Vets have many options for health care, eligibility
Gregory Remus, Park Rapids Enterprise
Published: May 29, 2010 1:00:00 PM CDT
The most common question I receive from veterans is “Am I eligible for VA health care?” The answer is almost always a definite “Maybe”. Prior to January 2003 all veterans were eligible for VA health care. Because of budget cuts, the VA had to shut the door on many veterans and created a priority system to determine who is eligible and who is not. With that said, I’d like to take a shot at answering the question more completely.
The VA operates the nation’s largest integrated health care system with more than 1,300 sites of care, including hospitals, community clinics, nursing homes, domiciliaries, readjustment counseling centers, and various other facilities. The nearest facilities include the Brainerd and Bemidji Community Based Outpatient Clinics and the Fargo, Minneapolis and St Cloud VA Medical Centers.
For most veterans, entry into the VA health care system begins by sending in an application for enrollment. To apply, complete VA Form 10-10EZ, Application for Health Benefits. Once enrolled, veterans can receive services at VA facilities anywhere in the country.
You are automatically eligible if you fall into one of these categories:
1. Veterans with a service-connected disability of 50 percent or more.
2. Veterans seeking care for a disability the military determined was incurred or aggravated in the line of duty, but which VA has not yet rated, within 12 months of discharge.
3. Veterans seeking care for a service-connected disability only.
4. Veterans who served in combat locations during active military service after Nov. 11, 1998, are eligible for free health care services for conditions potentially related to combat service for five years following separation from active duty.
For all other veterans the VA will assign you to a priority group. The priority groups are listed below. You are eligible to enroll in VA health care if you fall into the top 7 priority groups. You are not eligible if you are assigned to priority group 8 unless you enrolled prior to January 2003.
I have used the VA Health Care System for the past 5 years and it works. The physicians and staff are professionals and the volunteers are friendly and helpful. The majority of veterans who use the system come away with positive impressions. If you are a veteran I encourage you to make application to use the VA Health Care System. We have the VA Fm 10-10EZ at our Office.
Group 1: Veterans with service-connected disabilities rated 50 percent or more and/or veterans determined by VA to be unemployable due to service-connected conditions.
Group 2: Veterans with service-connected disabilities rated 30 or 40 percent.
Group 3: Veterans with service-connected disabilities rated 10 and 20 percent, veterans who are former Prisoners of War (POW) or were awarded a Purple Heart, veterans awarded special eligibility for disabilities incurred in treatment or participation in a VA Vocational Rehabilitation program, and veterans whose discharge was for a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty.
Group 4: Veterans receiving aid and attendance or housebound benefits and/or veterans determined by VA to be catastrophically disabled. Some veterans in this group may be responsible for co-pays.
Group 5: Veterans receiving VA pension benefits or eligible for Medicaid programs, and non service-connected veterans and non compensable, zero percent service-connected veterans whose annual income and net worth are below the established VA means test thresholds.
Group 6: Veterans of the Mexican border period or World War I; veterans seeking care solely for certain conditions associated with exposure to radiation or exposure to herbicides while serving in Vietnam; for any illness associated with combat service in a war after the Gulf War or during a period of hostility after Nov. 11, 1998; for any illness associated with participation in tests conducted by the Defense Department as part of Project 112/Project SHAD; and veterans with zero percent service-connected disabilities who are receiving disability compensation benefits.
Group 7: Non service-connected veterans and non-compensable, zero percent service-connected veterans with income above VA’s national means test threshold and below VA’s geographic means test threshold, or with income below both the VA national threshold and the VA geographically based threshold, but whose net worth exceeds VA’s ceiling (currently $80,000) who agree to pay co-pays.
Group 8: All other non service-connected veterans and zero percent, non-compensable service-connected veterans who agree to pay co-pays.
The purpose of the Hubbard County Veteran Service Office is to provide assistance and support to eligible veterans, their dependents and survivors in obtaining benefits through the State and Federal Departments of Veterans Affairs, and to provide benefit counseling, claims service, referral and assistance in a variety of other programs. You can contact me at the Hubbard County Veteran Service Office at 201 Fair Ave, Park Rapids, (218) 732-3561. Have a great day!
GULF WAR SYNDROME STUDIES...
by J.B. Stone » 06/ 09/ 10 9:41 am
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47789
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 06/ 30/ 10 11:43 am
...and, if you weren't sick enough ALREADY....
VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV
By the CNN Wire Staff
June 30, 2010 10:57 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- A Missouri VA hospital is under fire because it may have exposed more than 1,800 veterans to life-threatening diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.
John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis has recently mailed letters to 1,812 veterans telling them they could contract hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after visiting the medical center for dental work, said Rep. Russ Carnahan.
Carnahan said Tuesday he is calling for a investigation into the issue and has sent a letter to President Obama about it.
"This is absolutely unacceptable," said Carnahan, a Democrat from Missouri. "No veteran who has served and risked their life for this great nation should have to worry about their personal safety when receiving much needed healthcare services from a Veterans Administration hospital."
The issue stems from a failure to clean dental instruments properly, the hospital told CNN affiliate KSDK.
KSDK: VA dental patients at risk of infection
Dr. Gina Michael, the association chief of staff at the hospital, told the affiliate that some dental technicians broke protocol by handwashing tools before putting them in cleaning machines.
The instruments were supposed to only be put in the cleaning machines, Michael said.
The handwashing started in February 2009 and went on until March of this year, the hospital told KSDK.
The hospital has set up a special clinic and education centers to help patients who may have been infected. However, Carnahan said he feels more should be done and those responsible should be disciplined.
"I can only imagine the horror and anger our veterans must be feeling after receiving this letter," Carnahan said. "They have every right to be angry. So am I."
This is not the first time this year a hospital has been in hot water for not following proper procedures.
In June, Palomar Hospital in San Diego, California, has sent certified letters to 3,400 patients who underwent colonoscopy and other similar procedures, informing the patients that there may be a potential of infection from items used and reused in the procedures.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/30/va.hos ... index.html
VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV
By the CNN Wire Staff
June 30, 2010 10:57 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- A Missouri VA hospital is under fire because it may have exposed more than 1,800 veterans to life-threatening diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.
John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis has recently mailed letters to 1,812 veterans telling them they could contract hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after visiting the medical center for dental work, said Rep. Russ Carnahan.
Carnahan said Tuesday he is calling for a investigation into the issue and has sent a letter to President Obama about it.
"This is absolutely unacceptable," said Carnahan, a Democrat from Missouri. "No veteran who has served and risked their life for this great nation should have to worry about their personal safety when receiving much needed healthcare services from a Veterans Administration hospital."
The issue stems from a failure to clean dental instruments properly, the hospital told CNN affiliate KSDK.
KSDK: VA dental patients at risk of infection
Dr. Gina Michael, the association chief of staff at the hospital, told the affiliate that some dental technicians broke protocol by handwashing tools before putting them in cleaning machines.
The instruments were supposed to only be put in the cleaning machines, Michael said.
The handwashing started in February 2009 and went on until March of this year, the hospital told KSDK.
The hospital has set up a special clinic and education centers to help patients who may have been infected. However, Carnahan said he feels more should be done and those responsible should be disciplined.
"I can only imagine the horror and anger our veterans must be feeling after receiving this letter," Carnahan said. "They have every right to be angry. So am I."
This is not the first time this year a hospital has been in hot water for not following proper procedures.
In June, Palomar Hospital in San Diego, California, has sent certified letters to 3,400 patients who underwent colonoscopy and other similar procedures, informing the patients that there may be a potential of infection from items used and reused in the procedures.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/30/va.hos ... index.html
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47789
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 07/ 06/ 10 8:58 am
MANY THINGS TO PONDER HERE:
Posted on Tue, Jul. 6, 2010
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine ... z0suT7WADF
Wounds of a modern war - amputations, brain trauma - harm troops' families too
By Carolyn Davis
Inquirer Staff Writer
One in an occasional series.
The simple, sweet pleasure of a father playing with his child doesn't come easily to Army veteran Pisey Tan.
He takes extra care to control his balance as he gently tosses his 17-month-old daughter into the air. Making his way down to the floor to sit beside little Alyssa is even more challenging for the 6-foot, 210-pound Tan.
His two aluminum, titanium and carbon fiber prostheses - one leg was amputated above the knee, the other below - move stiffly under his baggy jeans as he bends over, puts his hands on the floor, then slides his legs backward until he can set himself down.
Tan muses about the happy toddler beside him.
"She's going to do things I didn't get to do," says Tan, who lives in Woodlyn. "I just don't want her to think daddy's a failure."
Tan is among the 38,497 U.S. service members wounded in action in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the total from the start of the war through most of June. The great majority of these injuries occurred on the Iraq battlefield, though the numbers in Afghanistan are rising as more troops are deployed there and fighting intensifies.
Two types of wounds are considered the "signature injuries" of those battlefields - traumatic brain injuries and, as in Tan's case, amputations. Lifelong medical treatment and disability benefits for veterans of the wars could run as high as $663 billion, a 2007 Harvard University study projected, a figure that likely is higher now.
Most of these injuries are the result of the prevalence of IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, bombs built with easily available materials and set off near specific targets, such as an Army convoy.
Diagnoses by the military health system of traumatic brain injuries rose 136 percent between 2001 and 2009, from 11,830 cases to 27,862 cases, according to a Congressional Research Service report released in May.
It also notes that 1,345 U.S. service members have had major limb and partial amputations over the course of the wars.
Because of better battlefield medicine and body armor, more than 90 percent of those wounded in combat have survived - compared with 76 percent in the Vietnam War and 70 percent in World War II.
That means more military families get to welcome a loved one home again - but more also face living with the wounds of war.
"Your life changes from that moment forward," says Barbara Cohoon of the National Military Family Association.
Tan, 29, is grateful to his mother, Bo Mao, and brother, Dara Soun, who were as much a part of his recovery as any doctor.
"They sacrificed so much just to get me back on my feet," says Tan, lightening his tone as he adds, "figuratively speaking."
Tan's 25-year-old brother lives with him, his wife and his daughter in a home built for Tan in 2006 by the McKee Group, a Delaware County-based builder, and Homes for Our Troops, a nonprofit group. The house is specially adapted for him and is fitted with wide doorways and halls, low counters and smooth floors.
A painting of the ancient temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the land of Tan's parents, hangs on one living room wall. On other walls are a shadow box with Tan's military medals, and an Operation Iraqi Freedom poster showing a helicopter sitting on what looks like desert rock, with the greeting, "Welcome home. In appreciation of your dedication and commitment."
In 2005, Army specialist Tan was eight months into his second tour of duty in Iraq with Alpha Company, 3d Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment out of Fort Stewart, Ga., when a roadside bomb exploded under the Bradley fighting vehicle he was driving on patrol in Samarra, north of Baghdad.
He woke up several days later in Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center, his legs amputated. Tan didn't want to tell his mother.
"In our culture, in Cambodia, you lose your limbs and you're shunned," he says. "I didn't want to bring that to my mother and have everyone look at her as though she's got the friggin' plague."
She'd been through enough, he figured. Mao, 49, had survived the brutal 1970s-era regime of the Khmer Rouge. She met Tan's father in a refugee camp in 1979, though they did not stay together. Mao was pregnant with Tan when she came to the United States in the early 1980s, settling in Philadelphia in 1987.
Mao was at her job as a quality-control inspector for Philadelphia Scientific, an industrial battery-supply business in Montgomeryville, when the Army called with the news about her son. She and son Dara Soun rushed to his bedside.
"He told me, 'Mom, look, look. I don't have nothing.' And I told him, 'You have mom. Mom take care of you.'
"I remember he ask me, 'Are you embarrassed about your son because he has no legs?' I said, 'Embarrassed? What? You helped your country.' "
For the next 11 months, either Mao or Soun, who interrupted his college studies to help his brother, lived on the grounds of Walter Reed Army Medical Center while Tan completed occupational and physical therapy. They brought him meals, wheeled him to appointments, handled paperwork, and urged him on when he felt low.
When Tan fell, his brother picked him up.
"One time, he was trying to get on a bus and his leg broke right at the socket," says Soun. He wrapped his arms under Tan's and lifted his brother into a wheelchair.
In those early months of his injury, Tan never envisioned his life would become so ordinary one day.
By 2007, Tan was well enough to travel to Cambodia, where he was introduced to his future wife, Sieng Yon. The next year, she came to the United States and Media Mayor Bob McMahon married the two.
In their living room with her husband interpreting, Yon, 34, recalls that first meeting with Tan. His amputations didn't bother her then and don't bother her now - except for one thing.
