One legal professor said that may make the insurance giant vulnerable to lawsuits. "I think the policy holders have a great legal claim to get back the difference in the interest and they may have a claim for punitive damages as well," said Jeffrey Stempel, of the William S. Boyd School of Law."
Full Article at: VA Officials Knew About Death Benefit Profits
Report by Bloomberg Markets Magazine Shows How Prudential Made a Deal with the Department of Veterans Affairs
By Katie Couric
(CBS) "Revelations that the country's second largest life insurer was profiting from the death benefits of fallen soldiers was news to almost everyone.
"I was stunned to find out that yea, I had been duped," said Cindy Lohman, whose son Ryan was killed in Afghanistan.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said, "I actually believed that the families of our fallen heroes got a check for the full amount."
But, as CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric reports, it wasn't news to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In fact, in September of 2009, the VA amended its contract with Prudential - ratifying what had been a 10-year long verbal agreement: to allow the insurance company to retain lump sum death benefits of soldiers and deposit that money in its own account.
Read the New Bloomberg Markets Magazine Report
Read the Original Bloomberg Markets Magazine Report
"VA has a very solemn obligation to make sure that for-profit companies do not take advantage of the government, or grieving families," said Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense.
When beneficiaries elect "lump sum" on the claim form provide by the V.A., they expect a check. Instead, they receive a checkbook, and a packet from Prudential - saying the money has been placed in a secure interest-bearing "Alliance Account." But the funds are actually held in the company's own general corporate account. Some years, Prudential earned almost 5 percent interest, while paying survivors less than 1 percent.
"So from 1999 until 2009 - a 10-year period - Prudential was sending out checkbooks, holding onto billions of dollars in survivors' money, even though the contract required them to send out checks," said David Evans of Bloomberg Markets Magazine. His six-month investigation in late August broke the story.
One legal professor said that may make the insurance giant vulnerable to lawsuits. "I think the policy holders have a great legal claim to get back the difference in the interest and they may have a claim for punitive damages as well," said Jeffrey Stempel, of the William S. Boyd School of Law."
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Repetive Subconcussive Injuries and TBI
chronic traumatic encephalopathy[CTE] should be on the radar of every veteran especially given the findings found among NFL players. We are talking about injuries below what the military and the VA want to admit are harmful. As we have stated before there are no insignificant brain injuries.
C.T.E.[chronic traumatic encephalopathy] — whose only known cause is repetitive brain trauma — must have developed from concussions he dismissed or from the thousands of subconcussive collisions he withstood in his dozen years of football, most of them while his brain was developing
How many veterans have suffered repetitive subconcussive brain injuries? You need to document these through incident reports, after action reports and Buddy statements, get them now in case you need them later.
Full Article at: Suicide Reveals Signs of a Disease Seen in N.F.L.
By ALAN SCHWARZ
Published: September 13, 2010
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A brain autopsy of a University of Pennsylvania football player who killed himself in April has revealed the same trauma-induced disease found in more than 20 deceased National Football League players, raising questions of how young football players may be at risk for the disease.
Owen Thomas, a popular 6-foot-2, 240-pound junior lineman for Penn with no previous history of depression, hanged himself in his off-campus apartment after what friends and family have described as a sudden and uncharacteristic emotional collapse. Doctors at Boston University subsequently received permission from the family to examine Thomas’s brain tissue and discovered early stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease linked to depression and impulse control primarily among N.F.L. players, two of whom also committed suicide in the last 10 years.
Doctors in the Boston University group and outside it cautioned that Thomas’s suicide should not be attributed solely or even primarily to the damage in his brain, given the prevalence of suicide among college students in general. But they said that a 21-year-old’s having developed the disease so early raised the possibility that it played a role in his death, and provided arresting new evidence that the brain damage found in N.F.L. veterans can afflict younger players.
Thomas never had a diagnosis of a concussion on or off the football field or even complained of a headache, his parents said, although they acknowledged he was the kind of player who might have ignored the symptoms to stay on the field. Because of this, several doctors said, his C.T.E. — whose only known cause is repetitive brain trauma — must have developed from concussions he dismissed or from the thousands of subconcussive collisions he withstood in his dozen years of football, most of them while his brain was developing.
