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Show 111 1 M ES Feb. 20, 2014 Advocate: Policy cheats Utah veterans Federal failure to track vets a 'disservice' to their needs BY MITCH SHAW Standard-Examiner staff OGDEN — How many veterans live in Utah? One local veterans advocate says the state has a pretty good idea, but the federal government is just guessing. Ogden resident and Vietnam veteran Terry Schow wants to change what he calls a "bogus policy" wherein the United States does not account for veterans in its nationwide census. Since 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau has not tracked the number of veterans residing in the country as a whole, or the num- ber residing in each individual state. "They stopped doing it at the beginning of the 21st century," Schow said. "I'm not sure why that happened, but it did." The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides official estimates and projections of the total number of veterans by using a mathematical model. According to the VA's count through September, Utah has about 150,000 veterans. But the state's database, which Schow helped create while he was director of the Utah VA, shows more than 176,000 veterans living in Utah. The state's database relies on information provided at the Utah Driver License Division and Department of Workforce Services. "In (Utah's) database, there are more than 176,000 unique Social Security numbers of veterans in the state," Schow said. "That's a hard count. The (fed- A Passion for Food, Vets eral) numbers are really just a guess. And a difference of 26,000 between their numbers and ours is not insignificant by any means." Schow, chairman of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Rural Health Advisory Committee, says the government's failure to properly track veterans is a disservice on multiple levels. "There are a lot of reasons See CENSUS I Page 10 NRA grant improves gun range BY ANDREW CHUDY President Hill Rod and Gun Club MITCH SHAW/Standard-Examiner Angel Madera prepares a meal in the kitchen of LongHorn Steakhouse in Ogden. Madera served in Iraq and Afghanistan in the Army and today makes it his mission to help other local veterans. Restaurant managing partner learns valuable lessons from military service BY MITCH SHAW Standard-Examiner staff 0 GDEN — Just when Angel Madera began moving up in the corporate world of LongHorn Steakhouse, a military career he'd been out of for more than three years came knocking — and as he opened the door, he gained an experience he continues to draw on every day. Madera works as a managing partner of LongHorn Steakhouse, 3647 Wall Ave. in Ogden. He helped open the restaurant in January 2013 and has been there pretty much every day since then. "I've got to be here all the time, making sure everything is running See LONGHORN I Page 10 Hill AFB — The Hill Air Force Base Rod and Gun Club has greatly improved their ranges because of the Friends of the NRA Grants they received over the last two years. The club's sporting clays course machines are in need of refurbishment from their original 11 machines, that were donations from about 5 years ago. The donated machines are from various manufacturers and allowed the club to field a five-station walking course. The age and cumulative targets thrown on each machine contributes to them breaking down often and makes it tough to hold tournaments or organized functions. As a result of the last two years of FRNA grants, the club has been supplied with eight new Promatic brand Sporting Clays machines. The new machines make it possible for the club to participate in a Six-Club Northern Utah Sporting Clays Shoot. In addition, several Boy Scouts 'Loops and youth groups utilize the newly enhanced Sporting Clays walking course. The extra machines now allow each station have a more challenging cornbination of targets as well as a novice set of targets. It permits more experienced members to shoot alongside new and youth shooters and challenges both ends of the shooting skill spectrum. In addition, many of our older See GRANT I Page 8 New technology to speed up new VA claims All electronic medical records now accessible BY MITCH SHAW Standard-Examiner staff OGDEN — As the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs continues to work through a massive backlog of disability compensation claims, officials there say a new piece of technology should begin to speed up the process — for some. Between March and November 2013, the VA made significant progress in reducing the backlog of disability compensation claims, going from 611,000 to 400,835. But since that 34 percent reduction, the VA has been unable to reduce the backlog much below the 400,000 threshold. As of this week, the claims backlog stands around 397,000. VA officials say much of the obstruction has been because claims adjudicators have been required to scavenge through paper medical records when examining disability benefits cases. "The paper records have been a pretty significant hurdle for some time now," said Terry Schow, chairman of the VA's Rural Health Advisory Committee and former director of Utah's VA. "It slowed things way down, but this new technology well help." The new technology, the Health Artifact and Image Man- agement Solution, makes certified military service treatment records automatically available to the VA when determining disability benefits after a claim is filed. The system went online earlier this month and gives the VA electronic access to complete, certified and final military medical records for anyone who left the military after Jan. 1 of this year. David Bowen, director of health information technology at the Defense Health Agency, said the electronic records shared between Department of Defense and the VA will also be accessible to VA hospitals. Complete medical records are kept on patients while under DoD care and also include information from the commercial sector. The electronic records are "readily available and accessible by our DoD clinicians, anytime, anywhere in the world," Bowen said. Digitizing the full record at the time of a service member's separation provides the VA with "a history of the service member's care" and is as up to date as the last medical appointment, Bowen said. While officials say the new system will decrease the backlog and make things easier for veterans who have separated from the military in 2014 and beyond, service members who retired before then are still in the same boat they were before the new system was implemented. Willard resident Roy Torge- son was wounded in Korea in 1951. He began contacting the VA in 2003 in an attempt to receive the Purple Heart and medical benefits he'd earned all those years ago. Finally, on Feb. 7, Torgeson received a letter from the VA saying it would finally recognize his battle wounds and begin to pay him a small monthly disability payment. "I was shocked because I didn't think it would ever happen," Torgeson said. "The sad thing is, there are a lot of guys from my era in the same boat. Something needs to be done for them. "That system is still broken." Contact reporter Mitch Shaw at 801-625-4233 or mishaw@ standard.net . Follow him on Twitter at @mitchshaw23. |