Department of Veterans Affairs

Lawyers who filed the suit say agency records show the VA is more likely to pay claims from white veterans than from Black veterans.

The VA Infrastructure Powers Exceptional Research (VIPER) Act introduced by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs could support medical advancements on prosthetics and mental health.

The overhaul, which likely would cost more than $1 billion and take decades to complete, would help the VA better meet the preferences and needs of the nearly 72,000 veterans it serves. But the St. Louis hospital will first need federal officials to sign off on the massive project.

Using a database of patients, researchers compared the records of more than 150,000 people who tested positive for the virus to records of millions of patients who did not. They found that during the pandemic, those who had COVID-19 were 60% more likely to report symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress, substance use disorder or other mental health issues.

Veterans suffering from certain medical conditions became eligible for "presumptive" VA disability benefits last year. But the claims they're filing have added to the agency's huge backlog.

The Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System has given the COVID-19 vaccine to about half of the veterans in its care. VA officials aim to vaccinate up to 80% of enrolled veterans by summer. Veterans say the VA’s vaccination efforts could serve as a model for other public health systems.

More than 23,000 veterans in the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Healthcare system have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and more than 15,000 of them are fully vaccinated. VA officials say they expect to vaccinate 80% of veterans by late June. They credit the strong relationships doctors have with their patients.

COVID-19 is a far deadlier illness than the flu, according to a new analysis from the VA St. Louis Health Care System and Washington University.

About 30 times a day, Drayton Denson answers the phone at a call center in south St. Louis County that helps U.S. military veterans secure a grateful…

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 8, 2013 - U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, a retired Army general, sees his…