Colorado
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.  About 97,000 veterans and family members were buried in VA’s national cemeteries and 335,000 headstones and markers were provided for veterans’ graves worldwide.

VA spent more than $1.7 billion in Colorado in 2006 to serve nearly 420,000 veterans who live in the state.  In 2006, 64,096 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Colorado.  VA provided 12,149 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 62,124 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $2.2 billion.  Colorado veterans held more than 24,000 VA life insurance policies valued at more than $279 million.  In 2006, 3,529 veterans were interred in Ft. Logan and Ft. Lyon national cemeteries.

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

In Colorado, VA operates the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System and the VA Medical Center in Grand Junction.  In fiscal year 2006, VA facilities in Colorado provided inpatient hospital care to 6,298 veterans and provided 596,496 outpatient visits.

VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System, serving more than 50,000 veterans, is comprised of a 132-bed medical center and a 60-bed nursing home in Denver and a 40-bed nursing home in Pueblo.  It also manages community-based outpatient clinics in Alamosa, La Junta, Lamar, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Lakewood and Aurora.  The Denver VA Medical Center (VAMC) is an active teaching center affiliated with the University of Colorado Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy.

In 2005, VA continued negotiations with the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority, a partnership between the City of Aurora and the University of Colorado, to purchase land for a new VA hospital at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center.  In addition to locating the VA closer to the new home of CU's University Hospital and its Health Sciences campus, establishment of a medical center at Fitzimons will provide the veterans served by the Denver VAMC with a state-of-the-art medical center replacing an old and outdated facility.

The Grand Junction VAMC serves veterans living in 15 counties on the western slope of Colorado.  In addition to operating an acute hospital, the Grand Junction VAMC provides rehabilitative, extended and hospice care through a 30-bed transition care unit and operates a community-based outpatient clinic in Montrose.  The medical center staff admitted more than 1,400 veterans into its medical, surgical and psychiatric units during fiscal year 2006.

The Cheyenne, Wyo., VAMC operates two Colorado community-based outpatient clinics, in Fort Collins and Greeley.  A community-based outpatient clinic in Durango serves veterans in southwest Colorado.

Denver’s VA Health Administration Center (HAC) helps administer the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA), and the VA’s Fee-Basis Program.  CHAMPVA is a health benefits program for more than 250,000 beneficiaries worldwide who are the dependents of permanently and totally disabled veterans, survivors of veterans who died from a service-connected condition, or who at the time of death were rated permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected condition.  The VA’s Fee-Basis Program handles billing from outside health care providers for medical services rendered to veterans outside the VA health care system.

The VA’s Denver Distribution Center (DDC), in Lakewood, is a distribution point for hearing aids, accessories and batteries; prosthetic socks and components; aids for the visually impaired; and orthopedic items for over 850,000 disabled veterans worldwide.  In addition, DDC operates the sole hearing aid repair facility within VA.

• 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 Colorado, more than 2,000 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terrorism have enrolled in VA health care.  At the Eastern Colorado VA Health Care System alone, doctors have treated more than 2,000 returning veterans.  Some veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers in Colorado.  These community-based Vet Centers in Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins and Pueblo 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 Colorado, more than 20,000 veterans aged 65 and older received medical care in 2005 from VA.  Through VA-operated nursing home care units and the network of state veterans homes and contracted nursing homes, VA has made significant strides in addressing the needs of elderly Colorado veterans.  VA provides home-care services to many veterans through its home-based primary care and visiting nurse programs.  Throughout Colorado, VA programs are directed toward achieving the highest quality of life possible and maintaining veterans in the home and community where possible.  Colorado state veterans homes are located in Florence, Homelake, Rifle, Walsenburg and Aurora at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center.

• 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.

An extensive VA research program in Colorado has nearly 600 active studies or projects and an annual budget of more than $18 million.  Most research is focused at the Denver VAMC, which is recognized for its strong research programs in schizophrenia, alcoholism, neuro-degenerative diseases, diabetes, AIDS, liver and lung diseases.

• 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 Denver Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Colorado who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Denver Regional Office processed 10,797 disability compensation claims, of which 8,574 were for Colorado veterans (the remaining claims were paid to veterans in Wyoming).  The Colorado total includes 2,908 veterans applying for the first time for disability compensation and 5,666 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 2,500 Colorado 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 $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.

VA homeless programs in Colorado are based in Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Grand Junction.  Over the past several years, all Colorado VA facilities have been significant partners with their communities in hosting veterans' standdowns.  During these events, homeless veterans and their families are provided essential items such as clothes, sleeping bags and jackets, and are connected with appropriate support agencies.

• 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 2006, nearly 97,000 veterans were buried in VA's national cemeteries.  Additionally, VA provided more than 335,000 headstones and markers and 405,000 Presidential Memorial Certificates to the loved ones of deceased veterans.  VA-assisted state veterans cemeteries provided more than 22,000 interments.

VA has two national cemeteries in Colorado.  In 2006, the Ft. Logan National Cemetery in Denver had 3,491 burials.  The national cemetery in Ft. Lyon had 38 burials.  The state veterans cemetery in Grand Junction in Western Colorado had a total of 213 interments in fiscal year 2006.  VA provided 4,909 headstones and markers for the gravesites of veterans in Colorado and sent 5,629 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Colorado survivors of veterans.

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