This weeks Monday Spotlight is on the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Louisiana Office of Veterans Affairs was created in 1994 to assist Louisiana veterans and family with local services. As more soldiers became veterans, the need for more programs and services became abundant. In 2003, the Louisiana Department for Veterans Affairs (LDVA) was created. The LDVA's mission is to provide healthcare, education, disability benefits, long term care, and proper burials. In recent years the national Department of Veteran Affairs efficiency rating has been called to question. This investigation has led to a nation wide plan to end the backlog of veterans claims totaling a wait time of more than 125 days. As of March 2013, there were 611,000 claims that had gone unprocessed for more than 125 days. After mandatory overtime and increases in the use of technology, the amount of claims has decreased to 488,00 as of August 17th. With this being a nation wide plan, the LDVA had to devise a plan to lower the number of claims in Louisiana. The LDVA followed the Department of Veteran affairs lead and increased the amount of work hours spent on claims. In February 2013, there were 11,300 unprocessed claims with a wait time of more than 125 days. There were nearly 4, 200 claims that had been waiting for more than a year. After many hours of over time, the LDVA reports that claims have shrunk to 8,300 cases with a wait time of more than 125 days. There are 2,500 cases with a wait time of more than a year.
The LDVA helps veterans in many other ways besides compensation. One such example are the 5 War Veterans homes that they operate in Monroe, Bossier City, Jennings, Reserve, and Jackson, Louisiana. They offer a number of services for our vets including but not limited to short and long term care, rehabilitative therapies, and mental health services. Veterans and their spouses can apply to live in the homes.
Project Legacy, in New Orleans, is the newest way the LDVA is attacking the issue of veteran health care. Project Legacy, currently in the construction phase, is a state of the art, massive $995 million VA complex on Canal St. These new facilities will be replacing the former hospital that has been closed since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. Project Legacy was set to be completed by 2014, but the completion date has been pushed to February 2016. This complex will serve veterans and their families, and will also staff 1,100 new jobs in the New Orleans area.
This will be the exterior of the medical center.
This will be the view of the medical center from Canal Street.
The LDVA has done many great things in the past few years to help veterans. The number of compensation claims has decreased dramatically. Project Legacy will greatly improve lives for veterans of Louisiana. With that being said, there is so much more to do to help our veterans. The time elapse waiting for compensation claims is, as all agree, extremely detrimental. Only time will tell, but hopefully our state legislators and the LDVA find ways to filter claims and get our men and women on the path to good physical and mental health.
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