Army Probes Whether PTSD Diagnoses Were Altered to Cut Costs
The Army is investigating whether psychiatrists at a Washington state medical center sought to save taxpayers’ money by altering post-traumatic-stress-disorder diagnoses so some soldiers would not receive full disability pensions, The Olympian reports.
Monday night the Army announced it had removed the chief of the Madigan Army Medical Center, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, outside Tacoma, while the Western Region Medical Command investigates the cases of 14 soldiers. Other soldiers whose PTSD diagnoses were changed by Madigan’s forensic psychiatry team have requested reviews.
The Army has not said how many diagnoses were “adjusted.”
The Olympian explains:
Last fall, memos show that members of the forensic psychiatry team urged behavioral health professionals to consider the long-term costs of a PTSD diagnosis on taxpayers. One memo said a PTSD diagnosis for a veteran could cost up to $1.5 million over time. Those documents have lawmakers asking whether the psychiatrists changed diagnoses to reduce expenses.
“This is an investigation that has only just begun,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement. “The most important thing is that these service members and their families are provided with answers on why cost was a factor in the treatment they sought for the invisible wounds of war, and that the Army takes the right steps to fix it.”