Dr. James Peake, President Bush’s nominee for VA secretary, received a favorable nomination hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee recently and the former surgeon general of the Army should be headed for confirmation.
"An army doctor and a wounded combat veteran, Dr. Peake has a distinguished record of service to his country," said committee chair Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii.
Akaka noted the challenges posed by having to treat veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, especially in combination with other injuries.
Peake said PTSD and brain trauma "are likely to become the signature injury" coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and called for "research, developing the base of mental health providers, insuring access, addressing stigma, developing practice guidelines, measuring the outcomes and providing support to address the co-morbid conditions."
DoD’s and VA’s systems for compensating service members are broken, Akaka said, adding that the overall compensation system needs to be rethought and the DoD and VA systems need to be better coordinated.
Peake is currently the chief medical director and operating officer QTC Management, a large VA contractor providing contract medical exams. The QTC board is chaired by former VA secretary Anthony Principi, leading at least one veterans group – Veterans for Common Sense – to criticize the nomination for what it sees as part of a revolving door between government and the private sector.
The group also criticized Peake’s performance as surgeon general from 2000 to 2004 when he presided over veterans being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The American Legion, the largest veterans network, is reportedly backing the nomination.
Peake acknowledged "dissatisfaction with veterans waiting excessive periods of time to have their claims adjudicated; of the importance in reducing the backlog of claims while, at the same time, insuring consistency in our rating process."
He said that if confirmed he would work to simplify the system and increase IT support, adding that, "a veteran should not need a lawyer to figure out what benefit is due."