"The only thing that bothers me is seeing him in pain," she says.
Sometimes his legs throb with pain, and Yon will comfort him by massaging his stumps. Mostly, her days are filled with tending to the house and to Alyssa.
Tan sits near Alyssa as Yon silently moves about the house, fluffing a pillow, folding laundry, and checking in on their daughter. Later, Alyssa clutches the coffee table and stands up, Yon right behind her on the floor, ready to catch her should she fall.
"We're pretty normal. If anything, we're better," says Yon. "Our family is just happy. We don't fight at all."
Their normal also includes managing their daughter's health issues. Alyssa, who is fed intravenously through a machine connected to her stomach by a tube, was born with a noncancerous tumor on her liver that also pressed against her lungs, Tan says.
Nearly all of her health expenses are paid for by Tricare military insurance, which Tan, medically retired from the Army, continues to get.
Yon has suggested working outside the home to supplement Tan's veterans benefits, but he says no, feeling an obligation as the husband to provide for his family. He's able to get around now with barely a limp, using a wheelchair only when he tires or knows he'll be inside the house the rest of the day. After Alyssa has fully recovered, Tan wants to get a business-management degree and, then, a job.
"I really want the best for my family," he says, "and I feel sometimes I can't do the best for my family."
Most service members do not come home with injuries as severe as Tan's. More commonly, they suffer from upper respiratory, gastrointestinal and dermatologic illnesses.
At the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, most war-zone injuries have been musculoskeletal - knee fractures or shoulder and hip strains that come from the heavy gear service members wear and carry, says Lori Maas, the center's Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom program manager.
Those were expected. But the medical systems of the Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs were caught off-guard by so many blast wounds.
The huge backlog of disability claims was well publicized, as was the poor condition of some military hospitals and problems as patients moved from the Defense Department medical system to the Veterans Affairs system. Families complained about insufficient support services and being shut out of decisions about their loved ones' care.
The financial toll on families of long-term care for those most severely wounded veterans is another issue. It was only in May that federal legislation was signed into law giving a stipend and medical insurance to family members who are full-time caretakers of seriously wounded veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Officials acknowledge they were not fully prepared.
"As the war progressed, we recognized the types of injuries, the seriousness of injuries, and very quickly realized we had to put in services," says Deborah Amdur, the Department of Veterans Affairs' chief consultant for care management and social work.
She points to special facilities for brain injuries, VA liaisons in military health centers to smooth the Defense Department-to-VA transition, and to a polytrauma care network for veterans with injuries affecting more than one organ or region of the body.
"The services are recognizing these issues need to be addressed and are moving in that direction," says the National Military Family Association's Cohoon. "But it's hard for families."
Amanda Mason, 15, is slow to open up about her dad, Pennsylvania Army National Guard veteran Samuel J. Console, 44, who served in Iraq. Her relationship with him is complicated.
"I hate the Army with a passion," is all Amanda says at first, as she shifts her iPod touch from hand to hand. Later, she offers: "I used to be close with him."
Console, a first lieutenant with the 103d Engineers of the 28th Infantry Division, had been in Iraq about nine months in 2005 when a bomb exploded as his convoy drove north of Tikrit. He saw a flash that colored his window orange, and Console shook with the blast. He wasn't hit by shrapnel, but it left him briefly unconscious.
In war zones, injuries that disrupt the function of the brain usually are the result of a blast, such as from improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades, says Troy Van Scoyoc, acting director of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Johnstown, Pa.
The injuries can cause difficulty processing information, memory lapses, agitation, and depression.
Console recalls returning to his base after the attack, struggling with a pounding headache that his superior officer told him to sleep off, and feeling devastated about the death of an Iraqi contractor who was in the vehicle behind his. He went to aid stations in Iraq for his headaches, but, again, was prescribed rest.
When he returned a month later, his wife urged him to go to the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, where Console was assigned a primary-care doctor, a psychologist, and a psychiatrist. Honorably discharged in 2006, Console still is being treated for combat-related traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
"When an injury takes place it leads to a cascade of events that can dramatically change the developmental trajectory of a family," says Stephen J. Cozza, associate director of the Uniformed Services University Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress and a top expert on how deployment to the current battle zones affects children.
Everyone in the family faces adjustment pains at the same time when a wounded parent returns, beginning with the service member reintegrating into the family and community, Cozza says. If a family had reported high levels of distress before the injury, he says, it may have an even harder time coping afterward.
"The most challenging injuries from the family point of view are related to the invisible wounds - TBI [traumatic brain injury] or PTSD," says Jeremy Chwat, chief program officer for the Wounded Warrior Project.
The parent looks the same, but is acting in a dramatically different way.
Amanda and her brother Mark Mason, 17, were glad their father was back and threw him a welcome-home party.
"We just missed him, hanging out with him," says Mark.
Amanda liked how the three of them used to watch SpongeBob SquarePants cartoons and play games. At first, says Mark, "We didn't even know he was injured. You couldn't see it."
And Console, who works at the Philadelphia International Airport in planning and environmental stewardship, didn't tell them, preferring to have his children "see me as I was before I left - healthy."
Gradually, Amanda and Mark noticed a new impatience, irritability, and nervousness in their dad that still exists. He doesn't sleep well anymore. Loud noises disturb him. He sets down his glasses or other objects and does not remember where they are. All these behaviors can be symptoms of traumatic brain injury.
Amanda noticed he was entering medical and other appointments into his cell-phone calendar and using the alarm to remind him of them.
The hardest part to deal with, his family says, is Console's preoccupation - he sees it as a passion - with the Army and a book he's writing to help veterans with experiences similar to his. He even thought recently that he might try to return to Iraq with the military, an idea he abandoned after his family protested.
It's hard to say whether it's passion or a symptom of what ails him, but Console steers almost every conversation to his book and Iraq. When he's not at his job, he spends most of his time writing and working on veterans' initiatives, some for the Philadelphia VA.
He's consumed with the Army, says his wife, Dawn Elliott, an associate professor in orthopedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. They married in 2004, just before he got the mobilization order for Iraq.
She says Console is a good father to their 2-year-old son, Matthew, who didn't make sleep easier for him when he first returned. But she worries that he "spends a lot of time on those [military-related] activities. It's less time to invest in our relationship and our family. I think he's starting to understand it puts distance between us."
Elliott and Console have gone to a marriage counselor through the VA. Otherwise, Elliott says, she has had little contact with any part of the military.
"I expected information when he was in Iraq, before during and after his deployment. . . . I got none," she says. "I expected interaction with other families. I got none. I expected someone to tell me about his injuries and what I should do. And I got none."
Amanda and Mark learned from Console about his injuries just in the last couple of years.
"We were sitting in the car and he said there was something wrong with his brain and he told us we had to take it easy on him," Amanda says.
During the school year, Amanda and Mark spend weekdays in Levittown with their mother, who was divorced from Console in 1999. In the summer they are mostly in Philadelphia with their father and Elliott. Console is busy with work, the 2-year-old, or his military-related pursuits, so she and Mark mainly play on the computer, Amanda says.
"I don't like being around him as much because all he does is talk about the Army and it's kind of obnoxious," she says.
She understands he was injured, she just doesn't get why - because of his health problems - he doesn't leave the military behind.
"I can't let go of things," Console admits. His veterans activity nourishes him, and yet, he says, "I feel broken."
Console says his relationship with Amanda is tense. "I'm extremely impatient," he says. "We cannot work through problems no matter how little they are."
Even sharing their story separately, it is clear that father and daughter have had the conversation before, face-to-face.
"I just think he should get over the Army and get on with it if it's causing so much trouble in his brain," Amanda says.
"She hates what I love," Console says.
"He's still a great dad," Amanda says.
-------------------------------------------
The Hidden Home Front
Read previous stories in The Hidden Home Front series at www.philly.com/militaryfamilies.
For More Information
Resources for injured service members and their families:
Army Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline
1-800-984-8523
Brain Injury Association of America
www.biausa.org
Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health & Traumatic Brain Injury
www.dcoe.health.mil/ default.aspx
Disabled American Veterans
www.dav.org
Fisher House
www.fisherhouse.org
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
www.iava.org
Homes for Our Troops
www.homesforourtroops.org
MilitaryHOMEFRONT
www.militaryhomefront. dod.mil
National Military Family Association
www.militaryfamily.org
National Resource Directory
www.nationalresourcedirectory.gov
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD
www.ptsd.va.gov
Noanie.com
www.noanie.com/#wounded
Wounded Warrior Project
www.woundedwarriorproject.org
Wounded Warrior Resource Center
www.woundedwarriorresourcecenter.com
Contact staff writer Carolyn Davis at 215-854-4214 or cdavis@phillynews.com.
Posted on Tue, Jul. 6, 2010
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine ... z0suT7WADF
Wounds of a modern war - amputations, brain trauma - harm troops' families too
By Carolyn Davis
Inquirer Staff Writer
One in an occasional series.
The simple, sweet pleasure of a father playing with his child doesn't come easily to Army veteran Pisey Tan.
He takes extra care to control his balance as he gently tosses his 17-month-old daughter into the air. Making his way down to the floor to sit beside little Alyssa is even more challenging for the 6-foot, 210-pound Tan.
His two aluminum, titanium and carbon fiber prostheses - one leg was amputated above the knee, the other below - move stiffly under his baggy jeans as he bends over, puts his hands on the floor, then slides his legs backward until he can set himself down.
Tan muses about the happy toddler beside him.
"She's going to do things I didn't get to do," says Tan, who lives in Woodlyn. "I just don't want her to think daddy's a failure."
Tan is among the 38,497 U.S. service members wounded in action in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the total from the start of the war through most of June. The great majority of these injuries occurred on the Iraq battlefield, though the numbers in Afghanistan are rising as more troops are deployed there and fighting intensifies.
Two types of wounds are considered the "signature injuries" of those battlefields - traumatic brain injuries and, as in Tan's case, amputations. Lifelong medical treatment and disability benefits for veterans of the wars could run as high as $663 billion, a 2007 Harvard University study projected, a figure that likely is higher now.
Most of these injuries are the result of the prevalence of IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, bombs built with easily available materials and set off near specific targets, such as an Army convoy.
Diagnoses by the military health system of traumatic brain injuries rose 136 percent between 2001 and 2009, from 11,830 cases to 27,862 cases, according to a Congressional Research Service report released in May.
It also notes that 1,345 U.S. service members have had major limb and partial amputations over the course of the wars.
Because of better battlefield medicine and body armor, more than 90 percent of those wounded in combat have survived - compared with 76 percent in the Vietnam War and 70 percent in World War II.
That means more military families get to welcome a loved one home again - but more also face living with the wounds of war.
"Your life changes from that moment forward," says Barbara Cohoon of the National Military Family Association.
Tan, 29, is grateful to his mother, Bo Mao, and brother, Dara Soun, who were as much a part of his recovery as any doctor.
"They sacrificed so much just to get me back on my feet," says Tan, lightening his tone as he adds, "figuratively speaking."
Tan's 25-year-old brother lives with him, his wife and his daughter in a home built for Tan in 2006 by the McKee Group, a Delaware County-based builder, and Homes for Our Troops, a nonprofit group. The house is specially adapted for him and is fitted with wide doorways and halls, low counters and smooth floors.
A painting of the ancient temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the land of Tan's parents, hangs on one living room wall. On other walls are a shadow box with Tan's military medals, and an Operation Iraqi Freedom poster showing a helicopter sitting on what looks like desert rock, with the greeting, "Welcome home. In appreciation of your dedication and commitment."
In 2005, Army specialist Tan was eight months into his second tour of duty in Iraq with Alpha Company, 3d Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment out of Fort Stewart, Ga., when a roadside bomb exploded under the Bradley fighting vehicle he was driving on patrol in Samarra, north of Baghdad.
He woke up several days later in Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center, his legs amputated. Tan didn't want to tell his mother.
"In our culture, in Cambodia, you lose your limbs and you're shunned," he says. "I didn't want to bring that to my mother and have everyone look at her as though she's got the friggin' plague."
She'd been through enough, he figured. Mao, 49, had survived the brutal 1970s-era regime of the Khmer Rouge. She met Tan's father in a refugee camp in 1979, though they did not stay together. Mao was pregnant with Tan when she came to the United States in the early 1980s, settling in Philadelphia in 1987.
Mao was at her job as a quality-control inspector for Philadelphia Scientific, an industrial battery-supply business in Montgomeryville, when the Army called with the news about her son. She and son Dara Soun rushed to his bedside.
"He told me, 'Mom, look, look. I don't have nothing.' And I told him, 'You have mom. Mom take care of you.'
