David Martin Catches the Army in a Startling Admission

Every once in a while, the working media at the network level gets something right. CBS News Correspondent David Martin nails one of the generals at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in a major, major gaffe.

In the wake of the Walter Reed scandal, 35 so-called "Warrior Transition Units" were set up at bases around the world. They were supposed to be places where soldiers could be cared for until they either returned to duty or were discharged.

But the general in charge of the program admits it hasn't been working the way it was supposed to. Here's why.

"How many soldiers in these units were actually wounded in combat?" Martin asked.

"About 12 percent were wounded in either Iraq or Afghanistan," Brig. Gen. Gary Cheek said.

"Only 12 percent?" Martin said.

"Only 12 percent," Cheek said.

If you include those whose injuries could be called combat-related - a stressed-out soldier in a car accident after returning from Iraq, for instance - the percentage goes up to 48 percent.

The rest have injuries or illnesses which have nothing to do with combat. As a result, the number of soldiers in Warrior Transition Units exploded from 6,000 to 12,000 - even as casualties in Iraq were going down.

"We were putting soldiers into the Warrior Transition Unit that really didn't need that complex, managed care," Cheek said.

"So did somebody say, 'Hey, this isn't how it was supposed to work?'" Martin asked.

"I would say yes," Cheek said.

I would say, "fix that problem immediately, and if no one gives you the resources to do it, tell someone BEFORE another reporter finds another massive problem at a major installation and exposes the shocking gaps in medical care that our soldiers are finding when they are injured, sick or wounded.

For every instance where a soldier is injured in combat, or injured in a combat zone, there are still the same basic needs for health care that existed before the Iraq War. Those needs are, by the admission of General Cheek, not being met because the programs designed for wounded warriors are swamped by the needs of soldiers should have already had the resources in place to care for them. The necessary expansion and increase in active duty health care hasn't met the needs. I want to stress something--the Veterans Administration is already overwhelmed. And so is the care given to active duty troops and troops activated for combat duty. The strain must be incredible--so where are the doctors, nurses and health care professionals to meet that demand? Why hasn't the military gone out and either activated them or recruited them or trained them?

We are nearly seven years past the attacks of September 11 and the invasion of Afghanistan; we are over five years past the war in Iraq. And no one thought this was going to be a problem?

With the number of soldiers in transition units increasing by about 600 a month, the Army can't hire health care workers fast enough.

"By the time we got the ratio up to where it needed to be, we were probably 30-to-60 days behind what the population had already grown to," Cheek said.

Last week the Army tightened the medical conditions that qualify a solider for a Warrior Transition Unit. And a new order requires all units to be fully staffed by Monday, but some aren't going to make it.

So when they say "tightened" they mean--they've kicked out the ones who needed care because they weren't already getting the care they needed and they're trying to hold open spots for the soldiers who aren't wounded yet.

It's time to clean house and get the personnel that are needed. If this is the state of medical care in the military, then the current leadership at the general officer level needs to go--and be replaced by a more creative and driven group of men and women who are in those middle grades and who want to step up and start solving these problems.

What a disgrace. Is there anyone in the support element of the United States Army who can figure out that we're actually in a war right now? We have a Combat Arms part of the Army that can definitely fight, and fight like no other Army in history and we have a support infrastructure that can't get them medical care, can't get them the gear they need and is struggling to adapt to the wars we're fighting now.

Veteran's Administration HID Suicides - a Follow-up

We're following this story, and we are picking our jaws up off the floor over THIS revelation:

In San Francisco federal court Monday, attorneys for veterans' rights groups accused the VA of nothing less than a cover-up - deliberately concealing the real risk of suicide among veterans.

"The system is in crisis and unfortunately the VA is in denial," said Veterans Rights Attorney Gordon Erspamer.

The charges were backed by internal emails written by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's head of Mental Health.

In the past, Katz has repeatedly insisted while the risk of suicide among veterans is serious, it's not outside the norm.

"There is no epidemic in suicide in VA," Katz told Keteyian in November.

