LVMAC Tidbit: VA’s “Bangor Clinic” Reopens

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, Wilkes-Barre announced today the re-opening of our Tobyhanna and Northampton (Bangor, PA) Community Based Outpatient Clinics at a 50% face-to-face pre-COVID capacity, effective 28 September.  All services remain available, and veterans who need to be seen will be scheduled for care. (more…)

LVMAC Tidbit: Comp and Pension Exams Resume

All C&P Exam Locations Now Open For those in the process of settling a claim submission, some good news.  Not everything is resolvable via telecommunications, the use of which is reportedly up a thousand percent.  The Veterans Benefits Administration’s operations must have been severely affected, therefore. The VA has partnered Read more…

VA closes Northampton County outpatient clinic over workload caused by the pandemic

The Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center has announced it will be temporarily closing the Northampton County Clinic in the vicinity of Bangor as of 4:30 p.m. today.  It was a short notice notification.  Those seeking seeking in-person care will have to travel to the Allentown Outpatient Clinic or Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center,  both over 45 minutes away from the current location.

Their announcement stated that this was being done out of an abundance of caution related to the transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus illness.  A little late to think of that. (more…)

Forward Observer: Vet Center Counseling Now Available During Training or Drill Weekends for the Guard– BUT NOT SO MUCH IN THE LEHIGH VALLEY?

LVMAC Poster Art 2005On 27 August the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced it had formalized a partnership with the Department of Defense formalized a partnership on 28 June between VA’s Vet Centers and the National Guard Bureau, to provide Vet Center counseling, outreach staff and other services to members during training or drill weekends to decrease their suicide rate — a reputed problem in the Pennsylvania National Guard. (more…)

LVMAC Tidbit: Veterans Employment Representative Position Opens in the Valley

DLI LogoFinally, after months and months of delay, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry is advertising openly for someone to replace the Disabled Veterans Opportunity Program Counselor lost at the Lehigh Valley CareerLink in August 2018, due to retirement.  If you are a veteran and wish to help our community’s veterans, and their spouses in certain instances, in gaining secure and good-paying employment upon return from service and for other reasons, this may be one of the best ways to do it.   These civil service positions are federally funded under the U.S. Department of Labor’s US VETS program.  Below are the details provided by Doug Monroe, the remaining veterans employment representative at the CareerLink: (more…)

Forward Observer:  Secretary Wilkie’s Four Priorities for the VA in 2019

LVMAC Poster Art 2005Priorities, smy-orities … five, six or ten … different ones almost every time you look …  when it comes to the Department of Veterans Affairs (and federal agencies in general).  It is time to do a little house cleaning as the new year begins because, in these times, on what the VA concentrates will dramatically change its operations in the coming years.  For example, implementing the Mission Act listed below is no ‘small potatoes’ matter.

In his words, the Secretary of the VA, Mr. Wilkie, has now whittled down the Department of Veterans Affairs’ strategic priorities for 2019 to four:  (more…)