Photo: George Lezenby via Flickr
Participants in a dental benefit plan for U.S. military retirees will need to take action soon to hold onto coverage.
The TRICARE Retiree Dental Program (TRDP), which now covers 1.6 million military retirees and family members, is shutting down at the end of the year. Continue reading
Photo: Marine Forces Reserve via Flickr
Changes are coming for 1.6 million military retirees and family members who obtain oral health care benefits through the TRICARE Retiree Dental Program (TRDP).
The premium-based dental plan, managed by the Defense Health Agency (DHA), is slated to shut down on Dec. 31. Continue reading
David Shulkin, undersecretary for Health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, spoke to Health Journalism 2016 attendees.
In a conversation with Renee Montagne on Morning Edition last week, David Shulkin, undersecretary for Health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, gave an update on the VA two years after a cover-up about long wait times made the news.
Shulkin was a Spotlight Speaker who gave a news briefing at Health Journalism 2016 in Cleveland, where he told journalists that same-day appointments were now available for veterans at some centers and would be available at all of them by the end of this year. Continue reading
Photo: Susan Heavey/AHCJDr. Joseph Calabrese spoke at Health Journalism 2016 about veterans health issues.
The irony was hard not to notice.
For more than an hour, an expert panel addressed a roomful of journalists at AHCJ’s annual Health Journalism 2016 on health barriers for military veterans.
An important one appears to be a reluctance among vets to talk about certain health problems, especially those seen as potentially stigmatizing.
Yet there we were talking about it: trauma. post-traumatic stress disorder, depression. Continue reading
Photo: U.S. Army via FlickrLiza Gross looked at how war spurs innovation in medicine in a magazine piece about the state of the art in facial reconstructive surgery for badly wounded soldiers.
With thousands of soldiers having served in Iraq and Afghanistan, our country will be grappling with the short-term and long-term consequences of those wars for decades to come. That means health reporters will find no shortage of opportunities to explain the health ramifications of those tours, from PTSD’s effects and new treatments to battlefield medicine applied in emergency rooms. AHCJ offers several resources to reporters covering mental health issues concerning the military, but there also are many angles to take in looking at the physical consequences of war.
In a new How I Did It article for AHCJ, independent reporter Liza Gross describes how she decided to write about soldiers’ facial reconstruction for Discover and the challenges she encountered, from wading through a huge evidence base of medical research to approaching her interviews with sensitivity and empathy – but not too much. Continue reading
Pia Christensen/AHCJRobert McDonald
More than 140 journalists at Health Journalism 2015 gathered early Friday to hear Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald – and to question him about VA policies, including the agency’s notorious opaqueness with reporters.
McDonald readily acknowledged that the VA has had what he called a “Kremlin-esque” mentality, and told the roomful of journalists that he was trying to change it. The VA is publishing patient access data (waiting times for appointments) on the website every two weeks, and he said he’s trying to promote a culture of openness. Continue reading