Editorial: Military must focus on PTSD evaluations

Nobody wants government officials to waste the public’s money, but the paramount concern for military doctors must be accurate diagnoses and effective care.

Troops serving multiple missions in Afghanistan and Iraq are increasingly being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Admirably, the Army has bucked military culture and the unfair stigma that can be attached to troops who undergo psychiatric evaluations.

As a result, many more returning soldiers and veterans are getting the care they need.

The benefits that go along with a PTSD diagnosis are significant, and some military leaders are concerned some troops are faking their conditions to collect lifetime benefits. It has recently been reported that as many as 285 soldiers – or 40 percent of those diagnosed with PTSD – had those findings reversed at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma since 2007.

This is a delicate matter. Nobody should want to deny troops the benefits they’ve earned after serving multiple missions under difficult circumstances.

At the same time, a number of troops allegedly tried to scam the system after Congress passed a law in 2008 that would grant lifetime benefits worth up to $1.5 million for troops and their families.

An investigation has been launched into the Madigan cases that were reversed. The Army has removed the medical center’s chief in the meantime.

One disturbing detail that has emerged is that a lecture conducted by a member of the forensic psychiatric team discussed the costs to the government in granting a PTSD diagnosis. The team is urged to be good stewards of public money.

That caught the attention of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, who wonders whether the bottom line is playing too large a role in medical decision-making.

It shouldn’t. If the cost of the benefits is a concern, then that’s a matter for other officials and members of Congress to take up.

An ombudsman investigation had led to some troops getting an opportunity for another diagnosis from doctors attached to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

It’s too soon to accuse anyone of caring more about money than people, but the military ought to proceed in a way that continues its focus on persuading troops to undergo evaluations in the first place.

News of a 40 percent rejection rate will travel fast, and it could undermine the progress the Army has made in attending to the invisible wounds of war.