{"id":109078,"date":"2021-01-07T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=109078"},"modified":"2021-01-06T20:51:09","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T01:51:09","slug":"after-a-years-long-fight-veterans-will-see-new-medical-malpractice-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=109078","title":{"rendered":"After a years-long fight, veterans will see new medical malpractice protections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jeff LPH 3 sent in this Military Times<\/a> article. Great news for those who have been wronged by the VA’s medical system.<\/p>\n

Veterans Affairs officials will have to provide basic legal advice to veterans who file medical malpractice claims and provide information on local staffing issues as part of new legislation signed into law this week.<\/p>\n

The provisions, dubbed the Brian Tally VA Employment Transparency Act, were included in a massive veterans policy omnibus which passed without objection in both the House and Senate last month. President Donald Trump gave his final approval of the measure on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Tally, a veteran injured in a medical malpractice case five years ago, has pushed for the reforms in response to his own legal battles with VA officials. On Tuesday, he said he was exhausted by the years-long lobbying effort but satisfied that the work may help other veterans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened to my family and I and the countless others before us is downright frightening, unconstitutional and criminal,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew something needed to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tally, 43, previously served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps and visited the Loma Linda Veterans Affairs Medical Center in California in 2015 after a bout of extreme back pain. Doctors diagnosed him with a back sprain and sent him home with painkillers, without any blood tests or further examinations.<\/p>\n

After weeks without any relief \u2014 or additional help from VA doctors \u2014 Tally visited a private-sector doctor (at his own expense), where new tests showed a bone-eating staph infection causing severe spinal damage.<\/p>\n

At the time, Tally was an active father of four and owner of his own landscaping business. Today, he is unable to walk without significant pain. His bladder is mostly non-functional. He said he spent \u201cmost of my time living in a chair\u201d and has struggled with depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life changed in ways I could have never seen coming or ever imagined,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tally\u2019s family filed a claim against VA for malpractice, saying that doctors should have ordered more tests after his continued pain. But after more than a year of working with department officials on the claim, they were notified that the primary doctor involved in the case was an independent contractor, not a VA staffer.<\/p>\n

That meant he had missed state deadlines for filing proper legal claims for his injuries. Officials did not give any reason why providing that critical information took so long.<\/p>\n

The new legislation mandates that the department provide \u201cnotice of the importance of securing legal counsel\u201d and clearly identify the employment status of any individuals involved in the case within a month of a veteran submitting a malpractice claim. VA officials had opposed the idea, saying it creates unnecessary burden on staff.<\/p>\n

The new rules are not retroactive, so Tally will not directly benefit. But he said he still feels the end result is satisfying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what my family and I have longed for to effectively close out this egregious five-year chapter, turn the page and move on with our lives,\u201d he said. \u201cThis will never happen again and ruin the lives of other veterans and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full bill \u2014 named for former Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson and former House committee Chairman Phil Roe \u2014 also includes numerous new protections for women veterans, student veterans and veterans left with financial challenges related to the ongoing pandemic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff LPH 3 sent in this Military Times article. Great news for those who have been … After a years-long fight, veterans will see new medical malpractice protections<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,118,143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disposable-warriors","category-veterans-issues","category-veterans-affairs-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109084,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109078\/revisions\/109084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}