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| Wilson Commends VA for Additional Services |
January 26, 2007 |
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Press Release: Wilson Rejects Detrimental Change to Medicare
Vision-Impaired to Receive Better Care under New VA Policy
Albuquerque – Congresswoman Heather Wilson today commended the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for a commitment to improve care for blinded and vision-impaired veterans
Under the new VA policy, better vision care will be provided for more than a million veterans. The reorganization of VA’s vision rehabilitation services was announced today by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson.
“Our nation has made important commitments to the health care of those who served. I’m very pleased that better care will be available to our vision-impaired veterans,” Wilson said. “Our veterans and their families have served and sacrificed, and our nation is grateful. We can never truly repay our debt to them, but we can keep our commitments.”
According to the VA, $40 million will be directed over three years to establish a comprehensive nationwide system for rehabilitation and care. This new commitment will improve inpatient services and boost outpatient services throughout the 1,400 VA health care locations.
Under the reorganization plan announced today, each of VA’s 21 regional networks -- called Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs) – will implement a plan to provide eye care to veterans with visual impairments ranging from 20/70 to total blindness. Basic services will be available at all VA eye clinics, and every network will offer intermediate and advanced low-vision services, including a full spectrum of optical devices and electronic visual aids.
Ten existing inpatient blind rehabilitation centers will continue to provide the Department’s most intensive eye care programs, but each VISN now will also provide outpatient-based blind rehabilitation care.
The Department estimates there are more than 1 million visually impaired veterans over the age of 45 in the United States. Within this group, approximately 157,000 are legally blind, and about 1 million have low vision. About 80 percent of all visually impaired veterans have a progressive disability caused by age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, or diabetic retinopathy, according to the VA announcement.
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