Noteboom The Law Firm

The IDES of Ft. Campbell Is A Joint Health Care Effort

February 23, 2011 - The Fort Campbell Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is changing how they operate and this change will affect about 1,500 veterans who will now be reassigned to a different health care facility. Currently, the Tennessee Valley Health Care System of the VA (VA TVHS) is relocating their health services from where they are currently located, at the Fort Campbell Community-Based Outpatient Clinic, to the VA clinics in Hopkinsville and Clarksville, KY. VA patients will be registered in one of the two Hopkinsville clinics.

February 25th will be the last date those veterans who have been reassigned will be able to utilize services at the Ft. Campbell clinic. February 28th will be the first day those reassigned veterans will be able to access the clinics in Clarksville and Hopkinsville. Notices to those veterans that will be reassigned have already been sent out.

Essentially what is happening is the Ft. Campbell VA is changing its mission. Its new mission implements a Department of Defense (DoD) and VA hybrid program called the Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES), which the military has been testing since 2007 at 27 installations. IDES serves to transition wounded soldiers from military care to VA care and includes helping the soldiers file their compensation and pension paperwork.

The combination of the two systems serves to reduce the waiting time for VA benefits for separating soldiers by almost 50% over the two systems operating individually. IDES' first day of operation at Ft. Campbell will be March 31st, if everything goes according to plan.