Maryland
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 $1 billion in Maryland in 2006 to serve about 471,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 62,534 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Maryland.  VA provided 10,435 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 86,618 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $3 billion.  Maryland veterans held nearly 31,000 VA life insurance policies worth $362 million.  In 2006, 229 were interred at the state's three national cemeteries.

• Health Care:  One of the most visible of all VA benefits is health care.  VA has 153 hospitals, 895 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics, 209 Vet Centers, 135 nursing homes, 47 residential rehabilitation treatment programs and 92 comprehensive home care programs.  To improve patients’ ability to access care, 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 fiscal year 2006, VA facilities in Maryland had 7,884 inpatient admissions and provided 565,832 outpatient visits.

In Maryland, the Baltimore and Perry Point VA Medical Centers, and the Baltimore VA Rehabilitation and Extended Care Center work together to form the VA Maryland Health Care System -- a dynamic health care organization providing compassionate and accessible care to veterans throughout the state.  The health care system provided services to 51,241 Marylanders in fiscal year 2006.  The services provided include medical, surgical, rehabilitative, neurological, primary and mental health care on both an inpatient and outpatient basis.

Additionally, the VA Maryland Health Care System operates community-based outpatient clinics in Cambridge, Fort Howard, Glen Burnie, Loch Raven and Pocomoke City.  These clinics offer a full array of primary care services for veterans in the communities where they live and work.  In addition to the outpatient clinics operated by the VA Maryland Health Care System, the VA Medical Center in Washington, D.C., operates outpatient clinics in Charlotte Hall and Greenbelt, Md.  The VA Medical Center in Martinsburg, W. Va., operates outpatient clinics in Cumberland and Hagerstown.

As a leader in education, the VA Maryland Health Care System prides itself on an active affiliation with the University of Maryland School of Medicine at Baltimore and other local colleges and universities.  More than a thousand residents, interns and students from various disciplines are trained each year throughout the health care system.  Most physicians hold dual appointments at the VA Maryland Health Care System and the University of Maryland, providing veterans the latest clinical practices and procedures.

• 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 Maryland, 1,875 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 Aberdeen, Baltimore, Cambridge, Elkton and Silver Spring.  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 Maryland, 22,209 veterans aged 65 and older received medical care from VA in 2006.  The Baltimore VA Medical Center is home to one of VA’s Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Centers, helping to increase basic knowledge of the aging process and share that knowledge with other health care providers.  Its primary focus is to examine the hypothesis that functional declines in cardiovascular disease with aging are predominately related to the influence of sedentary lifestyle, environmental factors and disease instead of biological aging.  The secondary focus of the program involves the evaluation of the effectiveness of exercise rehabilitation on the functional capacity and quality of life of older veterans who have suffered from a stroke.  One of the center’s most notable studies included analyzing cardiovascular risk factors for retired professional athletes compared to non-athletes as they age.

Maryland operates a state veterans home supported by VA funds, which is located in Charlotte Hall.  It has 100 domiciliary beds and 278 nursing care beds.

• 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.

In Maryland, researchers at the Baltimore VA Medical Center were awarded nearly $21 million in VA funds in 2006 to conduct research projects.  The Baltimore VA Medical Center is ranked in the top four nationally in all research funding for grants provided to the VA.  With nearly 200 investigators throughout Maryland and more than 500 active projects, researchers are studying the causes, prevention and treatments of some of today’s most prevalent medical problems.  These include Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer, mental illness, diabetes, obesity, bacterial infections, AIDS, Gulf War illnesses and the effects of depleted uranium.

• 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 Baltimore Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Maryland who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Baltimore Regional Office processed 9,801 disability compensation claims, including 3,406 veterans applying for the first time and 6,395 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 1,400 Maryland 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.

From shelters and abandoned buildings to prisons and soup kitchens, Maryland VA staff have reached out to homeless veterans since 1994.  The homeless programs at the Baltimore and Perry Point VA medical centers focus on helping veterans in Baltimore City, as well as Baltimore, Howard, Carroll, Anne Arundel, Harford and Cecil counties, the Eastern Shore and parts of Delaware.  Providing assistance in obtaining discharge papers, birth certificates, substance abuse treatment and medical and psychiatric health care are among the benefits of the program.  Maryland’s Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans program is designed to rehabilitate veterans for re-entry into the community where they can ultimately have healthy and productive lives.

• 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 three national cemeteries in Maryland.  The Baltimore and Annapolis national cemeteries bury eligible family members and cremation remains.  Loudon Park National Cemetery buries only family members.  Last year, Baltimore had 226 burials, Annapolis had one and Loudon Park had two.  Maryland has five state veterans cemeteries that received VA grants.  In 2006, Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery had 859 burials; the cemetery at Crownsville had 723; the Eastern Shore Veterans Cemetery in Hurlock had 222; the Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery in Owings Mills had 1,229; and the Rocky Gap Veterans Cemetery in Flintstone had 162.  Last year, VA provided 6,398 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Maryland and sent 3,795 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Maryland survivors of veterans.