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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Pierluisi Challenges Department of Veterans Affairs Consolidation Plan That Could Compromise Services for Puerto Rico Veterans

WASHINGTON, DC- Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi today urged the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to exclude the San Juan Regional Office (SJRO) from the planned consolidation of the VA Fiduciary Program, scheduled to take effect early next year. Because of his concern that consolidation would hurt rather than help the quality of service provided to the 3,600-plus veterans in Puerto Rico served by the Fiduciary Program, the Resident Commissioner requested a briefing from the VA on the issue.

The VA provides benefits to disabled veterans and their family members. For beneficiaries who require assistance because of a mental or physical impairment, the VA appoints a third-party fiduciary—typically a family member or entity like a law firm or hospital—to manage the beneficiary’s funds. Monitoring of fiduciaries is currently conducted by the VA at its regional offices, including the SJRO.

In a letter sent today to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, Pierluisi acknowledged that there have been documented problems in the Fiduciary Program nationwide, and that these problems have prompted the VA to move forward with a plan to remove responsibility for the Fiduciary Program from the regional offices and place it instead at five “hubs” throughout the nation, including one in Louisville, Kentucky. Puerto Rico is scheduled to be consolidated within the Louisville hub in February 2012.

In his letter to Secretary Shinseki, the Resident Commissioner noted that the SJRO’s Fiduciary Activity office has provided a high level of beneficiary service. “The laudable goal of consolidation is to improve the effectiveness of the Fiduciary Program. However, according to performance data my office has received, the SJRO is exceptionally well-run. . . . It appears the broader problems plaguing the Fiduciary Program are absent—or at least far less pronounced—in Puerto Rico,” Pierluisi wrote.

The Resident Commissioner also noted that, because of language and other factors, the veteran population served by the SJRO relies upon face-to-face interactions with bilingual VA staff, and that consolidation would not readily allow for these critical interactions.

“The Island’s veteran population does have certain distinctive features that are particularly relevant to the consolidation issue. Although Puerto Rico has two official languages—Spanish and English—Spanish is the dominant language on the Island. Accordingly, all oral and written correspondence from the SJRO to fiduciaries, impaired veterans and their families is conducted in Spanish. In addition, SJRO staff are fully bilingual and, therefore, better able to meet the needs of the Island’s veteran population. . . . Finally, experience demonstrates that Puerto Rico veterans strongly prefer face-to-face meetings with VA personnel over telephone or written correspondence,” the Resident Commissioner observed in his letter.

Pierluisi noted that the Manila Regional Office has already excluded from the consolidation, so there is precedent for his request to exempt the SJRO. The Resident Commissioner also observed that all of the veterans services organizations on the Island strongly oppose consolidation, and he questioned whether consolidation would be cost-efficient for the VA. In cases where face-to-face interaction is necessary, the Resident Commissioner wrote, Louisville and San Juan are over 1,800 miles apart and a single-layover trip often takes at least seven hours and costs around $1,000 round trip.

Since Pierluisi became Resident Commissioner, VA health facilities in Puerto Rico have received more federal funding than ever before in the Island’s history. That funding includes, for example, hundreds of millions of dollars for the VA hospital in San Juan, for the construction or improvement of smaller VA clinics throughout the Island, and for the purchase of vehicles to take veterans at the State Veterans’ Home—La Casa del Veterano—to doctors’ appointments and family visits.