"I remember he ask me, 'Are you embarrassed about your son because he has no legs?' I said, 'Embarrassed? What? You helped your country.' "
For the next 11 months, either Mao or Soun, who interrupted his college studies to help his brother, lived on the grounds of Walter Reed Army Medical Center while Tan completed occupational and physical therapy. They brought him meals, wheeled him to appointments, handled paperwork, and urged him on when he felt low.
When Tan fell, his brother picked him up.
"One time, he was trying to get on a bus and his leg broke right at the socket," says Soun. He wrapped his arms under Tan's and lifted his brother into a wheelchair.
In those early months of his injury, Tan never envisioned his life would become so ordinary one day.
By 2007, Tan was well enough to travel to Cambodia, where he was introduced to his future wife, Sieng Yon. The next year, she came to the United States and Media Mayor Bob McMahon married the two.
In their living room with her husband interpreting, Yon, 34, recalls that first meeting with Tan. His amputations didn't bother her then and don't bother her now - except for one thing.
"The only thing that bothers me is seeing him in pain," she says.
Sometimes his legs throb with pain, and Yon will comfort him by massaging his stumps. Mostly, her days are filled with tending to the house and to Alyssa.
Tan sits near Alyssa as Yon silently moves about the house, fluffing a pillow, folding laundry, and checking in on their daughter. Later, Alyssa clutches the coffee table and stands up, Yon right behind her on the floor, ready to catch her should she fall.
"We're pretty normal. If anything, we're better," says Yon. "Our family is just happy. We don't fight at all."
Their normal also includes managing their daughter's health issues. Alyssa, who is fed intravenously through a machine connected to her stomach by a tube, was born with a noncancerous tumor on her liver that also pressed against her lungs, Tan says.
Nearly all of her health expenses are paid for by Tricare military insurance, which Tan, medically retired from the Army, continues to get.
Yon has suggested working outside the home to supplement Tan's veterans benefits, but he says no, feeling an obligation as the husband to provide for his family. He's able to get around now with barely a limp, using a wheelchair only when he tires or knows he'll be inside the house the rest of the day. After Alyssa has fully recovered, Tan wants to get a business-management degree and, then, a job.
"I really want the best for my family," he says, "and I feel sometimes I can't do the best for my family."
Most service members do not come home with injuries as severe as Tan's. More commonly, they suffer from upper respiratory, gastrointestinal and dermatologic illnesses.
At the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, most war-zone injuries have been musculoskeletal - knee fractures or shoulder and hip strains that come from the heavy gear service members wear and carry, says Lori Maas, the center's Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom program manager.
Those were expected. But the medical systems of the Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs were caught off-guard by so many blast wounds.
The huge backlog of disability claims was well publicized, as was the poor condition of some military hospitals and problems as patients moved from the Defense Department medical system to the Veterans Affairs system. Families complained about insufficient support services and being shut out of decisions about their loved ones' care.
The financial toll on families of long-term care for those most severely wounded veterans is another issue. It was only in May that federal legislation was signed into law giving a stipend and medical insurance to family members who are full-time caretakers of seriously wounded veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Officials acknowledge they were not fully prepared.
"As the war progressed, we recognized the types of injuries, the seriousness of injuries, and very quickly realized we had to put in services," says Deborah Amdur, the Department of Veterans Affairs' chief consultant for care management and social work.
She points to special facilities for brain injuries, VA liaisons in military health centers to smooth the Defense Department-to-VA transition, and to a polytrauma care network for veterans with injuries affecting more than one organ or region of the body.
"The services are recognizing these issues need to be addressed and are moving in that direction," says the National Military Family Association's Cohoon. "But it's hard for families."
Amanda Mason, 15, is slow to open up about her dad, Pennsylvania Army National Guard veteran Samuel J. Console, 44, who served in Iraq. Her relationship with him is complicated.
"I hate the Army with a passion," is all Amanda says at first, as she shifts her iPod touch from hand to hand. Later, she offers: "I used to be close with him."
Console, a first lieutenant with the 103d Engineers of the 28th Infantry Division, had been in Iraq about nine months in 2005 when a bomb exploded as his convoy drove north of Tikrit. He saw a flash that colored his window orange, and Console shook with the blast. He wasn't hit by shrapnel, but it left him briefly unconscious.
In war zones, injuries that disrupt the function of the brain usually are the result of a blast, such as from improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades, says Troy Van Scoyoc, acting director of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Johnstown, Pa.
The injuries can cause difficulty processing information, memory lapses, agitation, and depression.
Console recalls returning to his base after the attack, struggling with a pounding headache that his superior officer told him to sleep off, and feeling devastated about the death of an Iraqi contractor who was in the vehicle behind his. He went to aid stations in Iraq for his headaches, but, again, was prescribed rest.
When he returned a month later, his wife urged him to go to the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, where Console was assigned a primary-care doctor, a psychologist, and a psychiatrist. Honorably discharged in 2006, Console still is being treated for combat-related traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
"When an injury takes place it leads to a cascade of events that can dramatically change the developmental trajectory of a family," says Stephen J. Cozza, associate director of the Uniformed Services University Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress and a top expert on how deployment to the current battle zones affects children.
Everyone in the family faces adjustment pains at the same time when a wounded parent returns, beginning with the service member reintegrating into the family and community, Cozza says. If a family had reported high levels of distress before the injury, he says, it may have an even harder time coping afterward.
"The most challenging injuries from the family point of view are related to the invisible wounds - TBI [traumatic brain injury] or PTSD," says Jeremy Chwat, chief program officer for the Wounded Warrior Project.
The parent looks the same, but is acting in a dramatically different way.
Amanda and her brother Mark Mason, 17, were glad their father was back and threw him a welcome-home party.
"We just missed him, hanging out with him," says Mark.
Amanda liked how the three of them used to watch SpongeBob SquarePants cartoons and play games. At first, says Mark, "We didn't even know he was injured. You couldn't see it."
And Console, who works at the Philadelphia International Airport in planning and environmental stewardship, didn't tell them, preferring to have his children "see me as I was before I left - healthy."
Gradually, Amanda and Mark noticed a new impatience, irritability, and nervousness in their dad that still exists. He doesn't sleep well anymore. Loud noises disturb him. He sets down his glasses or other objects and does not remember where they are. All these behaviors can be symptoms of traumatic brain injury.
Amanda noticed he was entering medical and other appointments into his cell-phone calendar and using the alarm to remind him of them.
The hardest part to deal with, his family says, is Console's preoccupation - he sees it as a passion - with the Army and a book he's writing to help veterans with experiences similar to his. He even thought recently that he might try to return to Iraq with the military, an idea he abandoned after his family protested.
It's hard to say whether it's passion or a symptom of what ails him, but Console steers almost every conversation to his book and Iraq. When he's not at his job, he spends most of his time writing and working on veterans' initiatives, some for the Philadelphia VA.
He's consumed with the Army, says his wife, Dawn Elliott, an associate professor in orthopedic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. They married in 2004, just before he got the mobilization order for Iraq.
She says Console is a good father to their 2-year-old son, Matthew, who didn't make sleep easier for him when he first returned. But she worries that he "spends a lot of time on those [military-related] activities. It's less time to invest in our relationship and our family. I think he's starting to understand it puts distance between us."
Elliott and Console have gone to a marriage counselor through the VA. Otherwise, Elliott says, she has had little contact with any part of the military.
"I expected information when he was in Iraq, before during and after his deployment. . . . I got none," she says. "I expected interaction with other families. I got none. I expected someone to tell me about his injuries and what I should do. And I got none."
Amanda and Mark learned from Console about his injuries just in the last couple of years.
"We were sitting in the car and he said there was something wrong with his brain and he told us we had to take it easy on him," Amanda says.
During the school year, Amanda and Mark spend weekdays in Levittown with their mother, who was divorced from Console in 1999. In the summer they are mostly in Philadelphia with their father and Elliott. Console is busy with work, the 2-year-old, or his military-related pursuits, so she and Mark mainly play on the computer, Amanda says.
"I don't like being around him as much because all he does is talk about the Army and it's kind of obnoxious," she says.
She understands he was injured, she just doesn't get why - because of his health problems - he doesn't leave the military behind.
"I can't let go of things," Console admits. His veterans activity nourishes him, and yet, he says, "I feel broken."
Console says his relationship with Amanda is tense. "I'm extremely impatient," he says. "We cannot work through problems no matter how little they are."
Even sharing their story separately, it is clear that father and daughter have had the conversation before, face-to-face.
"I just think he should get over the Army and get on with it if it's causing so much trouble in his brain," Amanda says.
"She hates what I love," Console says.
"He's still a great dad," Amanda says.
-------------------------------------------
The Hidden Home Front
Read previous stories in The Hidden Home Front series at www.philly.com/militaryfamilies.
For More Information
Resources for injured service members and their families:
Army Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline
1-800-984-8523
Brain Injury Association of America
www.biausa.org
Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health & Traumatic Brain Injury
www.dcoe.health.mil/ default.aspx
Disabled American Veterans
www.dav.org
Fisher House
www.fisherhouse.org
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
www.iava.org
Homes for Our Troops
www.homesforourtroops.org
MilitaryHOMEFRONT
www.militaryhomefront. dod.mil
National Military Family Association
www.militaryfamily.org
National Resource Directory
www.nationalresourcedirectory.gov
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD
www.ptsd.va.gov
Noanie.com
www.noanie.com/#wounded
Wounded Warrior Project
www.woundedwarriorproject.org
Wounded Warrior Resource Center
www.woundedwarriorresourcecenter.com
Contact staff writer Carolyn Davis at 215-854-4214 or cdavis@phillynews.com.
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47789
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 07/ 24/ 10 7:38 am
GET YOUR E-TICKET RIDE PASS HERE:
V.A. Easing Rules for Users of Medical Marijuana
Tony Demin for The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/healt ... .html?_r=1
Published: July 23, 2010
DENVER — The Department of Veterans Affairs will formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal, a policy clarification that veterans have sought for several years.
A department directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, effectively deferring to the states.
The policy will not permit department doctors to prescribe marijuana. But it will address the concern of many patients who use the drug that they could lose access to their prescription pain medication if caught.
Under department rules, veterans can be denied pain medications if they are found to be using illegal drugs. Until now, the department had no written exception for medical marijuana.
This has led many patients to distrust their doctors, veterans say. With doctors and patients pressing the veterans department for formal guidance, agency officials began drafting a policy last fall.
“When states start legalizing marijuana we are put in a bit of a unique position because as a federal agency, we are beholden to federal law,” said Dr. Robert Jesse, the principal deputy under secretary for health in the veterans department.
At the same time, Dr. Jesse said, “We didn’t want patients who were legally using marijuana to be administratively denied access to pain management programs.”
The new, written policy applies only to veterans using medical marijuana in states where it is legal. Doctors may still modify a veteran’s treatment plan if the veteran is using marijuana, or decide not to prescribe pain medicine altogether if there is a risk of a drug interaction. But that decision will be made on a case-by-case basis, not as blanket policy, Dr. Jesse said.
Though veterans of the Vietnam War were the first group to use marijuana widely for medical purposes, the population of veterans using it now spans generations, said Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, which worked with the department on formulating a policy.
Veterans, some of whom have been at the forefront of the medical marijuana movement, praised the department’s decision. They say cannabis helps soothe physical and psychological pain and can alleviate the side effects of some treatments.
“By creating a directive on medical marijuana, the V.A. ensures that throughout its vast hospital network, it will be well understood that legal medical marijuana use will not be the basis for the denial of services,” Mr. Krawitz said.
Although the Obama administration has not embraced medical marijuana, last October, in a policy shift, the Justice Department announced that it would not prosecute people who used or distributed it in states where it was legal.
Laura Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, would not comment spefically on the veterans department policy. “What we have said in the past, and what we have said for a while, is that we are going to focus our federal resources on large scale drug traffickers,” she said. “We are not going to focus on individual cancer patients or something of the like.”
Many clinicians already prescribe pain medication to veterans who use medical marijuana, as there was no rule explicitly prohibiting them from doing so, despite the federal marijuana laws.
Advocates of medical marijuana use say that in the past, the patchwork of veterans hospitals and clinics around the country were sometimes unclear how to deal with veterans who needed pain medications and were legally using medical marijuana. The department’s emphasis on keeping patients off illegal drugs and from abusing their medication “gave many practitioners the feeling that they are supposed to police marijuana out of the system,” Mr. Krawitz said.
“Many medical-marijuana-using veterans have just abandoned the V.A. hospital system completely for this reason,” he said, “and others that stay in the system feel that they are not able to trust that their doctor will be working in their best interests.”
