Indiana
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 $975 million in Indiana in 2006 to serve more than 534,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 59,757 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Indiana.  VA provided 7,146 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 38,718 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $1.2 billion.  Indiana veterans held more than 23,000 VA life insurance policies worth nearly $259 million.  In 2006, 288 were interred at Marion and New Albany 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.

In 2006, VA facilities in Indiana had nearly 10,000 inpatient admissions and provided more than 668,000  visits.  VA operates 13 health care facilities in Indiana.  Hospitals and ambulatory care clinics are located at Ft.  Wayne, Marion and Indianapolis.  A nursing home is also located at Marion.  Community-based outpatient clinics operate in South Bend, Muncie, Terre Haute, Bloomington, Richmond, Hagerstown, Crown Point, Evansville, Lawrenceburg and Lafayette. 

The Indianapolis VA Medical Center is a general medical and surgical facility.  As the only tertiary VA facility in Indiana, the medical center serves as a referral center for other VA facilities.  The center provides acute medical, surgical, psychiatric and neurological care, as well as primary and specialized outpatient services.  Special programs include center and home dialysis, cardiac surgery, radiation oncology, physical medicine, rehabilitation and a homeless program.  The medical center has four sharing agreements with the Department of Defense.  In addition, it plays a key role in disaster preparedness and is designated as a medical system coordinating center in the event of national disasters.  An active TRICARE clinical program provides care for active duty military members, retirees and their dependents.  The medical center is affiliated with Indiana University School of Medicine.

Veterans in northwestern Indiana are served by an outpatient clinic in Crown Point, with inpatient care provided by the parent facility, the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago.  The outpatient clinic is fully equipped with a pharmacy, x-ray department and clinical laboratory.  In addition to primary care, specialty medical services are offered in ophthalmology, optometry, gastroenterology, psychiatry, cardiology, dermatology, neurology, otolaryngology, dentistry, podiatry and infectious disease, as well as general, orthopedic and neurosurgery.

The Northern Indiana VA Health Care System provides care at two campuses, located at Marion and Ft. Wayne.  Acute medical, surgical and psychiatric services, extended psychiatric treatment and nursing home care services are provided.  Special programs include a combat veterans treatment program, home based primary care program and a Vet Center.  Comprehensive primary care services are provided at both campuses.  Some specialty care is provided by consultants.

• 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 Indiana, more than 2,500 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terror have sought VA health care.  At the Indianapolis VA Medical Center, doctors treated 1,380 returning veterans; in the Northern Indiana VA Health Care System, 1,130 veterans were seen in 2006.  Many veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers in Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Gary and Merrillville.  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 Indiana, 39,120 veterans aged 65 and older received medical care from VA in 2006.  A wide range of geriatric, rehabilitation and extended care services are available in Indiana, and programs continue to expand to meet the growing needs of the state's elderly population.  Indiana's medical centers offer elderly veterans nursing home care, home-based primary care, homemaker and home health aide programs on-site and through contracts, adult day care, hospice and palliative care, and contract community nursing home programs that serve all areas of the state and support a state veterans home in Lafayette.  Additionally, Indianapolis offers a geriatric evaluation and management program.  The primary focus of all VA geriatric programs is to assist the veteran to reach his or her optimum level of functioning.

• 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.

The Indianapolis medical center has a large research program, which includes medical research, health service research and development, and cooperative research.  Indianapolis investigators receive more than $14 million for peer-reviewed research annually; approximately $3.5 million is VA-funded.  Research is conducted in most clinical areas, including cardiology, endocrinology, geriatrics, rehabilitation and psychiatry, as well as in health service areas such as customer satisfaction and shared decision-making.

• 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 Indianapolis Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Indiana who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Indianapolis Regional Office processed 10,070 disability compensation claims, including 3,404 veterans applying for the first time and 6,666 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 1,500 Indiana 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.

Health care, housing and vocational rehabilitation programs for homeless veterans are available at Indianapolis.  In support of these programs, Indianapolis VA provides medical care and counseling for chronically mentally ill and veterans with substance abuse problems.  A dedicated clinical staff runs these programs in close partnership with veterans' organizations, and state and community agencies.  At Indianapolis, the Compensated Work Therapy program aims to find veterans jobs and homes in the community.  Indiana also sponsors stand downs in Indianapolis, Ft.  Wayne and Gary.  These stand downs provide medical screening, food, clothing, dental care, job services, spiritual counseling, referrals for substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment and legal advice to the homeless.

• 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 125 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 three national cemeteries in Indiana.  In 2006, the national cemetery at Marion had 221 burials.  The Crown Hill National Cemetery in Indianapolis buries eligible family members but had no burials that year.  The national cemetery at New Albany, which buries family members and cremation remains, had 67 burials.  The Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Madison, which received a VA grant, conducted 90 burials.  Veterans in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio are eligible for burial in this state veterans cemetery.  Indiana has another soldiers home veterans cemetery in Lafayette that received no federal development funds.  VA provided 6,931 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Indiana and sent 7,695 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Indiana survivors of veterans.