Military Update: Helping injured troops get trauma injury pay

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Military Update: Helping injured troops get trauma injury pay
By Tom Philpott, Special to Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, January 5, 2007

Too many severely injured troops and their families haven’t been getting the bedside help they need in preparing applications to qualify for up to $100,000 in traumatic injury insurance. But that is going to change, says Army Col. John Sackett.

Sackett heads the Traumatic Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (TSGLI) branch within the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va. More than 6,600 claims for TSGLI have been filed by wounded or injured soldiers since the program began Dec. 1, 2005.

But only 2,700 Army claims, about 40 percent of the total, have been approved.

Many more wounded members from all services would be found eligible for TSGLI if servicemembers, family caregivers and especially medical staff were better informed on the kind of detailed documentation TSGLI requires, Sackett said.

To increase their knowledge, and boost the number of claims approved, the Army is assigning Soldier Family Support Specialists to 10 military treatment facilities critical in the treatment of trauma patients.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51417