OpenVA Search Ideas

Currently, the VA leaves it up to the discharged or retired Veteran to approach the VA to get signed up and into the VA system. Result is that most fall through the cracks. The VA and DoD need to work together with the goal that every single person coming off of Active Duty, retiring or leaving the Guard or Reserves is automatically signed up with the VA. That would be so very simple with computerized records. The... more »

In the United States today we have an ever groing need for skilled workers in a wide variety of special occupations. (Nurses, CNA’s, CMA’s, Nurse practioners, Long Haul Truck Drivers and the list goes on).
Millions of dollars are being lost due to the cost of re-training.
Introduction / Summary
Filling the need for qualified works in special occupations is not new. That need has been with our society for a lot... more »

CHAMPVA and Tricare benefit claims are processed by two separate systems, one managed by the VA and one by DoD. The functionality of the processing is nearly identical (for instance, CHAMPVA pays the equivalent to Medicare/ TRICARE rates), with both systems reimbursing eligible enrollees for medical services provided by civilian (non-government) healthcare providers.

Suggestion: Merge the CHAMPVA and Tricare claims... more »

Veterans are in a high risk pool in terms of obtaining health insurance.

Instead of a separate health care system for veterans, has anyone evaluated the cost of the government just paying private health care insurance providers higher monthly insurance costs per veteran?

Additionally, veterans could be put in the same risk pool as civilian federal employees to reduce the overall risk and create a larger pool for negotiation... more »

Presently, VA Medical Centers do not provide Veterans with bedside access to the Internet. Apparently, this is not an authorized use of VA bandwidth and network access.

Why not provide Internet service to Veterans in VA Medical Centers by using donated funds and equipment? This is a great way to help Veterans by setting them up with a means to use the Internet while they are in a VA Medical Center. VA would need... more »

Other OpenGov Ideas & Information Resources

Rather than post each of my "OpenGov" Ideas at 27 different websites, I have posted them at the GSA's website (since they are in the forefront of the OpenGov initiative). So, by this notice, the members of the OpenGov Team for your agency have been informed of those ideas. (At least, now, you can't say you were unaware of them.)

http://opengsa.ideascale.com/a/pmd/29640-6960... more »

In an effort to provide better service to veterans, VA needs to hold supervising physicians accountable for the agreements with medical schools, which have changed greatly since World War II. Perhaps publishing salaries of highly compensated physicians and administrators, such as the university professors who appear to be paid for favors, not work. Sometimes, the VA seems to pay for "greasing palms" rather than service,... more »

A couple years ago, the National Academy of Public Administration prepared a report on recruitment and retention practices at VA. Among the Academy's recommendations for improvement was the suggestion that training for managers and supervisors focus primarily on improving communication, team building, and interpersonal relations skills. The Academy also recommended that VA assure that new managers have the necessary skills... more »

I think VA needs to have a Portal that Veterans could sign into to get copies of VA Rating results and other documents to save money of mailing and also if a Veteran loses a copy. They could log in an get the document and print it from home. The would help with printing cost and postage. Being in the paperless world.

I think VA should have a site where Veterans can go and select to receive their correspondence from the VA via email. By doing this the VA could save millions of dollars in office supplies. Right now it takes an average of three days for a piece of mail to get to the Veteran from the day it was place in the mail system. This would also allow the Veteran to save the file without having to create a paper file. These saving... more »

My doctor told me that she spends about half her time dealing with setting up labs, prescriptions, etc. for her patients. The computer system either needs to be streamlined or they need to hire some minimum wage type person to deal with that. You could have one person for each primary care "team" and it would free up the doctors to see more patients so we wouldn't have to wait so long for an appointment.

VA care should be more like medicare, where we could go see doctors of our choice. Granted, there are military-specific things that we would need to see a military doctor about, but it would be nice for regular care if I could have something similar to Tricare (especially if I could include spouse & kids for a small additional fee) that I could use with civilian doctors.

Veterans Affairs could save employee man hours and stress to Veterans if the VA would supply step by step instructions to Veterans on how to:

(A) get the quickest diagnoses and
(B) how to properly file a benefits claim if applicable and
(C) distribute an emergency check for $2500 to those who have been diagnosed and it is more likely than not they will receive benefits similar of how citizens were treated after Katrina.... more »

Every person hired by the VA should be a veteran. Period! Want to know how good it works? Look at Texas Veterans Commission. No one will care for a vet like a vet!

The VA should have a program that scans all documents going into Cfiles (claim folders) so when raters etc. Need to search through files they can do so by keywords. This could prevent careless oversight that sends a claim into a 3 + year appeal (Houston) as well as countless other benefits.