In rare cases, veterans have been told that they need to stop using marijuana, even if it is legal, or risk losing their prescription medicine, Mr. Krawitz said.
David Fox, 58, an Army veteran from Pompey’s Pillar, Mont., uses medical marijuana legally to help quiet the pain he experiences from neuropathy, a nerve disorder. But he said he was told this year by a doctor at a veterans’ clinic in Billings that if he did not stop using marijuana, he would no longer get the pain medication he was also prescribed.
A letter written to Mr. Fox in April from Robin Korogi, the director of the veterans health care system in Montana, explained that the department did not want to prescribe pain medicine in combination with marijuana because there was no evidence that marijuana worked for noncancer patients and because the combination was unsafe.
“In those states where medical marijuana is legal, the patient will need to make a choice as to which medication they choose to use for their chronic pain,” Ms. Korogi wrote. “However, it is not medically appropriate to expect that a V.A. physician will prescribe narcotics while the patient is taking marijuana.”
Mr. Fox was shocked by the decision, he said.
“I felt literally abandoned,” he said. “I still needed my pain meds. I thought they were supposed to treat you. It was devastating for me.”
Mr. Fox, who said that at one point he was weaning himself off his pain medication for fear of running out, has held one-man protests in front of the clinic, carrying signs that read “Abandoned by V.A., Refused Treatment.”
Veterans officials would not comment on specific cases, citing medical privacy laws.
This month, Dr. Robert A. Petzel, the under secretary for health for the veterans department, sent a letter to Mr. Krawitz laying out the department’s policy. If a veteran obtains and uses medical marijuana in accordance with state law, Dr. Petzel wrote, he should not be precluded from receiving opioids for pain management at a veterans facility.
Dr. Petzel also said that pain management agreements between clinicians and patients, which are used as guidelines for courses of treatment, “should draw a clear distinction between the use of illegal drugs, and legal medical marijuana.”
Dr. Jesse, the veterans department official, said that formalizing rules on medical marijuana would eliminate any future confusion and keep patients from being squeezed between state and federal law.
Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, which favors the legal regulation of the drug, called the decision historic. “We now have a branch of the federal government accepting marijuana as a legal medicine,” he said.
But Mr. Fox said he wished the policy had been extended to veterans who lived in states where medical marijuana was not legal.
He said it was critical that the veterans department make its guidelines clear to patients and medical staff members, something officials said they planned on doing in coming weeks.
Said Dr. Jesse, “The whole goal of issuing a national policy is to make sure we have uniformity across the system.”
V.A. Easing Rules for Users of Medical Marijuana
Tony Demin for The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/healt ... .html?_r=1
David Fox, an Army veteran, at home in Montana. He uses medical marijuana to help quiet the pain from neuropathy.
Published: July 23, 2010
DENVER — The Department of Veterans Affairs will formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal, a policy clarification that veterans have sought for several years.
A department directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, effectively deferring to the states.
The policy will not permit department doctors to prescribe marijuana. But it will address the concern of many patients who use the drug that they could lose access to their prescription pain medication if caught.
Under department rules, veterans can be denied pain medications if they are found to be using illegal drugs. Until now, the department had no written exception for medical marijuana.
This has led many patients to distrust their doctors, veterans say. With doctors and patients pressing the veterans department for formal guidance, agency officials began drafting a policy last fall.
“When states start legalizing marijuana we are put in a bit of a unique position because as a federal agency, we are beholden to federal law,” said Dr. Robert Jesse, the principal deputy under secretary for health in the veterans department.
At the same time, Dr. Jesse said, “We didn’t want patients who were legally using marijuana to be administratively denied access to pain management programs.”
The new, written policy applies only to veterans using medical marijuana in states where it is legal. Doctors may still modify a veteran’s treatment plan if the veteran is using marijuana, or decide not to prescribe pain medicine altogether if there is a risk of a drug interaction. But that decision will be made on a case-by-case basis, not as blanket policy, Dr. Jesse said.
Though veterans of the Vietnam War were the first group to use marijuana widely for medical purposes, the population of veterans using it now spans generations, said Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, which worked with the department on formulating a policy.
Veterans, some of whom have been at the forefront of the medical marijuana movement, praised the department’s decision. They say cannabis helps soothe physical and psychological pain and can alleviate the side effects of some treatments.
“By creating a directive on medical marijuana, the V.A. ensures that throughout its vast hospital network, it will be well understood that legal medical marijuana use will not be the basis for the denial of services,” Mr. Krawitz said.
Although the Obama administration has not embraced medical marijuana, last October, in a policy shift, the Justice Department announced that it would not prosecute people who used or distributed it in states where it was legal.
Laura Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, would not comment spefically on the veterans department policy. “What we have said in the past, and what we have said for a while, is that we are going to focus our federal resources on large scale drug traffickers,” she said. “We are not going to focus on individual cancer patients or something of the like.”
Many clinicians already prescribe pain medication to veterans who use medical marijuana, as there was no rule explicitly prohibiting them from doing so, despite the federal marijuana laws.
Advocates of medical marijuana use say that in the past, the patchwork of veterans hospitals and clinics around the country were sometimes unclear how to deal with veterans who needed pain medications and were legally using medical marijuana. The department’s emphasis on keeping patients off illegal drugs and from abusing their medication “gave many practitioners the feeling that they are supposed to police marijuana out of the system,” Mr. Krawitz said.
“Many medical-marijuana-using veterans have just abandoned the V.A. hospital system completely for this reason,” he said, “and others that stay in the system feel that they are not able to trust that their doctor will be working in their best interests.”
In rare cases, veterans have been told that they need to stop using marijuana, even if it is legal, or risk losing their prescription medicine, Mr. Krawitz said.
David Fox, 58, an Army veteran from Pompey’s Pillar, Mont., uses medical marijuana legally to help quiet the pain he experiences from neuropathy, a nerve disorder. But he said he was told this year by a doctor at a veterans’ clinic in Billings that if he did not stop using marijuana, he would no longer get the pain medication he was also prescribed.
A letter written to Mr. Fox in April from Robin Korogi, the director of the veterans health care system in Montana, explained that the department did not want to prescribe pain medicine in combination with marijuana because there was no evidence that marijuana worked for noncancer patients and because the combination was unsafe.
“In those states where medical marijuana is legal, the patient will need to make a choice as to which medication they choose to use for their chronic pain,” Ms. Korogi wrote. “However, it is not medically appropriate to expect that a V.A. physician will prescribe narcotics while the patient is taking marijuana.”
Mr. Fox was shocked by the decision, he said.
“I felt literally abandoned,” he said. “I still needed my pain meds. I thought they were supposed to treat you. It was devastating for me.”
Mr. Fox, who said that at one point he was weaning himself off his pain medication for fear of running out, has held one-man protests in front of the clinic, carrying signs that read “Abandoned by V.A., Refused Treatment.”
Veterans officials would not comment on specific cases, citing medical privacy laws.
This month, Dr. Robert A. Petzel, the under secretary for health for the veterans department, sent a letter to Mr. Krawitz laying out the department’s policy. If a veteran obtains and uses medical marijuana in accordance with state law, Dr. Petzel wrote, he should not be precluded from receiving opioids for pain management at a veterans facility.
Dr. Petzel also said that pain management agreements between clinicians and patients, which are used as guidelines for courses of treatment, “should draw a clear distinction between the use of illegal drugs, and legal medical marijuana.”
Dr. Jesse, the veterans department official, said that formalizing rules on medical marijuana would eliminate any future confusion and keep patients from being squeezed between state and federal law.
Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, which favors the legal regulation of the drug, called the decision historic. “We now have a branch of the federal government accepting marijuana as a legal medicine,” he said.
But Mr. Fox said he wished the policy had been extended to veterans who lived in states where medical marijuana was not legal.
He said it was critical that the veterans department make its guidelines clear to patients and medical staff members, something officials said they planned on doing in coming weeks.
Said Dr. Jesse, “The whole goal of issuing a national policy is to make sure we have uniformity across the system.”
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47789
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 09/ 15/ 10 9:39 am
Veterans Agency Made Secret Deal Over Benefits
By David Evans - Sep 14, 2010 10:12 AM MT
Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg Markets magazine's David Evans talks about an agreement between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Prudential Financial Inc. that enabled the insurer to withhold lump-sum payments of life insurance benefits for survivors of fallen soldiers. The veterans agency said today that Prudential will now send beneficiaries a check when they ask for a lump-sum benefit payment rather than keeping the money and mailing a checkbook. Evans speaks with Margaret Brennan on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness".
Attachment: 2007 VA/Prudential Contract -- Part 1 of 3
Attachment: VA 1999 Internal E-Mail.
Signed Amendment To Prudential Contract
This signed amendment to Prudential's contract is the first document to show how Department of Veterans Affairs officials sanctioned a payment practice that has spurred investigations by lawmakers and regulators. Photographer: Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
This signed amendment to Prudential's contract is the first document to show how Department of Veterans Affairs officials sanctioned a payment practice that has spurred investigations by lawmakers and regulators. Photographer: Jonathan
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs failed to inform 6 million soldiers and their families of an agreement enabling Prudential Financial Inc. to withhold lump-sum payments of life insurance benefits for survivors of fallen service members, according to records made public through a Freedom of Information request.
The amendment to Prudential’s contract is the first document to show how VA officials sanctioned a payment practice that has spurred investigations by lawmakers and regulators. Since 1999, Prudential has used so-called retained-asset accounts, which allow the company to withhold lump-sum payments due to survivors and earn investment income on the money for itself.
The Sept. 1, 2009, amendment to Prudential’s contract with the VA ratified another unpublicized deal that had been struck between the insurer and the government 10 years earlier -- one that was never put into writing, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November issue. This verbal agreement in 1999 provoked concern among top insurance officials of the agency, the documents released in the FOIA request show.
For a decade, until the contract was formally changed, Prudential wasn’t fulfilling its obligations to survivors of fallen service members, says Brendan Bridgeland, an insurance lawyer who runs the non-profit Center for Insurance Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
‘Violated Terms’
“It’s very clear they violated the original terms of the contract,” says Bridgeland, who is retained by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to represent consumers.
“Every veteran I’ve spoken with is appalled at the brazen war profiteering by Prudential,” says Paul Sullivan, who served in the 1991 Gulf War as an Army cavalry scout and is now executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington. “Now vets are upset at the VA’s inability to stop Prudential’s bad behavior.”
That the VA allowed Prudential to issue retained-asset accounts for 10 years while the contract required lump-sum payouts is “more evidence that the VA was asleep at the wheel for a decade,” says Sullivan, who was a project manager and analyst at the VA from 2000 to 2006.
“When grieving families check the box that they want a lump sum, they should get it. We remain disappointed and irate at the VA’s failure to provide advocacy for veterans,” he says.
State and U.S. Probes
Since July 28, when Bloomberg Markets first reported that Prudential sent checkbooks instead of checks to survivors requesting lump-sum payouts, state and federal officials have demanded the retained-asset system be investigated and reformed. The VA itself launched a probe of its life insurance program the day the first story was published.
The next day, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched what he called a “major fraud investigation” of Prudential and other life insurers over their use of retained- asset accounts. Since then, Cuomo’s office has issued subpoenas to Prudential and at least 12 more insurance companies.
The insurance departments in Georgia and New York have also opened probes. The U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee plans to hold hearings into Prudential’s use of retained-asset accounts to pay money owed to fallen soldiers’ survivors.
‘News to Me’
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates -- who was in office when the 2009 agreement was signed -- said when the VA started its probe that he had been unaware that survivors were being sent retained-asset accounts.
“Until today I actually believed that the families of our fallen heroes got a check for the full amount of their benefits,” Gates said at the time. “This came as news to me.”
As a result of the VA probe, the agency announced today that it will change its insurance program, allowing survivors to request and receive lump-sum checks.
Under Prudential’s original 1965 contract with the VA and a 2007 revised contract -- both of which were released as part of the FOIA response -- the insurer is required to send lump-sum payouts to survivors requesting them. The contract covers 6 million active service members, their families and veterans.
The checkbooks Prudential sends to survivors are tied to what the insurer calls its Alliance Account. The checkbooks are made up of drafts, or IOUs, and aren’t insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Prudential invests the survivors’ money in its general corporate account, where it can earn the insurer as much as eight times as much as it currently pays in interest to beneficiaries.
Bond Income
Prudential held $662 million of survivors’ money in its corporate general account as of June 30, according to information provided by the VA. Prudential’s general account earned 4.2 percent in 2009, mostly from bond investments, according to regulatory filings. The company has paid survivors holding Alliance Accounts 0.5 percent in 2010.
