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Sunday, July 1, 2007

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A presidential panel said yesterday that it is compiling a first-of-its-kind national survey to determine scientifically the extent of health-care problems for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Speaking in its last public hearing before considering final recommendations, the nine-member commission said its final report could shed light on a long point of dispute in the veterans care debate: whether highly publicized horror stories of lost paperwork, delays in disability benefits and other problems are isolated or significantly widespread.

"With this survey, we should be able to say some things in a more systematic way," former health and human services secretary Donna E. Shalala said in an interview. "One thing that will make our report truly different is that it will be evidence-based, based on the current science and present-day practice."

Former senator Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.), who co-chairs the panel with Shalala, said he is not ready to put the moral weight of a presidential commission behind findings and recommendations until he sees some actual numbers.

"We don't want a bunch of Band-Aids that further complicate the system and create more problems," Dole said. "Observations sometimes don't translate to reality."

The panel hopes to issue its report by mid-July.

President Bush created the commission March 6 to devise recommendations for veterans' care following reports of shoddy outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

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But Congress is already moving forward with its own efforts to improve care. A bill approved earlier this month by the Senate Armed Services Committee would make sweeping changes to improve coordination between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon, increasing family services, boosting disability pay, and overhauling how it is decided and doled out.

The full Senate is expected to consider the measure in July.

Earlier in the hearing, congressional leaders urged commission members to embrace bold solutions and use their influence with Bush to push through changes after years of delay. Lawmakers were open to adding amendments to the bill that would incorporate the commission's recommendations, they said.

"You can give a major push legislatively but still encounter resistance within the agencies," said Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee. "It has to be hammered home."

Rep. Steve Buyer (Ind.), the top Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, was more blunt.

"We do not need legislation to do the right thing for our service members -- we need leaders in the executive branch to take charge of their bureaucrats," he said. "I was heartened when the president formed this commission. . . . I remain hopeful, even confident, that your work will take advantage of that support."

Shalala said the final report will take into account the Senate legislation but will seek to be concise and understandable to the average reader, with about a dozen pointed recommendations.

Reports from as long as 10 years ago have cited problems of poor Pentagon and VA coordination, but may have been ignored or lost in the shuffle partly because of their length and complexity, she said.

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