Summary: After being in operation for more than 1-1/2 years, the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) program to provide medical examinations to spouses and children of Persian Gulf veterans has yet to be fully implemented. To inform Persian Gulf veterans and their families about the program, VA launched a national campaign that was supplemented by local efforts at coordinating VA medical centers. GAO could not assess the effectiveness of these efforts because of a lack of information on the potential number of Persian Gulf family members who believe that their illnesses are linked to a family member's service in the Gulf War. Only 872 of the 2,802 requested examinations had been completed as of January 1998. Forty-one percent of applicants either failed to report for appointments, refused examinations, or had not yet answered requests to schedule examinations. Several factors contributed to the low completion rate. Participants face a lengthy and cumbersome scheduling process, and examination sites are not always easily accessible. Moreover, VA is not authorized to reimburse participants for travel, lodging, or lost wages. Although the clinical examinations may not resolve whether illnesses among Persian Gulf family members are related to the illnesses of veterans, the clinical examination approach provides these family members with an opportunity to visit with a physician and to receive a free medical examination. Standardized examinations also give VA a health surveillance tool for cataloging prominent symptoms among Persian Gulf family members.
