A pilot program intended to streamline evaluations for disabled veterans will be expanded to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Tripler Army Medical Center, but U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka raised questions yesterday about staff shortages, funding and participant satisfaction.

The Integrated Disability Evaluation System, a combined effort of the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments, is intended to ease medical separation and speed benefit payments for service members too wounded, sick or injured to stay in the military, the Pentagon said.

In the past, separating service members received end-of-service physicals and final military treatment from local military clinics while still on active duty.

After leaving the military, those seeking disability compensation would have to repeat the same examinations at VA facilities, then wait weeks or months for a determination before they could request benefits, officials said.

The old system "had both DOD and VA as components, and the VA started only after the DOD (evaluation) was complete. So it took up to 540 days for the whole disability evaluation system to work," said John R. Campbell, defense deputy undersecretary for wounded warrior care and transition policy.

The new program brings VA and military medical separation processes together while service members are still on active duty.

Under the new system, wounded, ill or injured service members receive medical evaluations by VA-certified doctors using VA guidelines, and the Defense Department uses these exams to determine if a service member is able to continue in uniform.

The pilot program has been operating in 27 sites, and Campbell said the system now takes about 300 days to evaluate service members. The program will expand to all military medical sites across the services by October.

Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, held an oversight hearing yesterday on the effort.

Akaka questioned Defense and VA officials about plans for the new program’s locations and ways to monitor the impact at each facility and at the VA regional office in Honolulu.

Akaka and other committee members raised the issues of staff shortages to perform disability medical evaluations, program funding availability, and program participants’ satisfaction.

"Both departments must ensure that each new location has what it needs to effectively operate the Integrated Disability Evaluation System before it is expanded," Akaka said. "The rush to move forward quickly should not come before our goal to provide a quality process to service members. If broadened before it is ready, the new process could negatively impact service members and veterans."