Families that were supposed to receive lump-sum payments under the terms of the contract before it was amended in 2009 may be able to successfully sue Prudential for lost interest, insurance lawyer Bridgeland says.
“Survivors would have a very strong claim for interest earned by Prudential on their money,” he says.
Prudential spokesman Bob DeFillippo says his company is following the terms of its agreement with the VA.
“Prudential is in compliance with its contract with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs,” he says.
DeFillippo declined to comment on whether Prudential was in compliance with its contract between 1999 and September 2009 or to answer any other questions. Prudential chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Strangfeld declined to comment for this story.
Useful Service
In July, DeFillippo said Prudential’s retained-asset account was a useful service for bereaved relatives of soldiers. “For some families, the account is the difference between earning interest on a large amount of money and letting it sit idle,” he said. Survivors can withdraw some or all of their money at any time, he said.
Veterans Affairs Chief of Staff John Gingrich says the agency approved use of the Alliance Account because it wanted to help survivors.
“We needed to give an option to individuals that allowed them more flexibility and time to react to the tragic family situation,” Gingrich says.
Verbal Agreement
VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts declined to say when Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in January 2009, learned of the existence of the 1999 verbal agreement and the 2009 amendment. She also declined to make Shinseki available for comment.
The VA official who verbally agreed in 1999 to allow Prudential to change the terms of the 1965 contract and begin offering retained-asset accounts was Thomas Lastowka, the VA’s director for insurance, according to Dennis Foley, a VA attorney. Prudential began sending Alliance Account kits to soldiers’ beneficiaries in June 1999.
Foley says the VA and Prudential would have been better off if they had put their 1999 agreement in writing.
“Could that have been done better?” Foley asks. “Probably. Best practice would have been to legally memorialize it at the time.”
Foley says the 1999 changes to the 1965 contract were valid, even if they weren’t in writing, because they were made by mutual agreement by people empowered to make such decisions.
“It was changed by somebody who was authorized to change it,” he says.
Contract Terms
The language of both the 1965 contract and the 2009 amendment make clear that Newark, New Jersey-based Prudential was required to adhere to the original terms until 2009, regardless of any handshake agreements in 1999, insurance lawyer Bridgeland says.
The 1965 contract says any alterations must be made in writing.
“No change in the Group Policy shall be valid unless evidenced by an amendment thereto,” it says. “No Agent is authorized to alter or amend the Group Policy.”
The VA and Prudential signed a revised contract in 2007, saying it was “amended in its entirety.” That contract, with the exact same words as the 1965 agreement, required that Prudential pay survivors with lump sums.
The 2007 revision included the same procedures in the 1965 agreement requiring any changes be made in writing. It contained no mention of the retained-asset system, or of the verbal agreement struck in 1999.
2009 Amendment
It wasn’t until Sept. 24, 2009, that the changes agreed to by VA official Lastowka and Prudential in 1999 were put into writing. The 2009 amendment allowing Prudential to hold onto death benefit payouts was made retroactive to Sept. 1, 2009, not back to 1999.
By putting in writing a change that was verbally adopted 10 years earlier, the VA is effectively trying to backdate the amendment, says Jeffrey Stempel, an insurance law professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who wrote ‘Stempel on Insurance Contracts’ (Aspen Publishers, 2009).
“They’re trying to reinvent history,” Stempel says. “You really can’t do that. This is a blatant giveaway by the VA with nothing for the agency or the people in uniform.”
Nine of every 10 survivors ask Prudential for lump-sum payments, the VA says. Prudential sends those families “checkbooks” instead of checks.
‘Disasters Do Happen’
Documents released in the FOIA request show some signs of concern within the VA after Prudential proposed the retained- asset accounts in 1998. Lastowka, the official who allowed Prudential to introduce the Alliance Accounts, said that the insurer’s “checkbook” system wasn’t protected by the FDIC.
“Disasters do happen,” wrote Lastowka, in an e-mail dated June 9, 1999, to Stephen Wurtz, the agency’s deputy assistant director for insurance.
Lastowka said in his e-mail that the lack of FDIC coverage could backfire on survivors.
“Who is responsible if Alliance goes belly up?” Lastowka asked. “I think we have to also be prepared to defend the use of the Alliance Account.”
Lastowka also asked whether Prudential had adequately disclosed to survivors that the Alliance Accounts weren’t covered by FDIC insurance. “Did Pru alert us to the non-FDIC fact?” he wrote to Wurtz. “Or was it in small print as the notice to beneficiaries?”
Documents turned over by the VA didn’t include a response from Wurtz.
‘Aware of Issues’
Lastowka says his e-mail shows the decision to allow Alliance Accounts was carefully considered.
“This e-mail demonstrates simply that the VA’s Insurance program was aware of issues that might be raised as we implemented the payment method and that we should be prepared to respond to inquiries,” Lastowka says. “We were confident that we were making a decision which would benefit survivors.”
The FOIA documents show that on June 10, 1998, Prudential gave a presentation to the VA. It included 10 pages of key points, saying the Alliance Accounts would benefit survivors because they would provide safety, flexibility in how and when to use their money, competitive interest rates and customer service.
In fine print, at the bottom of one of the pages, was this caveat: “Funds in the Alliance Account are direct obligations of The Prudential Insurance Company of America and are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.”
Sheila Bair
Twelve years later, the issue of the lack of FDIC protection in retained-asset accounts flared anew.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said in August that consumers could incorrectly conclude that retained-asset accounts were insured by the FDIC.
“The insurance company must take care to avoid implying in any way that these accounts are in fact FDIC-insured,” she wrote in an Aug. 5 letter to state insurance regulators.
Some families of veterans have taken their complaints to court. Five survivors filed a federal fraud lawsuit in Boston on Aug. 30 against Prudential claiming the insurer has earned as much as $500 million in profits by improperly keeping beneficiaries’ money instead of paying it out in a lump sum.
The suit, Lucey vs. Prudential Insurance Co. of America, says the insurer fraudulently claims to beneficiaries that the Alliance Account is a lump sum.
‘This Ruse’
“Initiation of this ruse does not constitute payment of anything to anyone,” the suit says. “The Alliance Account is merely a bookkeeping device used by Prudential to hold on to beneficiaries’ money.”
Prudential hasn’t yet filed a response in court. Spokesman DeFillippo says he can’t comment on the case.
“It is important to note that several federal judges have rejected claims against accounts like our Alliance Account, concluding that beneficiaries are in virtually the same position they would be in had the insurer sent them a check,” DeFillippo says. He cited the dismissal of a case against MetLife Inc. on Sept. 10.
Insurance contract professor Stempel says that regardless of the outcome of that lawsuit, it’s clear that Prudential and the VA wrongly manipulated a federal contract at the expense of military members and their relatives. “At a minimum, survivors ought to be made whole with their missed interest,” he says. “The VA really seems to have had the best interests of the insurance company at heart, instead of those of the soldiers and their families.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Evans in Los Angeles at davidevans@bloomberg.net.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-1 ... efits.html
By David Evans - Sep 14, 2010 10:12 AM MT
Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg Markets magazine's David Evans talks about an agreement between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Prudential Financial Inc. that enabled the insurer to withhold lump-sum payments of life insurance benefits for survivors of fallen soldiers. The veterans agency said today that Prudential will now send beneficiaries a check when they ask for a lump-sum benefit payment rather than keeping the money and mailing a checkbook. Evans speaks with Margaret Brennan on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness".
Attachment: 2007 VA/Prudential Contract -- Part 1 of 3
Attachment: VA 1999 Internal E-Mail.
Signed Amendment To Prudential Contract
This signed amendment to Prudential's contract is the first document to show how Department of Veterans Affairs officials sanctioned a payment practice that has spurred investigations by lawmakers and regulators. Photographer: Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
This signed amendment to Prudential's contract is the first document to show how Department of Veterans Affairs officials sanctioned a payment practice that has spurred investigations by lawmakers and regulators. Photographer: Jonathan
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs failed to inform 6 million soldiers and their families of an agreement enabling Prudential Financial Inc. to withhold lump-sum payments of life insurance benefits for survivors of fallen service members, according to records made public through a Freedom of Information request.
The amendment to Prudential’s contract is the first document to show how VA officials sanctioned a payment practice that has spurred investigations by lawmakers and regulators. Since 1999, Prudential has used so-called retained-asset accounts, which allow the company to withhold lump-sum payments due to survivors and earn investment income on the money for itself.
The Sept. 1, 2009, amendment to Prudential’s contract with the VA ratified another unpublicized deal that had been struck between the insurer and the government 10 years earlier -- one that was never put into writing, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November issue. This verbal agreement in 1999 provoked concern among top insurance officials of the agency, the documents released in the FOIA request show.
For a decade, until the contract was formally changed, Prudential wasn’t fulfilling its obligations to survivors of fallen service members, says Brendan Bridgeland, an insurance lawyer who runs the non-profit Center for Insurance Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
‘Violated Terms’
“It’s very clear they violated the original terms of the contract,” says Bridgeland, who is retained by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to represent consumers.
“Every veteran I’ve spoken with is appalled at the brazen war profiteering by Prudential,” says Paul Sullivan, who served in the 1991 Gulf War as an Army cavalry scout and is now executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington. “Now vets are upset at the VA’s inability to stop Prudential’s bad behavior.”
That the VA allowed Prudential to issue retained-asset accounts for 10 years while the contract required lump-sum payouts is “more evidence that the VA was asleep at the wheel for a decade,” says Sullivan, who was a project manager and analyst at the VA from 2000 to 2006.
“When grieving families check the box that they want a lump sum, they should get it. We remain disappointed and irate at the VA’s failure to provide advocacy for veterans,” he says.
State and U.S. Probes
Since July 28, when Bloomberg Markets first reported that Prudential sent checkbooks instead of checks to survivors requesting lump-sum payouts, state and federal officials have demanded the retained-asset system be investigated and reformed. The VA itself launched a probe of its life insurance program the day the first story was published.
The next day, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched what he called a “major fraud investigation” of Prudential and other life insurers over their use of retained- asset accounts. Since then, Cuomo’s office has issued subpoenas to Prudential and at least 12 more insurance companies.
The insurance departments in Georgia and New York have also opened probes. The U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee plans to hold hearings into Prudential’s use of retained-asset accounts to pay money owed to fallen soldiers’ survivors.
‘News to Me’
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates -- who was in office when the 2009 agreement was signed -- said when the VA started its probe that he had been unaware that survivors were being sent retained-asset accounts.
“Until today I actually believed that the families of our fallen heroes got a check for the full amount of their benefits,” Gates said at the time. “This came as news to me.”
As a result of the VA probe, the agency announced today that it will change its insurance program, allowing survivors to request and receive lump-sum checks.
Under Prudential’s original 1965 contract with the VA and a 2007 revised contract -- both of which were released as part of the FOIA response -- the insurer is required to send lump-sum payouts to survivors requesting them. The contract covers 6 million active service members, their families and veterans.
The checkbooks Prudential sends to survivors are tied to what the insurer calls its Alliance Account. The checkbooks are made up of drafts, or IOUs, and aren’t insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Prudential invests the survivors’ money in its general corporate account, where it can earn the insurer as much as eight times as much as it currently pays in interest to beneficiaries.
Bond Income
Prudential held $662 million of survivors’ money in its corporate general account as of June 30, according to information provided by the VA. Prudential’s general account earned 4.2 percent in 2009, mostly from bond investments, according to regulatory filings. The company has paid survivors holding Alliance Accounts 0.5 percent in 2010.
Families that were supposed to receive lump-sum payments under the terms of the contract before it was amended in 2009 may be able to successfully sue Prudential for lost interest, insurance lawyer Bridgeland says.
“Survivors would have a very strong claim for interest earned by Prudential on their money,” he says.
Prudential spokesman Bob DeFillippo says his company is following the terms of its agreement with the VA.
“Prudential is in compliance with its contract with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs,” he says.
DeFillippo declined to comment on whether Prudential was in compliance with its contract between 1999 and September 2009 or to answer any other questions. Prudential chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Strangfeld declined to comment for this story.
Useful Service
In July, DeFillippo said Prudential’s retained-asset account was a useful service for bereaved relatives of soldiers. “For some families, the account is the difference between earning interest on a large amount of money and letting it sit idle,” he said. Survivors can withdraw some or all of their money at any time, he said.
Veterans Affairs Chief of Staff John Gingrich says the agency approved use of the Alliance Account because it wanted to help survivors.
“We needed to give an option to individuals that allowed them more flexibility and time to react to the tragic family situation,” Gingrich says.