But in this e-mail to his top media advisor, written two months ago, Katz appears to be saying something very different, stating: "Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among veterans we see in our metical facilities."

Katz's email was written shortly after the VA provided CBS News data showing there were only 790 attempted suicides in all 2007 - a fraction of Katz's estimate.

"This 12,000 attempted suicides per year shows clearly, without a doubt, that there is an epidemic of suicide among veterans," said Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense.

And it appears that Katz went out of his way to conceal these numbers.

First, he titled his e-mail: "Not for the CBS News Interview Request."

He opened it with "Shh!" - as in keep it quiet - before ending with
"Is this something we should (carefully) address … before someone stumbles on it?"

Today we showed the e-mail to Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who chairs the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

"This is disgraceful. This is a crime against our nation, our nation's veterans," Filner told CBS News. "They do not want to come to grips with the reality, with the truth."

And that's not all.

Last November when CBS Newsexposed an epidemic of more than 6,200 suicides in 2005 among those who had served in the military, Katz attacked our report.

"Their number is not, in fact, an accurate reflection of the rate," he said last November.

But it turns out they were, as Katz admitted in this e-mail, just three days later.

He wrote: there "are about 18 suicides per day among America's 25 million veterans."

CLICK the link and go to the original CBS News story--it's full of evidence that shows possible malfeasance and outright lying by the VA. It's worth the read, and they're doing a great job keeping us informed--show them some love. I think we'll be reading about the departure of Dr. Katz before too long...

Something to follow this week...

Happy Sunday--here's something we'll be paying attention to in the coming weeks...

(AP) The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs isn't doing enough to prevent suicide and provide adequate medical care for Americans who have served in the armed forces, a class-action lawsuit that goes to trial this week charges.

The lawsuit, filed in July by two nonprofit groups representing military veterans, accuses the agency of inadequately addressing a "rising tide" of mental health problems, especially post-traumatic stress disorder.

But government lawyers say the VA has been devoting more resources to mental health and making suicide prevention a top priority. They also argue that the courts don't have the authority to tell the department how it should operate.

The trial is set to begin Monday in a San Francisco federal court.

An average of 18 military veterans kill themselves each day, and five of them are under VA care when they commit suicide, according to a December e-mail between top VA officials that was filed as part of the federal lawsuit.

"That failure to provide care is manifesting itself in an epidemic of suicides," the veterans groups wrote in court papers filed Thursday.

A study released this week by the RAND Corp. estimates that 300,000 U.S. troops - about 20 percent of those deployed - are suffering from depression or post-traumatic stress from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We find that the VA has simply not devoted enough resources," said Gordon Erspamer, the lawyer representing the veterans groups. "They don't have enough psychiatrists."

Eighteen Veterans a day commit suicide--that's a staggering number. How many of those could be prevented with simple care? If only 5 of the 18 are under VA care, how many are under no care at all and have no health insurance?

This is, hopefully, a lawsuit that will bring changes for the better.

Even with insurance, you can't afford to get sick

The latest scheme devised to shift the burden for healthcare from insurance companies to the sick, those upstanding humanitarians of the insurance industry have implemented a new pricing scheme that has patients paying a percentage of actual cost of the drugs instead of the traditional set-amount co-pay. This means that patients have seen their monthly expenses for lifesaving drugs skyrocket, sometimes to hundreds, or thousands, or dollars per month.

It isn't clear how many patients have been negatively impacted by the shift to this pricing scheme, commonly referred to as "Tier 4 Pricing" but the drugs subject to this price structuring are used to treat relatively common disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis, as well as some cancers and communicable diseases such as Hepatitis C. Drugs to keep the effects of these diseases at bay, preserve quality of life and alleviate pain and suffering can cost in excess of $100,000 per year.

The result is that many patients are faced with monthly drug bills that exceed their monthly income. They either have to pony over the dough or do without their needed medications.

