Brain Injury Blog | Traumatic Brain Injury TBI

In addition this week, BIAA submitted an official letter of endorsement for H.R. 2818, The VA Epilepsy Centers of Excellence Act of 2007, which would establish six VA Epilepsy Centers of Excellence (Epilepsy CoEs) across the country to lead the way in epilepsy diagnosis, research, treatment and surgery. Continue Reading »

Also this week, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health passed a slightly revised version of H.R. 5613, legislation recently introduced which would place a moratorium until March 2009 on seven Medicaid regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. BIAA has strongly endorsed this legislation and submitted an official letter of endorsement to the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Dingell (D-MI) and Rep. Murphy (R-PA), this week. Continue Reading »

Congress passed legislation to reauthorize the Traumatic Brain Injury Act this week!  The bill is now ready to be sent on to the President for his signature into law.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed S. 793 – the version of the legislation agreed upon by both chambers (more information below) - by a vote of 392-1.  Then, last night, the Senate cleared the bill one last time, marking final passage by Congress. Continue Reading »

Also this week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on H.R. 5613, legislation recently introduced which would place a moratorium until March 2009 on seven Medicaid regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services.  BIAA has endorsed this legislation, and signed a letter of support spearheaded by the Consortium of Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) in favor of the legislation.

The legislation, which was introduced by Representatives John D. Dingell (D-MI) and Tim Murphy (R-PA) on March 13, 2008, would delay the implementation of seven harmful Medicaid regulations through March 2009, including several rules which would be especially deleterious to individuals with traumatic brain injury.

One of these rules would limit rehabilitation services for Medicaid beneficiaries, severely curtailing the ability of people with disabilities – including TBI – to receive rehabilitation services now covered under Medicaid.  Access to these rehabilitative services is essential, as in many cases, these services play a vital role in allowing people with TBI to live independently in the community.

On Wednesday, April 2, the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on TBI Related Vision Issues.

Testimony highlighted the high rate of vision disturbances in cases of servicemembers returing from Iraq and Afghanistan with TBI, and the need for a seamless system of care within the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs to address these eye injuries, including greater use of specialized vision screening.

In the hearing, the Blinded Veterans Association (BVA) noted research showing that 75 percent of servicemembers with documented TBI injuries also have complaints about vision problems, and that approximately 60 percent of those injured have associated neurological visual disorders.  A study conducted by one of the panelists, Gregory L. Goodrich, who is a research psychologist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, found that both Polytrauma Level I and Level II patients had high rates of visual impairment and/or visual dysfunction, and that injuries caused by a blast event were associated with more vision related loss and/or deficits than other causes.

In his testimony, Tom Zampieri, Director of Government Relations at BVA, asserted, “At present the current system of screening, treatment, tracking, and follow-up care for TBI vision dysfunction is inadequate.  Adding visual dysfunction to this complex mix, especially if undiagnosed, makes attempts at rehabilitation even more daunting and potentially disastrous unless there are significant improvements soon.”

Mr. Zampieri urged the Subcommittee to request that DoD/VA provide for the full implementation of the “Military Eye Trauma Center of Excellence and Eye Trauma Registry,” which was recently authorized as one of the Wounded Warrior provisions in last year’s defense authorization bill (H.R. 4986).  BIAA has officially endorsed legislation (S. 1999) to create such a Center.

This week BIAA submitted written testimony to the House Appropriations Subcommittee in charge of funding TBI programs within the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education.  BIAA’s testimony urges an increase in Fiscal Year 2009 funding for programs authorized through the TBI Act, as well as for TBI research programs conducted within the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).

In the testimony,  BIAA’s President and CEO Susan H. Connors states, “BIAA was gravely disappointed that last year, even as Congress had the good judgment to add hundreds of millions dollars to the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to help address the problem of TBI among returning servicemembers, funding for the HRSA Federal TBI Program was reduced from $8.91 million to $8.754 million.”

Within the testimony, BIAA requests $30 million in funding for programs authorized through the TBI Act, as well as sufficient funding to sustain and increase medical rehabilitation research within NIDRR.  The testimony also urges an allocation of at least $8.3 million to allow NIDRR to continue to fund 16 TBI Model Systems research centers.A copy of the testimony can be obtained by visiting BIAA’s website at the following address:  http://www.biausa.org/policyissues.htm.