The idea that C.T.E. can stem from hits below the level of concussion — which are endemic to football and all but impossible for doctors to see or manage — is relatively new. Ever since C.T.E. in professional football players began making national headlines in early 2007, it has generally been ascribed to mistreated or at least cumulative concussions, for which awareness and education can be an antidote.
The diagnosis in Thomas’s case was independently confirmed by Dr. Daniel Perl, a professor of pathology at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the medical school for the United States military.
“It’s not unreasonable that aspects of his behavior were related to the underlying brain disease that was detected,” said Dr. Perl, adding that he was speaking as an experienced neuropathologist and not on behalf of his organization. “This is real.”
He added, “This is a call for a broader range of research into this problem that extends beyond the heavy duty N.F.L. level of athletics.”
"Thomas’s parents, the Rev. Tom Thomas and the Rev. Kathy Brearley, requested that their son’s case be made public to educate other families about the possible and perhaps addressable risks of football at all levels. About 1.4 million children ages 14 to 18 play high school football every fall, and about three million others play in youth leagues at younger ages."
“This is an issue beneath the N.F.L. level,” Mr. Thomas said. “I want people to take this seriously.”
C.T.E.[chronic traumatic encephalopathy] — whose only known cause is repetitive brain trauma — must have developed from concussions he dismissed or from the thousands of subconcussive collisions he withstood in his dozen years of football, most of them while his brain was developing
How many veterans have suffered repetitive subconcussive brain injuries? You need to document these through incident reports, after action reports and Buddy statements, get them now in case you need them later.
Full Article at: Suicide Reveals Signs of a Disease Seen in N.F.L.
By ALAN SCHWARZ
Published: September 13, 2010
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A brain autopsy of a University of Pennsylvania football player who killed himself in April has revealed the same trauma-induced disease found in more than 20 deceased National Football League players, raising questions of how young football players may be at risk for the disease.
Owen Thomas, a popular 6-foot-2, 240-pound junior lineman for Penn with no previous history of depression, hanged himself in his off-campus apartment after what friends and family have described as a sudden and uncharacteristic emotional collapse. Doctors at Boston University subsequently received permission from the family to examine Thomas’s brain tissue and discovered early stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease linked to depression and impulse control primarily among N.F.L. players, two of whom also committed suicide in the last 10 years.
Doctors in the Boston University group and outside it cautioned that Thomas’s suicide should not be attributed solely or even primarily to the damage in his brain, given the prevalence of suicide among college students in general. But they said that a 21-year-old’s having developed the disease so early raised the possibility that it played a role in his death, and provided arresting new evidence that the brain damage found in N.F.L. veterans can afflict younger players.
Thomas never had a diagnosis of a concussion on or off the football field or even complained of a headache, his parents said, although they acknowledged he was the kind of player who might have ignored the symptoms to stay on the field. Because of this, several doctors said, his C.T.E. — whose only known cause is repetitive brain trauma — must have developed from concussions he dismissed or from the thousands of subconcussive collisions he withstood in his dozen years of football, most of them while his brain was developing.
The idea that C.T.E. can stem from hits below the level of concussion — which are endemic to football and all but impossible for doctors to see or manage — is relatively new. Ever since C.T.E. in professional football players began making national headlines in early 2007, it has generally been ascribed to mistreated or at least cumulative concussions, for which awareness and education can be an antidote.
The diagnosis in Thomas’s case was independently confirmed by Dr. Daniel Perl, a professor of pathology at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the medical school for the United States military.
“It’s not unreasonable that aspects of his behavior were related to the underlying brain disease that was detected,” said Dr. Perl, adding that he was speaking as an experienced neuropathologist and not on behalf of his organization. “This is real.”
He added, “This is a call for a broader range of research into this problem that extends beyond the heavy duty N.F.L. level of athletics.”
"Thomas’s parents, the Rev. Tom Thomas and the Rev. Kathy Brearley, requested that their son’s case be made public to educate other families about the possible and perhaps addressable risks of football at all levels. About 1.4 million children ages 14 to 18 play high school football every fall, and about three million others play in youth leagues at younger ages."
“This is an issue beneath the N.F.L. level,” Mr. Thomas said. “I want people to take this seriously.”
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