The concept of "Tier 4 pricing" got underway with the advent of Medicare drug plans, and spread like a cancer throughout the entire system, now being a component of a full 86% of those plans in force today. It has also spread to the private sector. Where it was practically unheard of in private and employer-offered health plans five years ago, it is a component of a significant portion of those plans. Private companies started offering a "Tier 4" pricing scheme in order to offer an option to help employers keep premiums down.

But the new system sticks seriously ill people with huge bills, said James Robinson, a health economist at the University of California, Berkeley. “It is very unfortunate social policy,” Dr. Robinson said. “The more the sick person pays, the less the healthy person pays.”

Traditionally, the idea of insurance was to spread the costs of paying for the sick.

“This is an erosion of the traditional concept of insurance,” Mr. Mendelson said. “Those beneficiaries who bear the burden of illness are also bearing the burden of cost.”

And often, patients say, they had no idea that they would be faced with such a situation.

I first noticed the trend starting exactly five years ago. I was working for a local hospital system that sold to Hospital Corporation of America on April Fool's Day 2003. We all had to go to a seminar led by the benefits coordinator, who explained the new policies and what they offered. What caught my ear was the "prescription rider" option. If you needed expensive drugs that had no generic equivalent, you were encouraged to sign up for the additional rider. Our copay for generics was going to go up to ten dollars from five, and if we needed name-brand drugs, we would have to pay a percentage rather than the traditional $35 copay we had been paying under the insurance we had through Health Midwest. (I want to say it was 25% we would be responsible for, but I can't recall exactly - not needing any name-brand meds, I passed - but a year later when I got a prescription for Ambien, it cost me $55 to fill it at Costco - only to find out after one dose that I can't take Ambien, I turn into Patrick Kennedy.)

I do know that my coworkers and I got really cynical really fast, and questioned whether or not what they were peddling could even be accurately classified as "insurance." Now, the Fristification of American healthcare is just about complete.

How About Some Common Sense Instead?

[Mortimer Mouse by Berke Breathed]

I have been a patient at both Walter Reed and Bethesda here in the DC area, and my own experiences with both were about the same. I had positive experiences but I wasn't treated there for an extended period of time, nor did I need to be housed there. The problems discovered last year were about the temporary spaces used to keep the troops housed in. This is why we donate money to Fisher House and this is what they should have been working on.

Instead, we see this bullshit. If you need to turn to Disney to figure out that you should:

1. Treat people with respect
2. Respond to their needs
3. And use some common sense

Then I can guarantee you that you don't know what you're doing. How hard is it? An organization that craps on people and fosters an indifferent attitude is an organization that is going to frustrate the people that it's serving. If you can't learn that lesson by having it expressed in clear and simple language, there is no amount of money that is going to "solve" the problems Walter Reed faces.

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Walter Reed scheduled to close anyway?

Trying Some Disney Attitude to Help Cure Walter Reed
By Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 25, 2008

Fifty medical workers -- doctors, nurses, therapists and administrators among them -- sat in a room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center gazing at a slide of Donald Duck on a screen.

The oft-cranky Disney cartoon character, wearing his blue sailor jacket and cap, was in a palpable rage. His webbed feet had lifted off the ground, his beak was gaping, and his white-gloved hands were tightly clutching an old-fashioned two-piece telephone.

"We can clearly see he's frustrated," said Kris Lafferty, a trainer for the Disney Institute who was leading workers at the Northwest Washington hospital last week in a four-hour seminar on customer service. "Why do we think he's frustrated?"

A year after a scandal erupted over the long-term treatment of soldiers at the hospital, the Army has turned to Disney for help. "Service, Disney Style" is newly required for all military and other government employees at Walter Reed.

Lafferty and her fellow Disney trainer, Mike Donnelly, handed out little plastic Goofy and Mickey Mouse figurines as they led Wednesday afternoon's discussion with the workers -- some in uniform, some in scrubs, some in civilian clothes.

Various theories were offered for Donald Duck's ire: He was getting the run-around. He could not get a question answered. He was flummoxed by his antique phone.

The lesson: Poor service equals frustration.

