Oklahoma
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 $1.3 billion in Oklahoma in 2006 to serve more than 347,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 72,112 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Oklahoma.  VA provided 9,821 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 45,173 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $1.3 billion.  Oklahoma veterans held 18,000 VA life insurance policies worth nearly $200 million.  In 2006, 851 were interred in Ft. Gibson and Ft. Sill 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 2006, there were 10,147 inpatient admissions to VA facilities in Oklahoma, while VA had 679,854 outpatient visits.  In Oklahoma, VA operates major medical centers in Muskogee and Oklahoma City.  Muskogee also operates an outpatient clinic in Tulsa, while Oklahoma City manages a satellite outpatient clinic in Lawton.  Both medical centers have embraced the health care philosophy of shifting people from inpatient to outpatient treatment.  To meet the needs of veterans in the predominately rural state, the Muskogee medical center has opened a contract community-based outpatient clinic (CBOC) in McAlester.  The Oklahoma City medical center operates CBOCs in Ponca City, Konawa, and Ardmore, Okla., and Wichita Falls, Texas, and a primary care clinic in Oklahoma City.  There are plans to establish additional remote contract community-based clinics and satellite outpatient clinics for primary 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.  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 Oklahoma, nearly 3,000 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terror sought VA health care in 2006.  At the Muskogee VA Medical Center, doctors have treated 948 returning veterans; in Oklahoma City, 1,979.  Some veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.  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 Oklahoma, participation in VA geriatric programs has grown significantly in the past few years, totaling 31,660 veterans age 65 and older who received medical care from VA in 2006.  The Oklahoma City VA Medical Center’s geriatrics and extended care services include an extended rehabilitative care unit and a geriatric continuity of care clinic.  Both medical centers offer home based primary care programs, extended care services, including contracted community nursing home care, adult day care, homemaker home health aide program, hospice and respite care. 

• 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 Oklahoma City VA has more than 200 active research projects, with a VA research budget of nearly $2.3 million annually.  Current VA projects are funded in basic sciences, health services research, cooperative studies, clinical studies and rehabilitation research.  VA research in Oklahoma includes major projects in gastroenterology, cardiology, infectious diseases, rehabilitation, nutrition, pulmonary, rheumatology and immunology, as well as behavioral sciences.  Areas of special interest include clinical studies in thrombosis, heredity of lupus erythematosis and inflammatory bowel disease.

• 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 Muskogee Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Oklahoma who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Muskogee Regional Office processed 16,067 disability compensation claims, including 4,243 veterans applying for the first time and 11,824 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 1,300 Oklahoma 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.

VA homeless programs in Oklahoma are based in Oklahoma City and Muskogee.  In both cities, non-profit organizations have been awarded VA grants and per diem payments to establish transitional housing and job training.  The Oklahoma City VA Medical Center coordinates and sponsors a three-day stand down that has become one of the largest in the country, with a broad spectrum of local, state and federal agencies participating.  The Muskogee medical center participated in a three-day stand downs in Tulsa and Sapulpa.  These stand downs provide health care, agency support, clothing and food for homeless veterans.  Volunteers throughout the state, veterans service organizations, the Oklahoma National Guard and the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs augment the Oklahoma VA homeless program.

• 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 Oklahoma.  In 2006, Ft. Gibson National Cemetery had 558 burials.  Ft. Sill National Cemetery near Oklahoma City had 293.  VA provided 6,147 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Oklahoma and sent 4,855 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Oklahoma survivors of veterans.