Verbal Agreement
VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts declined to say when Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in January 2009, learned of the existence of the 1999 verbal agreement and the 2009 amendment. She also declined to make Shinseki available for comment.
The VA official who verbally agreed in 1999 to allow Prudential to change the terms of the 1965 contract and begin offering retained-asset accounts was Thomas Lastowka, the VA’s director for insurance, according to Dennis Foley, a VA attorney. Prudential began sending Alliance Account kits to soldiers’ beneficiaries in June 1999.
Foley says the VA and Prudential would have been better off if they had put their 1999 agreement in writing.
“Could that have been done better?” Foley asks. “Probably. Best practice would have been to legally memorialize it at the time.”
Foley says the 1999 changes to the 1965 contract were valid, even if they weren’t in writing, because they were made by mutual agreement by people empowered to make such decisions.
“It was changed by somebody who was authorized to change it,” he says.
Contract Terms
The language of both the 1965 contract and the 2009 amendment make clear that Newark, New Jersey-based Prudential was required to adhere to the original terms until 2009, regardless of any handshake agreements in 1999, insurance lawyer Bridgeland says.
The 1965 contract says any alterations must be made in writing.
“No change in the Group Policy shall be valid unless evidenced by an amendment thereto,” it says. “No Agent is authorized to alter or amend the Group Policy.”
The VA and Prudential signed a revised contract in 2007, saying it was “amended in its entirety.” That contract, with the exact same words as the 1965 agreement, required that Prudential pay survivors with lump sums.
The 2007 revision included the same procedures in the 1965 agreement requiring any changes be made in writing. It contained no mention of the retained-asset system, or of the verbal agreement struck in 1999.
2009 Amendment
It wasn’t until Sept. 24, 2009, that the changes agreed to by VA official Lastowka and Prudential in 1999 were put into writing. The 2009 amendment allowing Prudential to hold onto death benefit payouts was made retroactive to Sept. 1, 2009, not back to 1999.
By putting in writing a change that was verbally adopted 10 years earlier, the VA is effectively trying to backdate the amendment, says Jeffrey Stempel, an insurance law professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who wrote ‘Stempel on Insurance Contracts’ (Aspen Publishers, 2009).
“They’re trying to reinvent history,” Stempel says. “You really can’t do that. This is a blatant giveaway by the VA with nothing for the agency or the people in uniform.”
Nine of every 10 survivors ask Prudential for lump-sum payments, the VA says. Prudential sends those families “checkbooks” instead of checks.
‘Disasters Do Happen’
Documents released in the FOIA request show some signs of concern within the VA after Prudential proposed the retained- asset accounts in 1998. Lastowka, the official who allowed Prudential to introduce the Alliance Accounts, said that the insurer’s “checkbook” system wasn’t protected by the FDIC.
“Disasters do happen,” wrote Lastowka, in an e-mail dated June 9, 1999, to Stephen Wurtz, the agency’s deputy assistant director for insurance.
Lastowka said in his e-mail that the lack of FDIC coverage could backfire on survivors.
“Who is responsible if Alliance goes belly up?” Lastowka asked. “I think we have to also be prepared to defend the use of the Alliance Account.”
Lastowka also asked whether Prudential had adequately disclosed to survivors that the Alliance Accounts weren’t covered by FDIC insurance. “Did Pru alert us to the non-FDIC fact?” he wrote to Wurtz. “Or was it in small print as the notice to beneficiaries?”
Documents turned over by the VA didn’t include a response from Wurtz.
‘Aware of Issues’
Lastowka says his e-mail shows the decision to allow Alliance Accounts was carefully considered.
“This e-mail demonstrates simply that the VA’s Insurance program was aware of issues that might be raised as we implemented the payment method and that we should be prepared to respond to inquiries,” Lastowka says. “We were confident that we were making a decision which would benefit survivors.”
The FOIA documents show that on June 10, 1998, Prudential gave a presentation to the VA. It included 10 pages of key points, saying the Alliance Accounts would benefit survivors because they would provide safety, flexibility in how and when to use their money, competitive interest rates and customer service.
In fine print, at the bottom of one of the pages, was this caveat: “Funds in the Alliance Account are direct obligations of The Prudential Insurance Company of America and are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.”
Sheila Bair
Twelve years later, the issue of the lack of FDIC protection in retained-asset accounts flared anew.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said in August that consumers could incorrectly conclude that retained-asset accounts were insured by the FDIC.
“The insurance company must take care to avoid implying in any way that these accounts are in fact FDIC-insured,” she wrote in an Aug. 5 letter to state insurance regulators.
Some families of veterans have taken their complaints to court. Five survivors filed a federal fraud lawsuit in Boston on Aug. 30 against Prudential claiming the insurer has earned as much as $500 million in profits by improperly keeping beneficiaries’ money instead of paying it out in a lump sum.
The suit, Lucey vs. Prudential Insurance Co. of America, says the insurer fraudulently claims to beneficiaries that the Alliance Account is a lump sum.
‘This Ruse’
“Initiation of this ruse does not constitute payment of anything to anyone,” the suit says. “The Alliance Account is merely a bookkeeping device used by Prudential to hold on to beneficiaries’ money.”
Prudential hasn’t yet filed a response in court. Spokesman DeFillippo says he can’t comment on the case.
“It is important to note that several federal judges have rejected claims against accounts like our Alliance Account, concluding that beneficiaries are in virtually the same position they would be in had the insurer sent them a check,” DeFillippo says. He cited the dismissal of a case against MetLife Inc. on Sept. 10.
Insurance contract professor Stempel says that regardless of the outcome of that lawsuit, it’s clear that Prudential and the VA wrongly manipulated a federal contract at the expense of military members and their relatives. “At a minimum, survivors ought to be made whole with their missed interest,” he says. “The VA really seems to have had the best interests of the insurance company at heart, instead of those of the soldiers and their families.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Evans in Los Angeles at davidevans@bloomberg.net.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-1 ... efits.html
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J.B. Stone - Posts: 47789
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 09/ 22/ 10 5:31 pm
TRICARE Eligibility
TRICARE is a health benefit program for all seven uniformed services: the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, Public Health Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. To use TRICARE, you must be listed in DEERS as being eligible for military health care benefits. If you don ’t find answers to your eligibility questions in this section, check with your military service personnel office for specific information.
TRICARE-eligible persons include the following:
* Active duty service members
Note: Active duty service members and activated National Guard or Reserve Members must enroll in one of the TRICARE Prime options:
o TRICARE Prime
o TRICARE Prime Remote
o TRICARE Prime Overseas
o TRICARE Global Remote Overseas
* Spouses and unmarried children of active duty service members
* Uniformed service retirees, their spouses, and unmarried children
* Medal of Honor (MOH) recipients and/or their families.
* Un-remarried former spouse and unmarried children of active duty or retired service members who have died Note: Family members of active duty service members who died while on active duty, and who were on active duty for at least 31 days before death, will continue to be treated as active duty family members for TRICARE cost-sharing purposes for 3 years after their active duty sponsor dies.
* Spouses and unmarried children of reservists and National Guard who are ordered to active duty for more than 30 consecutive days (they are covered only during the reservist ’s active duty tour) or of reservists and National Guard who die on active duty.
* Spouses and unmarried children of reservists and National Guard who die as a result of a line of duty condition may be eligible for health care.
* Persons who have received the Medal of Honor, and their family members, who are not otherwise TRICARE eligible. These persons will be able to obtain health care benefits under TRICARE in the same manner as if they were entitled to retired pay.
* Unmarried children up to age 21 (including stepchildren who are adopted by the sponsor) are still covered by TRICARE even if the spouse gets divorced or remarried. But in the case of a stepchild who was not adopted by the sponsor and the marriage ends in divorce, the stepchild loses eligibility on the date the divorce decree is final. It should be emphasized that stepchildren don ’t have to be adopted by the sponsor to be covered by TRICARE while the sponsor and the mother or father of the stepchildren remains married. A child aged 21 or over may be covered if he or she is severely disabled and the condition existed prior to the child ’s 21st birthday —or, if the condition occurred between the ages of 21 and 23 while the child was enrolled in a full-time course of study in an approved institution of higher learning and is, or was at the time of the sponsor ’s death, dependent on the sponsor for more than one-half of his or her support. A child may also be covered up to the 23rd birthday if he or she is in school full-time.
* Children placed in the custody of a service member or former member, by a court of law; or by a recognized adoption agency in anticipation of legal adoption by the member. TRICARE eligibility is effective July 1, 1994, if a court of law places the child. A child placed by a recognized adoption agency is eligible effective October 5, 1994.
* Children of current or former service members or their spouses born out of wedlock may be eligible for TRICARE benefits under certain conditions. Check with your Beneficiary Counseling and Assistance Coordinator (BCAC)/Health Benefits Adviser (HBA), or TRICARE Service Center (TSC).
* Certain family members of active duty service members who were court-martialed and separated for spouse or child abuse. The victims of the abuse within the family are eligible for health benefits for the period that the abused family member is receiving “transitional compensation ” under Section 1059 of Title 10, U.S. Code. Cost sharing will be the same as for other active duty families.
Click here to find out more!
* Certain abused spouses, former spouses, and dependent children of service members who were eligible for retirement, but had that eligibility taken away as a result of abuse of the spouse or child. This benefit is effective for medically necessary services and supplies provided under TRICARE Standard (CHAMPUS) on or after October 23, 1992.
* Spouses and children of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and "Partners for Peace" (PFP) nation representatives who are officially accompanying the NATO or PFP nation representatives while stationed in, or passing through, the United States on official business. These family members are eligible for outpatient benefits only (including ambulatory surgery). They are not listed in the DEERS files, and should check with a BCAC/HBA/TSC for assistance before getting care or filing claims. (NATO and PFP family members cannot enroll in TRICARE Prime.)
* Former spouses of active, retired or former military members may be eligible for TRICARE if they meet the following requirements:
1. Must not have remarried. (If remarried, the loss of benefits remains applicable even if the remarriage ends in death or divorce.)
2. Must not be covered by an employer-sponsored health plan.
3. Must not be the former spouse of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization or Partners for Peace nation member.
http://www.military.com/benefits/tricar ... ligibility
Higher TRICARE premiums on Gates' cost-cut agenda
Last updated
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 - 6:00pm
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signaled that the department's fiscal 2012 budget request to be sent to Congress early next year will include recommendations to raise TRICARE premiums for some beneficiaries.
If past proposals are a reliable guide, the target of higher fees is likely to be military retirees rather than active duty families. The Bush administration had tried for three straight years to raise fees for working age retirees. Congress blocked those efforts.
Defense officials hope lawmakers, facing with mounting federal debt and tightening defense budgets, will be more receptive to the argument that TRICARE fees haven't been raised since they were set in 1995.
During a Pentagon press conference where he unveiled a host of initiatives to cut "overhead" in defense budgets, including shutting down the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., Gates said proposals to control burgeoning health care costs will be unveiled in the months ahead.
The issue arose when Gates was asked by a reporter when it would be time to control rising health care costs, either through TRICARE premium increases or reducing plan coverage. "Yesterday," Gates responded.
"Health-care reform is on my agenda," he added. It will be part of a new "track" of cost-cutting reforms identified by the Quadrennial Defense Review and endorsed by other reports for curbing defense spending.
"And so we have studies going on now...that will help shape our FY '12 budget submission. They involve logistics. They involve health care and personnel policies, more restructuring and organizational changes [and] continued acquisition reform."
Gates continued, "There are no sacred cows, and health care cannot be excepted" from cost-control plans, not to lower overall defense budgets but to free up funds for more pressing defense needs.
"Everybody knows that we're being eaten alive by health care. I believe there is a growing understanding on [Capitol] Hill about this. It cost us $19 billion in 2000 or 2001. It'll cost us over $50 billion in FY '11, and will cost us about $65 billion in FY '15. And particularly when the top line [of defense budgets] is only growing at a percent or thereabouts, it's unsustainable and therefore it has to be a part of our effort."
Dr. Jonathan Woodson, nominated to take charge of health care policy as the new assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, stayed mum on the hot-button issue of higher TRICARE fees during his Aug. 3 confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Asked by Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) how he would address rising health costs, Woodson said, "What we need to do is work with a number of constituents and try and stem rise of that cost." He referred to more cost-efficient "therapies" and addressing "waste in the way we deliver care because of the culture of medicine. And there's opportunity to decrease the variability of care that might result in cost savings."
Sen. John McCain, ranking committee Republican, said Woodson's major challenge will be getting costs under control. McCain questioned whether he can do it, given the steady rise of national health costs.