At the tables, heads nodded in agreement. It's a familiar story at Walter Reed, where wounded soldiers and their families often confront a numbing bureaucracy.

The Army is paying Disney $800,000 to help revamp attitudes at the hospital.

Next time, just give that money to Fisher House. Better yet, use it to refurbish the rooms that the troops have to stay in. Here's something you can do for nothing--start firing people who treat the troops like shit. Wanna solve problems? Get rid of the people who cause the problems in the first place by throwing their pissy little asses out the door. What enables people to treat people like crap in the first place is the idea that they won't be held accountable for what they do.

[snip]

Last week, nearly 200 Walter Reed employees sat through training by the Disney Institute, a branch of the resort and entertainment empire that offers seminars on what the company calls "the business behind the magic."

Clients often include institutions that have encountered problems because of poor service. "It almost always begins with the need for more service," said Bruce Jones, programming director for the institute, based in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. "What happens is somebody will say, 'Why not Disney?' "

Other government and military entities -- among them the FBI, the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office, which handles the nation's reconnaissance satellites -- have trained with Disney, Jones said.

The Navy hired Disney about 10 years ago to improve its medical service, Mateczun said. Customer service ratings improved.

Disney is "sort of a benchmark on how to work with customers," Mateczun said.

Sounds like we're wasting money. Does the military want to adopt Disney's methods for dealing with Lesbian and Gay employees? Pardon me for piling on, but this little snippet from the archives of "The Anchoress" [yes, she is insane--don't ask] had me laughing out loud most of the morning:

A refreshing take on Disney “Gay Days”
I don’t know if anyone even remembers it, but one of the things the Senate Judiciary Committee held against Bill Pryor (aside from the fact that he had those dangerous “deeply held beliefs” that so troubled Chuck Schumer) was that, upon discovering he’d inadvertently booked a family vacation to Walt Disney World during “Gay Days,” he decided to cancel the vacation. The Committee gave him a hard time about, demanding to know why he cancelled his vacation, demanding to know what the problem was with going to Disney during “Gay Days” and wondering what could possibly be in his head beyong raw homophobia and rampant nazi hate. Okay, they didn’t say that, exactly, but they implied it.

Pryor answered that all he wanted to do was have a vacation that did not involve being forced to explain adult matters to his small children.

[snip]

I can’t help but think of, and feel sorry for – the unsuspecting family who saved for years for a once in a lifetime trip – only to arrive and find that Disney had in fact, been invaded by he-women and shaved down muscle boys. By itself that would not be a problem, but the sheer number of people who seem to go out of their way to rub their sexuality in everyones face during this ‘event’ is nothing short of disgraceful. Is the Magic Kingdom REALLY the place for a 5 year old to ask his father why those two men are kissing? Is it really up to any person to decide for that parent when, or if, they will have that conversation with their child? I’ve always believed the best way we, as gay men and lesbians, could further our cause was to simply live our lives openly, and with dignity. Not hide in shame, and not force our beliefs or lifestyle down anyone elses throat. I don’t like it when I hear pompous windbags telling me I’m going to burn in hell for being gay, and I’m sure most of the free world would appreciate a visit to Disney World that did not include the vision of grown men in go-go shorts, and ads for lubricant prominently displayed throughout the host hotel.

I'm telling you this for your own good--don't read anything by the Anchoress with fluids in your mouth. You have to be in the mood for full-on delusional wingnuttery, and prepare to be horrified and confused all at the same time.

I can guarantee you--guarantee you--more than a few conservative Republicans have wanted to accidentally show up at Disney World on that weekend so that they could continue their public hypocrisy AND get some free lubricants. This is how that crowd likes to roll.

Next time, give me the $800,000. I'll show up and we'll have a five minute training session. I'll stand there for 4 and a half minutes, and then I'll say:

Treat people the way you would want to be treated. And if you don't, your ass is gone. You're not here to do anything other than take care of the people who defend this country. If that doesn't motivate you to use common sense and do a good job, get the fuck out of here now.

And then I'll turn around and give that money to Fisher House myself.