Guidance for Processing Service Treatment Records (STRs) Under Current 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Conditions

1.  Purpose.  This MARADMIN provides guidance for the processing of Service Treatment Records (STR) during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Effective 1 Apr 2020, the HQMC Service Treatment Record (STR) Central Cell (CC) has paused operations for the receipt of paper STRs.
2.  Background.  STRs are required by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the adjudication of disability benefits.  The processing of STRs includes both the collection and submission of paper STRs and electronic processing as outlined in the reference.
3.  Tasks.  Effective immediately, all Installation Personnel Administration Centers (IPACs), Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES) Site Support, and other commands that process paper STRs will pause in mailing STRs to the USMC STR CC.
3.a.  All commands will take specific actions to continue to collect and process STRs but the paper STRs will not be mailed to the USMC STR CC during this pause in routine operations.  This requires commands to collect the STRs from Marines who are transitioning from Service, create the STR in the Registry, but pause in mailing the paper records to HQMC.  STRs will need to be secured locally until routine operations resume.
3.b. To ensure continued support for Veterans making disability compensation claims, the electronic portion of the record and the certification memo will continue to be uploaded into Health Artifact and Image Management Solution (HAIMS) for Marine Veterans identified on the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) list or the Single Point of Entry (SPOE) list.
3.c.  HQMC will provide further guidance via separate MARADMIN once conditions allow for the resumption of routine STR processing operations.
4. This guidance is applicable to the Total Force.
5. Release authorized by MajGen David A. Ottignon, Director, Manpower Management Division.