Woodson, an Army Reserve brigadier general and vascular surgeon who has deployed in most every recent conflict, is Army assistant surgeon general for force management, mobilization, readiness and reserve affairs.
In his written responses for the committee, Woodson said retirees and their families are 53 percent of all TRICARE beneficiaries and account for 57 percent of the DoD health care budget.
20-for-60 clarified
Last week I erred in describing a point made by the Defense Business Board task force in arguing that military retirement costs are unsustainable. A slide used by the task force listed among "unsustainable trends" the fact that the government pays "the military and their families for 60 years to serve for only 20 years."
I had rephrased the point awkwardly, leaving the impression that the task force assumes retirees draw retired pay for an average of 60 years. I heard from many retirees angered by that false notion.
The point Arnold Punaro, task force chairman, more tried to make with that slide is in the transcript of his presentation to the board:
"This system encourages our military to leave at 20 years, when they are most productive and experienced, and then pays them and their families, and their survivors, for another 40 years," he told the board.
Chapter 61 concurrent receipt
In his defense budget request last February, President Obama called on Congress again to phase in "concurrent receipt" - payment of some military retired pay in addition to disability compensation -- for 103,000 "Chapter 61" veterans, those of them forced by service-connected disability to retire short of 20 years.
But the administration disappointed advocates for this change, including Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, by not identifying new money or else "offsets" from other entitlement accounts to pay for this change. The estimated cost is $5.4 billion over the first 10 years. As a result, neither the House nor Senate version of the defense bill, at least so far, authorizes Obama's CR initiative.
House Democrats did try to slip it into the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (HR 4213). But in final negotiations with the Senate over this bill, only an extension of federal unemployment benefits survived.
Uncomfortably for some, the president still took credit for his unfunded effort in a speech before the Disabled American Veterans convention Aug. 2.
"We've kept our promise on concurrent receipt by proposing legislation that would allow severely disabled retirees to receive your military retired pay and your VA disability benefits. It's the right thing to do," he said to applause.
Right thing to do, say vet advocates. But it hasn't yet been done.
To comment, send e-mail to milupdate@aol.com or write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120-1111.
VA PUBLISHES AGENT ORANGE PRESUMPTION GUIDELINES
AMVETS applauds extension of benefits for exposed Vietnam veterans
LANHAM, Md., Aug. 30, 2010—This morning the Department of Veterans Affairs published its final guidelines in the Federal Register, outlining how VA will handle benefits claims for presumptive conditions resulting from exposure to the dangerous defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
AMVETS leaders applauded the decision to extend benefits to veterans suffering from three new presumptive conditions-- Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease, and chronic lymphocytic leukemias, including all chronic B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia.
“The latest presumptions will finally ensure that veterans exposed to Agent Orange will be cared for and appropriately compensated through the VA system,” said AMVETS National Commander Jerry Hotop. “AMVETS now urges Congress to approve VA’s guidelines so that veterans can start to receive the care and benefits they deserve.”
Congress has 60 days to review the new guidelines before VA can start to pay the new benefit. The Senate is currently scheduled to review the new regulations in a hearing on Sept. 23 and VA expects to be able to process its first new presumptive claims by November.
For new claims, VA may pay benefits retroactive to the effective date of the regulation or to one year before the date VA receives the application, whichever is later. For pending claims and claims that were previously denied, VA may pay benefits retroactive to the date it received the claim.
Any veteran who served in Vietnam between Jan. 9, 1962, and May 7, 1975, is presumed to have been exposed to herbicides like Agent Orange. Under the new regulation, a veteran who served in Vietnam during that time period who has developed a presumptive condition will not need to prove that the condition was a direct result of herbicide exposure.
Critics of the new presumptions are concerned that veterans suffering from conditions like ischemic heart disease could have developed the condition through causes other than herbicide exposure. However, AMVETS believes the presumption should remain, even if a handful of undeserving veterans could receive benefits.
“We know Agent Orange can lead to these problems, which is why VA created the presumptions based on years of hard evidence,” said Hotop. “To AMVETS, that’s enough. We would rather see a veteran who developed the condition under questionable circumstances receive care and compensation than put one more deserving Vietnam veteran through the ordeal of proving whether or not his particular disease resulted from Agent Orange exposure nearly three decades ago.”
VA expects more than 150,000 veterans to file claims under the new presumptions within the next 12-28 months, and the department also plans to review up to 90,000 previously denied claims for the presumptive conditions.
VA encourages potentially affected veterans to file their claims today to help expedite the process. AMVETS National Service Officers stand ready to assist potentially affected veterans in navigating the claims process at VA Regional Offices nationwide. To find you nearest AMVETS National Service Officer, visit http://www.amvets.org/service/national_ ... icers.html.
About AMVETS:
A leader since 1944 in preserving the freedoms secured by America’s armed forces, AMVETS provides support for veterans and the active military in procuring their earned entitlements, as well as community service and legislative reform that enhances the quality of life for this nation’s citizens and veterans alike. AMVETS is one of the largest congressionally-chartered veterans’ service organizations in the United States, and includes members from each branch of the military, including the National Guard and Reserves. To learn more visit www.amvets.org.
TRICARE is a health benefit program for all seven uniformed services: the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, Public Health Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. To use TRICARE, you must be listed in DEERS as being eligible for military health care benefits. If you don ’t find answers to your eligibility questions in this section, check with your military service personnel office for specific information.
TRICARE-eligible persons include the following:
* Active duty service members
Note: Active duty service members and activated National Guard or Reserve Members must enroll in one of the TRICARE Prime options:
o TRICARE Prime
o TRICARE Prime Remote
o TRICARE Prime Overseas
o TRICARE Global Remote Overseas
* Spouses and unmarried children of active duty service members
* Uniformed service retirees, their spouses, and unmarried children
* Medal of Honor (MOH) recipients and/or their families.
* Un-remarried former spouse and unmarried children of active duty or retired service members who have died Note: Family members of active duty service members who died while on active duty, and who were on active duty for at least 31 days before death, will continue to be treated as active duty family members for TRICARE cost-sharing purposes for 3 years after their active duty sponsor dies.
* Spouses and unmarried children of reservists and National Guard who are ordered to active duty for more than 30 consecutive days (they are covered only during the reservist ’s active duty tour) or of reservists and National Guard who die on active duty.
* Spouses and unmarried children of reservists and National Guard who die as a result of a line of duty condition may be eligible for health care.
* Persons who have received the Medal of Honor, and their family members, who are not otherwise TRICARE eligible. These persons will be able to obtain health care benefits under TRICARE in the same manner as if they were entitled to retired pay.
* Unmarried children up to age 21 (including stepchildren who are adopted by the sponsor) are still covered by TRICARE even if the spouse gets divorced or remarried. But in the case of a stepchild who was not adopted by the sponsor and the marriage ends in divorce, the stepchild loses eligibility on the date the divorce decree is final. It should be emphasized that stepchildren don ’t have to be adopted by the sponsor to be covered by TRICARE while the sponsor and the mother or father of the stepchildren remains married. A child aged 21 or over may be covered if he or she is severely disabled and the condition existed prior to the child ’s 21st birthday —or, if the condition occurred between the ages of 21 and 23 while the child was enrolled in a full-time course of study in an approved institution of higher learning and is, or was at the time of the sponsor ’s death, dependent on the sponsor for more than one-half of his or her support. A child may also be covered up to the 23rd birthday if he or she is in school full-time.
* Children placed in the custody of a service member or former member, by a court of law; or by a recognized adoption agency in anticipation of legal adoption by the member. TRICARE eligibility is effective July 1, 1994, if a court of law places the child. A child placed by a recognized adoption agency is eligible effective October 5, 1994.
* Children of current or former service members or their spouses born out of wedlock may be eligible for TRICARE benefits under certain conditions. Check with your Beneficiary Counseling and Assistance Coordinator (BCAC)/Health Benefits Adviser (HBA), or TRICARE Service Center (TSC).
* Certain family members of active duty service members who were court-martialed and separated for spouse or child abuse. The victims of the abuse within the family are eligible for health benefits for the period that the abused family member is receiving “transitional compensation ” under Section 1059 of Title 10, U.S. Code. Cost sharing will be the same as for other active duty families.
Click here to find out more!
* Certain abused spouses, former spouses, and dependent children of service members who were eligible for retirement, but had that eligibility taken away as a result of abuse of the spouse or child. This benefit is effective for medically necessary services and supplies provided under TRICARE Standard (CHAMPUS) on or after October 23, 1992.
* Spouses and children of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and "Partners for Peace" (PFP) nation representatives who are officially accompanying the NATO or PFP nation representatives while stationed in, or passing through, the United States on official business. These family members are eligible for outpatient benefits only (including ambulatory surgery). They are not listed in the DEERS files, and should check with a BCAC/HBA/TSC for assistance before getting care or filing claims. (NATO and PFP family members cannot enroll in TRICARE Prime.)
* Former spouses of active, retired or former military members may be eligible for TRICARE if they meet the following requirements:
1. Must not have remarried. (If remarried, the loss of benefits remains applicable even if the remarriage ends in death or divorce.)
2. Must not be covered by an employer-sponsored health plan.
3. Must not be the former spouse of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization or Partners for Peace nation member.
http://www.military.com/benefits/tricar ... ligibility
TRICARE Inpatient Costs Increase for Fiscal Year 2010
September 30, 2009
TRICARE Press Release
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Every year the costs for TRICARE-covered inpatient services are reviewed and are subject to change. For the coming fiscal year 2010, which runs from Oct. 1, 2009 to Sept. 30, 2010, the increase for some out-of-pocket costs paid by TRICARE Standard beneficiaries at civilian hospitals for inpatient care and inpatient behavioral health services is small.
For active duty family members using TRICARE Standard and TRICARE Extra, the daily cost share for inpatient admissions at civilian hospitals has increased from $15.65 to $16.30 per day or $25 per admission, whichever is greater. There is no charge for separately billed professional services.
The daily cost share for retirees, their families and other eligible beneficiaries using TRICARE Standard for inpatient admissions at civilian hospitals has increased from $535 to $645 per day or 25 percent of the total charge, whichever is less. Additionally, these beneficiaries pay 25 percent of the TRICARE-allowable charge for separately billed professional services.
The out-of-pocket costs for retirees, their families and other eligible beneficiaries for inpatient behavioral health services at low-volume civilian hospitals has increased from $193 to $197 per day or 25 percent of the billed charge, whichever is less.
For additional information about copayments and cost-shares for TRICARE-covered services, visit our website
http://www.military.com/news/article/tr ... -2010.html
Higher TRICARE premiums on Gates' cost-cut agenda
Last updated
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 - 6:00pm
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signaled that the department's fiscal 2012 budget request to be sent to Congress early next year will include recommendations to raise TRICARE premiums for some beneficiaries.
If past proposals are a reliable guide, the target of higher fees is likely to be military retirees rather than active duty families. The Bush administration had tried for three straight years to raise fees for working age retirees. Congress blocked those efforts.
Defense officials hope lawmakers, facing with mounting federal debt and tightening defense budgets, will be more receptive to the argument that TRICARE fees haven't been raised since they were set in 1995.
During a Pentagon press conference where he unveiled a host of initiatives to cut "overhead" in defense budgets, including shutting down the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., Gates said proposals to control burgeoning health care costs will be unveiled in the months ahead.
The issue arose when Gates was asked by a reporter when it would be time to control rising health care costs, either through TRICARE premium increases or reducing plan coverage. "Yesterday," Gates responded.
"Health-care reform is on my agenda," he added. It will be part of a new "track" of cost-cutting reforms identified by the Quadrennial Defense Review and endorsed by other reports for curbing defense spending.
"And so we have studies going on now...that will help shape our FY '12 budget submission. They involve logistics. They involve health care and personnel policies, more restructuring and organizational changes [and] continued acquisition reform."
Gates continued, "There are no sacred cows, and health care cannot be excepted" from cost-control plans, not to lower overall defense budgets but to free up funds for more pressing defense needs.
"Everybody knows that we're being eaten alive by health care. I believe there is a growing understanding on [Capitol] Hill about this. It cost us $19 billion in 2000 or 2001. It'll cost us over $50 billion in FY '11, and will cost us about $65 billion in FY '15. And particularly when the top line [of defense budgets] is only growing at a percent or thereabouts, it's unsustainable and therefore it has to be a part of our effort."
Dr. Jonathan Woodson, nominated to take charge of health care policy as the new assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, stayed mum on the hot-button issue of higher TRICARE fees during his Aug. 3 confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Asked by Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) how he would address rising health costs, Woodson said, "What we need to do is work with a number of constituents and try and stem rise of that cost." He referred to more cost-efficient "therapies" and addressing "waste in the way we deliver care because of the culture of medicine. And there's opportunity to decrease the variability of care that might result in cost savings."
