On Monday, May 18, Senator Rob Portman explained various provisions of his newly proposed bill the Medical Evaluation Parity for Servicemembers Act of 2015 (S646). The Senator discussed the bill at a press conference held at the Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Care Center in Columbus, Ohio.    The MEPS Act will require baseline mental health and traumatic brain injury (TBI) assessments on incoming military members which will be used as baseline evaluations.  These assessments will also be performed after each deployment and upon military discharge.  Dr. Chrisanne Gordon, Executive Director of the Resurrecting Lives Foundation assisting Veterans with TBI, contributed to the formation of the bill and attended Monday’s round table discussion. As Dr. Gordon would remark, when service members depart the military “Who do we have here?”  Dr. Gordon states that knowledge about service members deployment and health status will assist employers in identifying the most suitable work environment for the newly hired Veteran.  Dr. Gordon also lauded Senator Portman for this landmark legislation citing that he was the first Senator on Capitol Hill to include traumatic brain injury as signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  She also applauded the efforts of Major General Mark Bartman, TAG of the Ohio National Guard and Ohio Department Services Director, Timothy Gorrell for their contribution to the brain health of Ohio’s Veterans.

To Read the dispatch article concerning this meeting Please Click Here

To Read a Summary of Senator Portman’s bill, Medical Evaluation Parity for Servicemembers Act, Please Click Here.

Senator Rob Portman leads Roundtable discussion