Medical Evaluation Changes Eyed

Representatives of several key federal agencies met in Leesburg, Va., in mid-September to discuss ways of revamping the often-cumbersome medical evaluation processes that sick or wounded service members must tackle in order to get the care they earned. The discussions, which included Army, Social Security Administration, and Labor and Veterans Affairs departments’ staffers, centered on proposals such as removing the armed forces from the evaluation process altogether. "We need to get the military completely out of the disability process and allow the [VA] to be a single source of benefits," said Brig. Gen. Gary Cheek, the Army’s assistant surgeon general.