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UPDATE: VA FINALLY RESPONDS TO BOGUS
ALS DIAGNOSIS LETTER
VA offers "sincere apologies for the distress caused by this
unfortunate and regrettable error."
by
Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org
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Earlier today we reported on a
letter that the VA sent to a number of veterans telling them they
had a diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) when they don't.
That article is here ...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfaug09/nf082509-3.htm
Now, the VA has responded to a
request from Paul Sullivan of
Veterans for
Common Sense.
The problem is, the VA's
statement doesn't make much sense compared with the information in
the previous article.
This was forwarded to me by
email from Paul Sullivan:
Author: Department of Veterans
Affairs
Headline: VA Issues Statement
on ALS Letters
 August
24, 2009, Washington, DC - In our efforts to keep Veterans
informed of their expanding eligibility for benefits, the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) sent notifications to
Veterans with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for disability
compensation benefits from the VA, outreach letters were sent to
1,864 veterans and survivors last week.
VA has since been contacted by
a small number of these Veterans who do not have ALS, but were
mistakenly sent the ALS outreach letter.
VA is immediately
reviewing the individual claims files for all the recipients of
this letter to identify those who received the notification in
error.
VA employees are personally
contacting these individuals to ensure they understand the
letter should not be confused with a medical diagnosis of ALS,
explain why they mistakenly received the letter and express VA’s
sincere apologies for the distress caused by this unfortunate
and regrettable error.
Recipients of this letter are
encouraged to call VA at 1-800-827-1000 with any questions.
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TOPICS:
veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs,
ALS, letter, diagnosis, bogus |
