WASHINGTON — The Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs agreed Tuesday to clarify their roles in helping injured soldiers apply for disability benefits, the outcome of confusion over their responsibilities at Fort Drum.
According to the agreement, signed by Army Secretary Pete Geren and VA Secretary James B. Peake, VA representatives may help soldiers primarily with VA-related benefits, not help them work through documents related to the Army's separate disability rating system.
The Army, in turn, will provide nurse case managers, legal assistance and physical evaluation board liaisons, primary care managers and other services geared toward the Army's disability system.
The one-page agreement, which was sent to congressional offices Tuesday afternoon, appears to draw a clear line that the VA may not help soldiers with Army-related paperwork, which was the source of the snafu at Fort Drum, but may be able to give general advice, depending how the agreement is interpreted.
"VA service representatives will assist and advise service members, but will not prepare documentation for other than VA benefit claims," the departments agreed.
Rep. John M. McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor, an influential lawmaker on military personnel issues, said he believes the agreement will allow VA counselors to continue offering some of the guidance they did at Fort Drum, but not to help injured soldiers actually document their Army disability claims.
"The issue is how it will be implemented," Mr. McHugh said.
The agreement also spells out that veterans service organizations may assist soldiers.
At Fort Drum, VA counselors reported that the Army last March told them to stop helping injured soldiers with paperwork as they prepared to switch from Army medical care to the VA. The incident appeared to contradict Congress's efforts to make a smooth transition following last year's scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The Walter Reed scandal focused attention on the bureaucratic tangle disabled soldiers face as they first navigate the Army's disability rating system, then move to the VA's separate system that tends to be more generous with ratings. Soldiers must describe their injuries and condition, for instance, in filling out paperwork for the ratings.
A retired VA manager at Fort Drum made the allegation in a report on National Public Radio. After Army officials denied that they had ordered the VA counselors to stop, a memo surfaced recounting a visit by an Army "tiger team" to Fort Drum that backed up the story and described disabled soldiers living in squalor in a barracks.
After the memo surfaced, the Army's surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, said he was "baffled" that the Army would discourage the VA from helping, but he suspected a "miscommunication" was to blame.
But Mr. McHugh said last week that the tenor of the report seemed counter to lawmakers' intentions in revamping the disability system, but the VA acknowledged it is not expert in the Army's disability rating system. He also said that while he had received explanations from the Army about its policy, the VA had not been as clear.
The VA's public affairs office did not return messages for comment Friday, Monday and Tuesday.
Officials will testify at a hearing later this week on care for wounded warriors, and Tuesday's agreement is bound to be discussed, said Mr. McHugh, who added that he talked with Gen. Schoomaker about the issue last weekend.
Mr. McHugh said the Army and the VA also have agreed to create a pilot program that would combine the two disability systems.
