From: Andy Baracco 
Subject: Re: Resolution 97.04
Hello Mr. Gashel. Before I wrote yesterday's post, I spoke with several
persons involved in V. A. Blind Rehabilitation Services, both persons in
the field, and administrators. I was assured that the V. A. has no plans
to serve non-veterans other than the classes mentioned in my previous
posts. As I stated yesterday, the V. A. does have a fee schedule for the
billing of high income veterans and those with medical insurance. These
schedules are probably what you received from Don Garner. BTW, there has
been talk of a pilot program to provide some medical services to the
members of certain Indian tribes in the southwest, where V. A. hospitals
are the closest medical facilities to the reservations, but I have not
heard of blind rehab being part of this. I also mentioned in yesterday's
post that the V. A. does not have the capacity to handle more business
than it presently has. In fact, many Visual Impairment Service Team
coordinators are lobbying Mr. Garner for the authority and funding to
contract with non-V. A. blind rehabilitation programs for service to blind
veterans. Really, I would hate to be the non-veteran who would have to
wait 2 years for services from the V. A. The one part of the resolution
that is accurate is the part dealing with the refusal of the V. A. to
consider visually impaired mobility instructors for internships or jobs. I
want to let you know that this is one of the areas where I feel that the
V. A. is wrong. I hope that the change in atitude on this issue in the
general blindness community will infiltrate into the V. A. There are many
line level V. A. staff who also feel that the V. A. is wrong here. I am
sure that their atitude will eventually change, but keep in mind that the
VGovernment still will not accept responsability for the exposure of
Viet-Nam War vets to Agent Oange.
Andy Baracco
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