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Editorial: Get with the program

In January, Congress ordered the Pentagon to drop its disability ratings rules and strictly follow Department of Veterans Affairs criteria in assigning ratings to injured and wounded service members.

In March, the Army said it would comply. All the other services were to follow suit.

The change in law was among the most significant changes to emerge in the wake of 2007’s Walter Reed scandal. Veterans groups hailed the change, having complained for years that the military had shortchanged wounded combat veterans on their disability ratings and compensation.

But seven months later, the Army still isn’t living up to its promise, at least not when it comes to assessing troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The VA ratings schedule says PTSD sufferers should receive a minimum 50 percent disability rating from the rating agency and then be reassessed within six months to determine whether the initial evaluation should be changed for the longer term.

But a number of soldiers suffering from PTSD have been given disability ratings of just 10 percent, and then separated from service without the required follow-up assessment.

Worse, the Pentagon seems to be gearing up for a broader policy change that would take this approach to PTSD across all the armed services, according to veterans’ advocates.

This should hardly come as a surprise — it is just the latest in a string of unconscionable decisions coming from the office of Pentagon personnel chief David Chu.

This is the same executive who sought to cut combat pay for troops in the war zones and once proposed shunting off the Defense Department’s obligations for military retirees onto VA.

Over the past three years, he has advocated doubling and tripling some of the health care fees paid by many military retirees.

And just a few weeks ago, Chu narrowed the definition of “combat related” to reduce the number of disabled troops who might benefit under another provision of the 2008 Defense Authorization Act, which says some disabled troops do not have to return any severance pay they receive from the military before they can draw disability payments from VA.

Chu’s definition of “combat related” is significantly narrower than the one already in use to determine eligibility for a separate program for disabled retirees called Combat Related Special Compensation.

Lawmakers had assumed defense officials would use the definition already in place and were stunned to find a new and narrower interpretation.

Indeed, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., already has drafted an amendment to the pending 2009 defense authorization bill directing the Pentagon to use the more generous definition of combat related for both programs.

A similar retroactive correction is needed to force the Pentagon to live up to its legal responsibilities regarding the assignment of disability ratings for all medical conditions — including PTSD.

A central theme coming out of the Walter Reed hearings was the need to get the Defense Department and VA to share a single government standard in assessing disabilities.

Congress’ intent was to make the VA standard apply across the board. The Pentagon needs to comply with that direction.