. 7 he apologized for his earlier, incorrect assertion that the Army surgeon general’s office had not counseled VA officials on the matter, and said he cited a “miscommunication.”

According to the NPR report, the Army did not want VA to assist in filling out the forms because Fort Drum soldiers were receiving higher disability ratings with their help — and thus would receive more money in benefits.

“We are talking about young people, inexperienced, with no knowledge of medical terminology,” said Tod Ensign, an attorney with New York City-based Citizen Soldier. “What’s wrong with helping them?”

Ensign said he was working with some Fort Drum soldiers to file a formal request for an official court of inquiry. Such a panel can conduct a servicewide investigation into the Army’s policy, he said.

Fort Drum spokesman Ben Abel said post officials had no comment about the NPR report, but added that post officials were not involved in any decision to withhold assistance from soldiers.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. George Wright said the Army has no policy against soldiers receiving outside assistance in preparing their disability applications. However, the tiger team thought VA should not help soldiers with their applications and told the Buffalo regional VA office, he said.

VA said it went along with the request because its officers are not qualified to help with soldiers’ disability paperwork.

“We do not train our employees about the intricacies of the military’s disability evaluation system. We would feel that it would be inappropriate for VA employees to apply VA standards to a Department of the Army process,” VA said in a release.

Rep. John McHugh, whose district includes Fort Drum and who is the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee, expressed concerns about the situation to Schoomaker in a meeting Feb. 5.

“The tenor of it certainly is contrary to what we’re trying to accomplish,” McHugh told The Watertown Daily Times.