Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
VA Unlawfully Denied Care To Thousands Of Veterans Because Of 'Bad Papers,' Study Shows
The Department of Veterans Affairs has for decades unlawfully turned away thousands of veterans with other-than-honorable discharges, rendering some of the most vulnerable veterans invisible and desperate for help, according to a study released Thursday. Systemic misunderstanding of the law within VA about which veterans it should care for and which should be denied services has triggered improper mass denial of care since 1980, the Veterans Legal Clinic at Harvard Law School said in the study, leaving an estimated 400,000 more at risk of never gaining access to health care they may have earned (Horton, 3/5)
The Trump administration's effort to track children separated from their families at the border is plagued by communication problems that raise questions about the accuracy of the data, a watchdog reported Thursday. The administration created the tracking system following its zero tolerance policy in 2018 where more than 2,500 children were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, though the watchdog has estimated that figure could be much higher. (Long, 3/5)
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is about to shake up how sexual assault and harassment charges are handled at every college campus and K-12 school. This much is clear: If your child is a victim of sexual misconduct at school, or an accused offender, administrators must soon respond to their cases in major, untested ways. That could mean a courtroom-like hearing where lawyers would cross-examine youthful witnesses and challenge their credibility, a huge shift from traditional behind-the-scenes investigations of highly sensitive and damaging allegations. (Perez and Quilantan, 3/6)