Alaska
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, 3.6 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.  More than 100,000 veterans and family members were buried in VA’s national cemeteries and nearly 360,000 headstones and markers were provided for veterans’ graves worldwide.

VA spent more than $234 million in Alaska in 2006 to serve about 66,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 13,124 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Alaska.  VA provided 1,381 veterans, reservists or survivors educational benefits through the GI Bill; 17,039 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $727 million.  Alaska veterans held nearly 2,000 VA life insurance policies valued at more than $24 million.  In 2006, 215 were interred in Ft. Richardson and Sitka national cemeteries.

• Health Care:  One of the most visible of all VA benefits is health care.  VA has 153 hospitals, 882 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 55 million outpatient visits to VA health care facilities this year.

The Alaska VA Healthcare System and Regional Office provides health care through a large outpatient clinic in Anchorage and two community-based outpatient clinics -- one located at Bassett Army Community Hospital at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks and one located in Kenai.  In addition to the outpatient clinics, Alaska VA operates a 50-bed domiciliary residential rehabilitation treatment program for homeless veterans in Anchorage.  Alaska VA also has a representative located in the federal building in Juneau.

In fiscal year 2007, Alaska provided more than 112,000 outpatient visits at VA facilities and 54,964 visits were authorized in the community, for a total of 166,964 outpatient visits.  The Alaska VA provides inpatient care through a joint venture agreement with the 3rd Medical Group, Elmendorf Air Force Base, and through statewide fee-basis arrangements with community hospitals.  The joint venture facility also operates the preferred VA emergency room for veterans in the Anchorage area.

The Alaska VA participates in the Alaska Federal Healthcare Partnership (AFHCP), a consortium of Alaska-based federal health care agencies.  VA partners include the Department of Defense, the Coast Guard, the Indian Health Service, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, and the Alaska Native Medical Center.  Every effort is made to coordinate contracts and operations to assure operational efficiency and expand services while reducing costs.

Alaska is the site of a the world’s largest self-sustaining telemedicine initiative, which helps health care providers bridge the distances that divide the state's communities.  The Alaska Federal Health Care Access Network (AFHCAN) was developed by the AFHCP to offer telehealth services to hundreds of telemedicine sites across an area one-third the size of the lower 48 states.

• 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.  Some 205,000 veterans from the Global War on Terror have sought VA health care since returning stateside, about one-third of the total number of men and women leaving military service.

In Alaska, more than 1,200 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terror sought VA health care in 2006.  Many veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Soldotna, and Wasilla.  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.

Alaska VA provided direct care to more than 3,000 veterans aged 65 and older.  Alaska's geriatric programs include contracts with 14 community nursing homes and home care through fee-basis arrangements throughout the state. 

• 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.

While there are no ongoing research programs, the Alaska VA is a member of the multi-site Institutional Review Board administered through the Portland VA Medical Center.  This board provides oversight for ongoing research programs at other VA facilities in the Northwest.

• Disabilities and Pensions:  Not all military service related issues end when people are discharged from active duty.  About 2.7 million veterans receive monthly VA disability compensation for medical conditions related to their service in uniform.  VA pensions go to about 330,000 wartime veterans with limited means.  Family members of about 527,000 veterans qualify for monthly VA payments as the survivors of disabled veterans or pension recipients.

VA's Anchorage VA Medical and Regional Office Center serves veterans and their survivors in Alaska who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Anchorage VAMROC processed 2,034 disability compensation claims, including 729 veterans applying for the first time and 1,305 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  Nearly 500 Alaska veterans participated in VA’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program in 2006.

• Homeless:  Less than 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.  Nearly 16,000 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 $265 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.

Homeless veterans in Alaska receive a comprehensive array of services through the Alaska VA’s  Homeless Veterans Service.  Care includes outreach services for homeless veterans, with an office located at the local Anchorage homeless shelter (Brother Francis Shelter), a 50-bed domiciliary residential rehabilitation treatment program, and employment training through a veteran’s industries program and Compensated Work Therapy.  There is also a transitional housing program supported by VA and the U.S.  Department of Housing and Urban Development.

• 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 2.9 million gravesites at 125 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico, as well as in 33 soldier’s lots and monument sites.  In 2007, more than 100,000 veterans and dependents were buried in VA's national cemeteries.  Additionally, VA provided more than 359,000 headstones and markers and 423,000 Presidential Memorial Certificates to the loved ones of deceased veterans.  VA-assisted state veterans cemeteries provided more than 23,000 interments.

VA has two national cemeteries in Alaska.  In 2006, the Ft. Richardson National Cemetery had 190 burials and the Sitka National Cemetery had 25.  VA provided 463 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Alaska and sent 514 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Alaska survivors of veterans.