Veterans Affairs secretary visits Montana

Bob McDonald, secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, is in Montana this week touring VA facilities and meeting with veterans.

On Tuesday, he participated in a veterans roundtable at the Montana National Guard Joint Force Headquarters in Helena with representatives from veterans service organizations, state veterans agencies, universities and others. The panel was hosted by Sen. Jon Tester, and McDonald came to Montana at Tester's invitation.

McDonald said some of his goals at the VA include rebuilding trust in the department, improving access to care for veterans, reducing the claims backlog and reorganizing the VA.

The claims backlog is down 68 percent to 193,000, McDonald said. The goal is to completely end the backlog by the end of the year, he said.

"I'm actually encouraged," McDonald said of reaching that goal.

But the department will need to hire more people, McDonald said, to prevent such a massive backlog from happening again. Currently, staff are working mandatory overtime to drive down the backlog, which McDonald said is not sustainable over time.

In 2017, there will be 10 million veterans over the age of 65, he said.

"We have to create a system that can deal with that influx of aging veterans," McDonald said.

The number of claims have increased, but so have the number of items on each claim, so processing veterans claims can be complex.

Joe Foster, Montana Veterans Affairs division administrator, said the Fort Harrison regional office is ranked No. 1 in the nation for processing veterans claims. They are working to get 25 full-time employees in that office to further improve their productivity and to also get an on-site director to help them export their best practices to other regional offices, Foster said.

Joe Parsetich, state commander of Disabled American Veterans, served on the panel during the Helena event and asked McDonald to encourage Montana lawmakers and the VA to push funding to the proposed state veterans home in Butte.

Parsetich, a Great Falls resident, sent letters to each member of the Appropriations Committee of the Montana Legislature this week after they tabled a bill that would allow the Montana Facility Finance Authority to provide a loan to cover the federal portion of the $15 million project until the VA can reimburse the state for the project.

The state has already agreed to pay its share of the project, about $5 million, and the loan proposed in HB 493 would cover up to $10 million so construction can start now instead of waiting for federal funds to become available.

According to Tester's office, the Montana project is on the VA's priority list, but is currently ranked below other projects for renovations and safety upgrades.

Currently, Montana has two veterans homes, but neither serve veterans in southwestern Montana. The state has the second highest veteran population per capita.

Parsetich told McDonald that veterans have been working to get the 60-bed facility constructed since 2007.

"I implore you," to help get the home built, Parsetich said.

McDonald was scheduled to meet with a group of veterans and officials to discuss the Butte veterans home during his trip.

"I'm a big fan of veterans homes," he said.

The Montana veterans health care system has also faced challenges in recruiting and retaining medical staff, especially doctors and mental health professionals.

McDonald said he is going to colleges, universities and medical associations asking them to help the VA create residencies in rural states like Montana. The VA trains about 70 percent of doctors in America, McDonald said, but the challenges is placing them in residencies in rural areas.

"This is a big, fundamental issue," McDonald said.

He told veterans in the audience to encourage people they know pursuing medicine to come to Montana and that the VA would help recruit them.

Some veterans said they had trouble understanding the instructions related to the new Veterans Choice Cards that are designed to give them access to health care in the community if it's not available through the VA system. McDonald said the VA needed to do a better job explaining how the program works and that they have plans to increase education about the program.

In Helena, McDonald also announced that Montana would receive a $6 million grant through Volunteers of the American Northern Rockies to help end veterans homelessness. It's a portion of a $93 million Supportive Services for Veteran Families grant that is aimed at helping homeless veterans and those at risk of becoming homeless, McDonald said.

After the Helena event, McDonald and Tester went to Missoula to meet with student veterans, and on Wednesday will host a listening session at the Billings library.