Nebraska
and the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

• General:  The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers a wide variety of programs and services for the nation’s 24.3 million veterans.  In 2006, about 5.3 million people were treated in VA health care facilities, 3.7 million veterans and survivors received VA disability compensation or pensions, nearly 600,000 used GI Bill education benefits and more than 2.4 million owned homes purchased with GI Bill home loan benefits originally valued at $236 billion.  About 110,000 veterans and family members were buried in VA’s national cemeteries and 355,000 headstones and markers were provided for veterans’ graves worldwide.

VA spent more than $526 million in Nebraska in 2006 to serve nearly 154,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 24,194 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Nebraska.  VA provided 4,370 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 19,257 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $619 million.  Nebraska veterans held more than 11,000 VA life insurance policies worth $129 million.  In 2006, 260 were interred at Fort McPherson National Cemetery.

• Health Care:  One of the most visible of all VA benefits is health care.  VA has 155 hospitals, 881 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics, 207 Vet Centers, 136 nursing homes, 45 residential rehabilitation treatment programs and 92 comprehensive home care programs.  Due to technology and national and VA health care trends, VA has changed from a hospital-based system to a primarily outpatient-focused system over the past decade.  Veterans will make 57 million outpatient visits to VA health care facilities this year.

In Nebraska, VA operates major health care facilities in Omaha and Grand Island, plus community-based outpatient clinics in Alliance, Lincoln, Rushville, Scottsbluff, Sidney, North Platte and Norfolk.  In fiscal year 2006, VA facilities in Nebraska had 5,333 inpatient admissions and provided 408,367 outpatient visits.  The VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System is a fully integrated, state-wide, three-division health care delivery system for veterans.

The Omaha division serves as a referral site for the state and provides general medical, surgical and psychiatric outpatient and inpatient service.  It is a teaching hospital and research facility.  The Lincoln division provides a full spectrum of outpatient primary care and some specialty care services.  The Grand Island division serves as a center for rural health care in central and western Nebraska and portions of north central Kansas by providing outpatient primary care, extended care and rehabilitation.  In Lincoln and Grand Island, VA has local partnerships with community hospitals to provide acute and emergency inpatient medical care.

• Post-Conflict Care:  VA has launched special efforts to provide a "seamless transition" for those returning from service in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF).  Each VA medical facility and benefits regional office has a point of contact to coordinate activities locally to help meet the needs of these returning combat service members and veterans.  In addition, VA increased the staffing of benefits counselors at key military hospitals where severely wounded service members from Iraq and Afghanistan are frequently sent.  Once home, recent Iraq and Afghan veterans have ready access to VA health care, which is free of charge for two years following separation for any health problem possibly related to wartime service.  Nearly 185,000 veterans from the Global War on Terrorism have sought VA health care since returning stateside, about 31 percent of the total number of men and women leaving military service.

In Nebraska, 1,111 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terrorism sought VA health care in 2006.  Many veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers in Lincoln and Omaha.  These community-based Vet Centers serve as an important resource for veterans who, once home, often seek out fellow veterans for advice or help transitioning back to civilian life.

• Geriatric Care:  Long-term care is a critical issue for America’s veterans.  Approximately 39 percent of living veterans are at least 65 years, compared with 12 percent of the general population.  The challenge to care for these 9.5 million men and women is met through a spectrum of home and community-based programs such as home-based primary care, homemaker and home health aide services, home respite and hospice and adult day care health.  VA also provides home and domiciliary care for veterans who can no longer be safely maintained in non-institutional settings.  Additionally, VA conducts nationwide research on the causes and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and funds 21 geriatric research, education and clinical centers, each focusing on a major geriatric problem.

In Nebraska, 25,718 (54%) veterans 65 and older received medical care from VA in 2006.  VA health care facilities throughout the Midwest have established an extended care and rehabilitation system to improve the quality of patient care by promoting best practices, uniform standards of care, improving communication and patient satisfaction while decreasing costs and duplication of efforts.  The extended care and rehabilitation care system includes nursing home and hospice programs, as well as non-institutional care in group living facilities or patient homes.  Also included are home-based primary care and geriatric day care to help elderly disabled veterans at home, at the medical center and at other community-based sites.

