Noteboom The Law Firm

Pentagon’s TRICARE Will Not Cover Veterans with Brain Damage

December 29, 2010 - Cognitive rehabilitation therapy is believed to benefit those people suffering from brain injuries. The therapy itself is very involved and arduous and is believed by many, including Pentagon-operated medical centers, to be useful in treating people suffering from reduced mental capacity due to a brain injury.

Patients undergoing the therapy are re-taught basic tasks including:

• Counting;
• Cooking; and
• Remembering simple directions.

TRICARE is basically a health care insurance company operated by the Pentagon. TRICARE covers approximately 4,000,000 soldiers and veterans. TRICARE also refuses to cover cognitive rehabilitation used to treat soldiers with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). TRICARE refutes and directly disregards studies demonstrating the benefits of the therapy based on their own research.

Those who reviewed TRICARE's research and subsequent assessment of the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation all came to the same conclusion. Both internal and external reviews found TRICARE's assessment to be "fundamentally misguided," unsound, and offensive in its twisted use and perversion of scientific evidence.

TRICARE's position runs contrary to countless studies and medical group beliefs. Very simply, cognitive rehabilitation therapy has been proven time and again to be effective with soldiers and veterans suffering from varying levels of brain damage. It has been suggested TRICARE's position is based on the cost of the therapy, which, of course they deny.

The end result is American soldiers and veterans being denied treatment, which has been proven effective, for their brain injuries, which were sustained in defense of this country. TRICARE continues to hold that current research does not reach their required standards. Their decision to not cover the therapy will likely affect tens of thousands of soldiers, veterans, and their families.