A 21st Century System for Evaluating Veterans for Disability Benefits
Title | A 21st Century System for Evaluating Veterans for Disability Benefits PDF eBook |
Author | Institute of Medicine |
Publisher | National Academies Press |
Pages | 406 |
Release | 2007-09-30 |
Genre | Medical |
ISBN | 0309106311 |
21st Century System for Evaluating Veterans' Disability Benefits recommends improvements in the medical evaluation and rating of veterans for the benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to compensate for illnesses or injuries incurred in or aggravated by military service. Compensation is a monthly cash benefit based on a rating schedule that determines the degree of disability on a scale of 0 to 100. Although a disability rating may also entitle a veteran to ancillary services, such as vocational rehabilitation and employment services, the rating schedule is out of date medically and contains ambiguous criteria and obsolete conditions and language. The current rating schedule emphasizes impairment and limitations or loss of specific body structures and functions which may not predict disability well. 21st Century System for Evaluating Veterans' Disability Benefits recommends that this schedule could be revised to include modern concepts of disability including work disability, nonwork disability, and quality of life. In addition to the need for an updated rating schedule, this book highlights the need for the Department of Veterans' Affairs to devote additional resources to systematic analysis of how well it is providing services or how much the lives of veterans are being improved, as well as the need for a program of research oriented toward understanding and improving the effectiveness of its benefits programs.
Review of Veterans' Disability Compensation Benefits in the 21st Century
Title | Review of Veterans' Disability Compensation Benefits in the 21st Century PDF eBook |
Author | United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Veterans' Affairs |
Publisher | |
Pages | 70 |
Release | 2010 |
Genre | Disability Evaluation |
ISBN |
Military and Veterans Disability System: Preliminary Observations on Evaluation and Planned Expansion DOD/VA Pilot: Testimony Before the Committee on Veterans Affairs, U.S. Senate
Title | Military and Veterans Disability System: Preliminary Observations on Evaluation and Planned Expansion DOD/VA Pilot: Testimony Before the Committee on Veterans Affairs, U.S. Senate PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | DIANE Publishing |
Pages | 19 |
Release | |
Genre | |
ISBN | 1437943462 |
Hearing on Review of Veterans' Disability Compensation
Title | Hearing on Review of Veterans' Disability Compensation PDF eBook |
Author | United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Veterans' Affairs |
Publisher | |
Pages | 68 |
Release | 2008 |
Genre | Law |
ISBN |
Veterans’ Disability Benefits: Further Evaluation of Ongoing Initiatives Could Help Identify Effective Approaches for Improving Claims Processing
Title | Veterans’ Disability Benefits: Further Evaluation of Ongoing Initiatives Could Help Identify Effective Approaches for Improving Claims Processing PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | DIANE Publishing |
Pages | 43 |
Release | |
Genre | |
ISBN | 1437928560 |
Military and Veterans Disability System: Pilot has Achieved Some Goals, but Further Planning and Monitoring Needed
Title | Military and Veterans Disability System: Pilot has Achieved Some Goals, but Further Planning and Monitoring Needed PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | DIANE Publishing |
Pages | 71 |
Release | |
Genre | |
ISBN | 1437943772 |
U.S. Department of Defense Disability Compensation Under a Fitness-For-Duty Evaluation Approach
Title | U.S. Department of Defense Disability Compensation Under a Fitness-For-Duty Evaluation Approach PDF eBook |
Author | Stephanie Rennane |
Publisher | |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2022 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9781977408006 |
The joint U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)-Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Integrated Disability Evaluation System is the process by which DoD determines fitness for duty and separation or retirement of service members because of disability. Service members who are evaluated for disability undergo a comprehensive medical examination to document all medical conditions and receive a disability rating for every condition documented during the exam. DoD and the VA use these ratings to determine the amount of disability compensation service members receive if they are determined to be unfit to continue serving and consequently medically discharged. Proposals for reforming the DoD compensation system have been considered in the past, but a rigorous evaluation of what those alternatives might look like and how they would affect service member benefits and costs to DoD has not been conducted. In this report, the authors describe their evaluation of four hypothetical alternative disability compensation approaches that would support a simpler disability evaluation process: compensating based on the current objectives of the DoD system (and using current benefit formulas), compensating on the basis of a military career, compensating on the basis of unfitting conditions, or compensating similar to U.S. allies. Each alternative reduces reliance on disability ratings for determining DoD disability compensation and focuses primarily on a single decision about whether a service member is fit to perform his or her duties. The authors evaluate the potential effects of each alternative on service member compensation, processing times, end strength, lost skills and experience, and readiness.