• Research:  To provide the highest quality of health care to the nation’s veterans, VA sponsors a world-renowned research and development program that addresses some of the most difficult challenges facing medical science today, such as aging, vision loss, women’s health, Gulf War illnesses, diabetes, bioterrorism and hepatitis. VA researchers led the way in developing the cardiac pacemaker, the CT scan, magnetic source imaging and improving artificial limbs.  More recently, injuries sustained by armed forces engaged in current deployments have further increased the long-standing emphasis on VA research on limb loss; prosthetics and tissue replacement; traumatic brain injury; spinal cord injury; and mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder.  The quality of the research and relevance to the veteran population remain the determining factors in deciding what studies to fund.

During fiscal 2006, the Omaha VA Research Service had 181 active projects including 21 funded merit review programs, three Rehabilitation Research and Development programs, four Cooperative Studies programs and five research career scientists.  A total of 59 investigators were involved in the protocols.  Ongoing research projects include studies in liver and pulmonary diseases, endocrinology, immunology, cancer, gastroenterology, diabetes, orthopedics, dental prosthetics, and alcohol-related diseases.  In addition, a nationally funded VA Alcohol Research Center has been active at the Omaha facility since 1991.  The total research funding for fiscal year 2006 from VA, National Institute for Health (NIH) and industry sources was slightly more than $7.9 million.

• Disabilities and Pensions:  Not all military service related issues end when people are discharged from active duty.  About 2.6 million veterans receive monthly VA disability compensation for medical conditions related to their service in uniform.  VA pensions go to about 336,000 wartime veterans with limited means.  Family members of about 535,000 veterans qualify for monthly VA payments as the survivors of disabled veterans or pension recipients.

VA's Lincoln Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Nebraska who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Lincoln Regional Office processed 8,077 disability compensation claims, including 3,323 veterans applying for the first time and 4,754 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 700 Nebraska veterans participated in VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program in 2006.

• Homeless:  Nearly one-quarter of all homeless adults are veterans, and many more veterans who live in poverty are at risk of becoming homeless.  VA is the only federal agency that provides substantial hands-on assistance directly to the homeless.  It has the largest network of homeless assistance programs in the country.  More than 15,000 residential rehabilitative, transitional and permanent beds are available for homeless veterans throughout the country.  VA aggressively reaches out to veterans on the street, conducts clinical assessments, offers needed medical treatment, and provides long-term shelters and job training.  More than $230 million is dedicated to specialized homeless programs to assist homeless veterans, including grants and per diem payments to more than 400 public and non-profit groups.

Nebraska VA medical facilities want to break the cycle of homelessness and have formed a homeless coordinators group to identify the needs of homeless veterans and to develop programs to meet their needs.  This team of professionals has identified four basic primary needs of the homeless: housing, transportation, dental care and eye care.  The team is focusing on meeting these basic needs and increasing housing to improve the quality of life.  Outreach activities for homeless veterans are based out of the Lincoln and Omaha VA medical facilities.

• Memorial Affairs:  Most men and women who have been in the military are eligible for burial in a national cemetery, as are their dependent children and usually their spouses.  VA manages the country’s network of national cemeteries with more than 2.7 million gravesites at 124 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, as well as in 33 soldier’s lots and monument sites.  In 2005, 93,000 veterans were buried in VA's national cemeteries.  Additionally, VA provided nearly 369,000 headstones and markers and 488,000 Presidential Memorial Certificates to the loved ones of deceased veterans.  VA-assisted state veterans cemeteries provided nearly 21,000 interments.

VA has one national cemetery in Nebraska.  Ft. McPherson National Cemetery, in Maxwell, had 260 burials in 2006.  Nebraska has applied for VA grants to build state veterans cemeteries in Alliance and Grand Island.  VA provided 2,064 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Nebraska and sent 2,091 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Nebraska survivors of veterans.