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Why won’t Pentagon cover cognitive therapy for troops’ brain injuries?

The men and women in our armed forces face many dangers when deployed, not the least of which is the risk of sustaining a brain injury.  Brain injuries can be seriously debilitating, making life very difficult.  However, there are intensive forms of therapy available to brain injury victims – therapy that apparently the Pentagon does not want to pay for.

The form of therapy in question is called cognitive rehabilitation.  Cognitive rehabilitation is a form of therapy made up of a formal program of guided therapy that helps brain injury victims learn (or relearn) ways to concentrate, remember, and solve problems.  These seemingly simple mental skills can be lost or damaged when a person suffers head trauma that results in damage to the brain.

The issue is that a Tricare-funded study (Tricare is the military’s health insurance) found limited evidence supporting the benefits of cognitive rehabilitation therapy.  Because their study did not show clear benefits for this type of therapy for brain injury victims, the military made the decision that it would not be covered.

However, members of congress are now questioning this study and the resulting decision.  One Senator sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, stating that scientific experts were questioning the study’s findings, especially in light of the fact that the therapy in question has been used in medical centers for over 30 years.  The letter went on to call Tricare’s study “deeply flawed and “unacceptable”.

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