Wisonsin
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 $1.2 billion in Wisconsin in 2006 to serve 457,000 veterans who live in the state.  That same year, 58,463 veterans and survivors received disability compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension payments in Wisconsin.  VA provided 6,808 veterans, reservists or survivors education benefits through the GI Bill; 21,850 owned homes with active VA home loan guarantees originally valued at $698 million.  Wisconsin veterans held more than 34,000 VA life insurance policies worth more than $371 million.  In 2006, 177 were interred at Wood National Cemetery.

• 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 Wisconsin had 11,105 inpatient admissions and provided nearly one million outpatient visits.  VA medical facilities in Wisconsin include the Madison VA Hospital and the Milwaukee and Tomah VA medical centers.  The VA medical center in Iron Mountain is located on the Wisconsin-Michigan border in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and serves veterans in 11 counties of northeastern Wisconsin.

VA's health care services in Wisconsin have grown dramatically in recent years as VA care has shifted to community-based clinics and outpatient treatment.  The state's facilities offer a wide range of care including primary, extended and specialty care, telemedicine initiatives in nuclear medicine, pathology, radiology, fluoroscopy, mental health, spinal cord injury, specialized programs for veterans with transplants and epilepsy, nursing home care, psychiatric and post traumatic-stress disorder treatments, and substance abuse programs.  Additionally, Wisconsin has 17 outpatient clinics that provide a full array of primary care for veterans in the communities where they live and work.  Wisconsin hosts one of the eight nationwide VA-sponsored Women's Health Fellowship Programs.  The medical centers also have medical affiliations with the University of Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin.

• 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 Wisconsin, more than 6,600 active duty service members and veterans of the Global War on Terror sought VA health care in 2006.  At the Madison VA Hospital, doctors treated 1,254 returning veterans; in Milwaukee, 2,254; at the Tomah VA Medical Center, 3,118.  Many veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan have visited VA counseling centers in Madison and Milwaukee.  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.

Wisconsin VA facilities cared for 53,397 veterans aged 65 or older in 2006 through programs that were institutional and non-institutional, hospital-linked and community-based.  The Madison VA hospital hosts one of VA’s Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Centers (GRECC) designed for the advancement and integration of research, education and clinical achievements in geriatrics and gerontology into the total VA health care system.  The primary clinical program under the GRECC is the Geriatric Evaluation and Management program, which provides assessment and treatment for veterans with multiple medical, functional and psychological problems.

The Milwaukee VA Medical Center has an extensive array of services for veterans with long-term care needs, including community-based outpatient clinics, home-based primary care, tele-home care, adult day health care, a geriatric evaluation and management unit, a geriatric assessment clinic and acute and extended rehabilitation programs.  The Tomah VA Medical Center’s nursing home program provides patient-centered care, which includes clinically complex, rehabilitation, psychogeriatric, respite, end-of-life, palliative, and bereavement care.  The medical center also coordinates community nursing home and home care services for veterans.

• 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 Madison hospital’s extensive research program includes investigations of lung, skin, prostate and brain cancer; sleep-disordered breathing; asthma; diabetes; kidney fibrosis; bone strength; tuberculosis; pulmonary edema and sepsis; heart disease; obesity; hypertension; substance abuse; vein grafts; effects of aging on swallowing and speech; Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia; effects of calorie restriction on aging; anticoagulation; and development of a mechanical device to replace medicinal leeches for restoration of blood flow in reconnected or reconstructed tissue.  In 2006, researchers were working on more than 200 projects with more than $3.2 million of VA funding.

At the Milwaukee medical center, investigators are working on nearly 300 research projects involving many different areas, including anesthesiology, cardiovascular electrophysiology, mental health research, aging, cancer, immunology, biochemical, renal and kidney stone research, cholesterol and lipid research, pharmacology and toxicology, spinal cord injury and prosthetic research.  Milwaukee received more than $4.1 million in VA research funding in 2006.

• 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 Milwaukee Regional Office serves veterans and their survivors in Wisconsin who are seeking VA financial benefits.  In fiscal year 2006, the Milwaukee Regional Office processed 11,298 disability compensation claims, including 3,004 veterans applying for the first time and 8,294 cases where veterans reopened a claim, usually to seek an increase in their disability rating level for higher payments.  More than 1,100 Wisconsin 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.

All VA facilities in Wisconsin offer homeless assistance programs that address alcohol and drug recovery, mental health issues and vocational rehabilitation.  The Madison VA hospital and the Milwaukee and Tomah medical centers partner with the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs in the development of Veterans Assistance Centers (VAC).  The VACs are operated by not-for-profit foundations and serve homeless veterans in centers located at the Tomah VA Medical Center and at the Veterans Home at King.  Additionally, the assistance center known as Vets Place Central has two sites -- one in Milwaukee, another in Union Grove -- that offer veterans safe housing, psychosocial treatment, vocational rehabilitation and other services.

• 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 one national cemetery in Wisconsin.  Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee, which buries eligible family members and cremation remains, had 177 burials in 2006.  Three state veterans cemeteries received VA grants.  One in King had 129 burials; the Northern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Spooner had 169; and the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Union Grove had 795 burials.  VA provided 6,361 headstones and markers for the graves of veterans in Wisconsin and provided 15,607 Presidential Memorial Certificates to Wisconsin survivors of veterans.