Defense, VA to Share Health Record System for Service Members and Vets

Members of a Senate committee expressed concern Wednesday that reforms taken by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have done little to cut the maze of bureaucracy experienced by many service members and veterans trying to navigate the military health-care system. Based on the testimony, “the bureaucracy we tried to cut through may have become worse,” said Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

The lack of collaboration between VA and Defense has been the subject of continued scrutiny on Capitol Hill since the scandal over the quality of care provided to wounded service members at Walter Reed Army Medical Center broke four years ago, after a Washington Post investigation. At the hearing Wednesday, veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan described continued problems with coordination of their medical care.

“What concerns me is why, after so many years, VA and DoD haven’t solved the kind of transition problems I’ve experienced,” said retired Army Spec. Steven A. Bohn, who was badly injured when a suicide bomber detonated a dump truck packed with 2,000 pounds of explosives at his outpost in Wardak province in Afghanistan in 2008.