Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Army to Review 190,000 PTSD Decisions Back to 2001

Full article at: Army review to look at mental health compensation By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY The Army will pore through — in less than 90 days — about 190,000 medical files of current and former soldiers dating to 2001 to see whether any were shortchanged on retirement compensation for mental health problems, says Lt. Col. Richard Paz, executive officer for a task force leading the effort. "Where a mental health diagnosis was changed to a lesser illness, the soldier or former G.I. will be allowed the opportunity to be re-examined — even after many years have passed — to determine whether a mistake was made, says Maj. Gen. Richard Stone, Army deputy surgeon general." "More than a hundred PTSD diagnoses have been restored by the Army upon further evaluation after Madigan doctors had downgraded them." U.S. Sen. Patty Murray says she believes the "sheer size of the review" is an acknowledgment by the Army that the problems at Madigan are not isolated.