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Veterans health care COMMITTEE REPORT
BY PATRICIA BESSIGANO, CHAIR
VVA members are now either in our retirement years or quickly
approaching them. One of the challenges facing Veterans
Service Officers is the filing of new claims for Vietnam
veterans without proper medical evidence. If veterans have
not kept copies of their records, it can be virtually impossible
to document the progress of an illness, especially if they
have received medical care in the private sector.
Private
physicians are required to maintain medical records for
seven years. Many keep them at least ten years. However,
record storage beyond that often becomes cumbersome and those
records are destroyed. The opportunity for the patient to
obtain those records is then lost, and the opportunity to
document an illness also is lost. Also, private physicians
have not always documented whether their patients have served
in the military or if they were exposed to any hazardous
chemicals or materials. They also have not always documented
illnesses or injuries that occurred during a veteran’s
service.
One of the goals of the Health Care Committee is
to educate returning veterans about maintenance of their
medical records as they progress in life and to educate private
physicians about taking a complete and accurate military
medical history.
A sample medical history form will be available on the VVA
Health Care Committee web page. The new prostate and diabetes
brochures will also be available on the VVA website.
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©2006-
2008, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8605 Cameron
Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910