Sen. John McCain, ranking committee Republican, said Woodson's major challenge will be getting costs under control. McCain questioned whether he can do it, given the steady rise of national health costs.
Woodson, an Army Reserve brigadier general and vascular surgeon who has deployed in most every recent conflict, is Army assistant surgeon general for force management, mobilization, readiness and reserve affairs.
In his written responses for the committee, Woodson said retirees and their families are 53 percent of all TRICARE beneficiaries and account for 57 percent of the DoD health care budget.
20-for-60 clarified
Last week I erred in describing a point made by the Defense Business Board task force in arguing that military retirement costs are unsustainable. A slide used by the task force listed among "unsustainable trends" the fact that the government pays "the military and their families for 60 years to serve for only 20 years."
I had rephrased the point awkwardly, leaving the impression that the task force assumes retirees draw retired pay for an average of 60 years. I heard from many retirees angered by that false notion.
The point Arnold Punaro, task force chairman, more tried to make with that slide is in the transcript of his presentation to the board:
"This system encourages our military to leave at 20 years, when they are most productive and experienced, and then pays them and their families, and their survivors, for another 40 years," he told the board.
Chapter 61 concurrent receipt
In his defense budget request last February, President Obama called on Congress again to phase in "concurrent receipt" - payment of some military retired pay in addition to disability compensation -- for 103,000 "Chapter 61" veterans, those of them forced by service-connected disability to retire short of 20 years.
But the administration disappointed advocates for this change, including Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, by not identifying new money or else "offsets" from other entitlement accounts to pay for this change. The estimated cost is $5.4 billion over the first 10 years. As a result, neither the House nor Senate version of the defense bill, at least so far, authorizes Obama's CR initiative.
House Democrats did try to slip it into the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act (HR 4213). But in final negotiations with the Senate over this bill, only an extension of federal unemployment benefits survived.
Uncomfortably for some, the president still took credit for his unfunded effort in a speech before the Disabled American Veterans convention Aug. 2.
"We've kept our promise on concurrent receipt by proposing legislation that would allow severely disabled retirees to receive your military retired pay and your VA disability benefits. It's the right thing to do," he said to applause.
Right thing to do, say vet advocates. But it hasn't yet been done.
To comment, send e-mail to milupdate@aol.com or write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120-1111.
VA PUBLISHES AGENT ORANGE PRESUMPTION GUIDELINES
AMVETS applauds extension of benefits for exposed Vietnam veterans
LANHAM, Md., Aug. 30, 2010—This morning the Department of Veterans Affairs published its final guidelines in the Federal Register, outlining how VA will handle benefits claims for presumptive conditions resulting from exposure to the dangerous defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
AMVETS leaders applauded the decision to extend benefits to veterans suffering from three new presumptive conditions-- Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease, and chronic lymphocytic leukemias, including all chronic B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia.
“The latest presumptions will finally ensure that veterans exposed to Agent Orange will be cared for and appropriately compensated through the VA system,” said AMVETS National Commander Jerry Hotop. “AMVETS now urges Congress to approve VA’s guidelines so that veterans can start to receive the care and benefits they deserve.”
Congress has 60 days to review the new guidelines before VA can start to pay the new benefit. The Senate is currently scheduled to review the new regulations in a hearing on Sept. 23 and VA expects to be able to process its first new presumptive claims by November.
For new claims, VA may pay benefits retroactive to the effective date of the regulation or to one year before the date VA receives the application, whichever is later. For pending claims and claims that were previously denied, VA may pay benefits retroactive to the date it received the claim.
Any veteran who served in Vietnam between Jan. 9, 1962, and May 7, 1975, is presumed to have been exposed to herbicides like Agent Orange. Under the new regulation, a veteran who served in Vietnam during that time period who has developed a presumptive condition will not need to prove that the condition was a direct result of herbicide exposure.
Critics of the new presumptions are concerned that veterans suffering from conditions like ischemic heart disease could have developed the condition through causes other than herbicide exposure. However, AMVETS believes the presumption should remain, even if a handful of undeserving veterans could receive benefits.
“We know Agent Orange can lead to these problems, which is why VA created the presumptions based on years of hard evidence,” said Hotop. “To AMVETS, that’s enough. We would rather see a veteran who developed the condition under questionable circumstances receive care and compensation than put one more deserving Vietnam veteran through the ordeal of proving whether or not his particular disease resulted from Agent Orange exposure nearly three decades ago.”
VA expects more than 150,000 veterans to file claims under the new presumptions within the next 12-28 months, and the department also plans to review up to 90,000 previously denied claims for the presumptive conditions.
VA encourages potentially affected veterans to file their claims today to help expedite the process. AMVETS National Service Officers stand ready to assist potentially affected veterans in navigating the claims process at VA Regional Offices nationwide. To find you nearest AMVETS National Service Officer, visit http://www.amvets.org/service/national_ ... icers.html.
About AMVETS:
A leader since 1944 in preserving the freedoms secured by America’s armed forces, AMVETS provides support for veterans and the active military in procuring their earned entitlements, as well as community service and legislative reform that enhances the quality of life for this nation’s citizens and veterans alike. AMVETS is one of the largest congressionally-chartered veterans’ service organizations in the United States, and includes members from each branch of the military, including the National Guard and Reserves. To learn more visit www.amvets.org.
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J.B. Stone - Posts: 47789
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 10/ 01/ 10 12:02 pm
GOOD LUCK...
Veteran's Beat: Help for veterans a phone call away
September 5, 2010
http://www.hudsonhubtimes.com/news/article/4888883
by Ron Seman
FAQ, which many organizations use to anticipate your questions and to hopefully provide some answers, stands for Frequently Asked Questions. And the questions never stop. With that in mind, I am providing some toll free numbers for contacting the Department of Veterans Affairs.
* VA Benefits: 800-827-1000.
This number will assist you in getting information on burial; Civilian Health and Medical Programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs or CHAMPVA, death pension, dependency indemnity compensation, direct deposit, directions to VA benefits regional offices, disability compensation, disability pension, education, home loan guaranty, life insurance, medical care, and vocational rehabilitation and employment.
* Beneficiaries in receipt of pension benefits: 877-294-6380.
* Education (GI Bill): 888-442-4551.
* Health care benefits: 877-222-8387.
* Income verification and means testing: 800-929-8387.
* Life insurance: 800-669-8477.
* Mammography Hotline: 888-492-7844.
* Special Issues, including Gulf War, Agent Orange, Project Shad, mustard agents and Lewisite/ionizing radiation: 800-749-8387.
* Status of headstones and markers: 800-697-6947.
* Telecommunications device for the deaf: 800-829-4833.
For health care services, contact your nearest VA medical facility. In the Greater Cleveland area: Louis Stokes VA Medical Center, 10701 East Boulevard, Cleveland, 216-791-3800; or the Brecksville VA Medical Center, 10000 Brecksville Road, Brecksville, 440-526-3030.
* * *
On Aug. 2, President Obama announced the "Blue Button" capability that allows veterans to download their personal health information from their MyHealtheVet accounts. VA developed the Blue Button in collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Defense, along with the Markle Foundation's Consumer Engagement Workgroup.
The MyHealtheVet personal health record is comprised of self-entered health metrics, including blood pressure, weight, and heart rate, emergency contact information, test results, family health history, military health history, and other health related information. The Blue Button extract that veterans can download is a so-called ASCII text file, the easiest and simplest electronic text format.
Blue Button PHRs can be printed, or saved on computers and portable storage devices. Having control of this information enables veterans to share this data with health care providers, caregivers, or people they trust.
On Aug. 29, VA made the Blue Button available on the VA's website. Throughout the month of September, veterans can log in to their MyHealtheVet account and try out the Blue Button. In early October, VA and CMS will officially roll-out the Blue Button download feature at the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco.
For more information, visit the Blue Button Challenge website, www4.va.gov/bluebutton.
Veteran's Beat: Help for veterans a phone call away
September 5, 2010
http://www.hudsonhubtimes.com/news/article/4888883
by Ron Seman
FAQ, which many organizations use to anticipate your questions and to hopefully provide some answers, stands for Frequently Asked Questions. And the questions never stop. With that in mind, I am providing some toll free numbers for contacting the Department of Veterans Affairs.
* VA Benefits: 800-827-1000.
This number will assist you in getting information on burial; Civilian Health and Medical Programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs or CHAMPVA, death pension, dependency indemnity compensation, direct deposit, directions to VA benefits regional offices, disability compensation, disability pension, education, home loan guaranty, life insurance, medical care, and vocational rehabilitation and employment.
* Beneficiaries in receipt of pension benefits: 877-294-6380.
* Education (GI Bill): 888-442-4551.
* Health care benefits: 877-222-8387.
* Income verification and means testing: 800-929-8387.
* Life insurance: 800-669-8477.
* Mammography Hotline: 888-492-7844.
* Special Issues, including Gulf War, Agent Orange, Project Shad, mustard agents and Lewisite/ionizing radiation: 800-749-8387.
* Status of headstones and markers: 800-697-6947.
* Telecommunications device for the deaf: 800-829-4833.
For health care services, contact your nearest VA medical facility. In the Greater Cleveland area: Louis Stokes VA Medical Center, 10701 East Boulevard, Cleveland, 216-791-3800; or the Brecksville VA Medical Center, 10000 Brecksville Road, Brecksville, 440-526-3030.
* * *
On Aug. 2, President Obama announced the "Blue Button" capability that allows veterans to download their personal health information from their MyHealtheVet accounts. VA developed the Blue Button in collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Defense, along with the Markle Foundation's Consumer Engagement Workgroup.
The MyHealtheVet personal health record is comprised of self-entered health metrics, including blood pressure, weight, and heart rate, emergency contact information, test results, family health history, military health history, and other health related information. The Blue Button extract that veterans can download is a so-called ASCII text file, the easiest and simplest electronic text format.
Blue Button PHRs can be printed, or saved on computers and portable storage devices. Having control of this information enables veterans to share this data with health care providers, caregivers, or people they trust.
On Aug. 29, VA made the Blue Button available on the VA's website. Throughout the month of September, veterans can log in to their MyHealtheVet account and try out the Blue Button. In early October, VA and CMS will officially roll-out the Blue Button download feature at the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco.
For more information, visit the Blue Button Challenge website, www4.va.gov/bluebutton.
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47789
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
by J.B. Stone » 04/ 21/ 11 5:43 pm
Gulf War illness is real, new federal report says
November 17, 2008|By Alan Silverleib CNN
An extensive federal report released Monday concludes that roughly one in four of the 697,000 U.S. veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War suffer from Gulf War illness.
That illness is a condition now identified as the likely consequence of exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered to protect troops against nerve gas.
The 452-page report states that "scientific evidence leaves no question that Gulf War illness is a real condition with real causes and serious consequences for affected veterans."
Disability Claim Denied?Free VA Disability Claim Assessment Get the Benefits You Deserve. www.VADisabilityAttorney.us
The report, compiled by a panel of scientific experts and veterans serving on the congressionally mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, fails to identify any cure for the malady.
It also notes that few veterans afflicted with Gulf War illness have recovered over time.
"Today's report brings to a close one of the darkest chapters in the legacy of the 1991 Gulf War," said Anthony Hardie, a member of the committee and a member of the advocacy group Veterans of Modern Warfare.
"This is a bittersweet victory, [because] this is what Gulf War veterans have been saying all along," Hardie said at a news conference in Washington. "Years were squandered by the federal government ... trying to disprove that anything could be wrong with Gulf War veterans."
The committee's report, titled "Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans," was officially presented Monday to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake.
Noting that overall funding for research into Gulf War illness has declined dramatically since 2001, it calls for a "renewed federal research commitment" to "identify effective treatments for Gulf War illness and address other priority Gulf War health issues."
According to the report, Gulf War illness is a "complex of multiple concurrent symptoms" that "typically includes persistent memory and concentration problems, chronic headaches, widespread pain, gastrointestinal problems, and other chronic abnormalities."
The illness may also be potentially tied to higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) -- more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease -- among Gulf War veterans than veterans of other conflicts.
The illness is identified as the consequence of multiple "biological alterations" affecting the brain and nervous system. iReport.com: Do you know someone affected by Gulf War illness?
November 17, 2008|By Alan Silverleib CNN
An extensive federal report released Monday concludes that roughly one in four of the 697,000 U.S. veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War suffer from Gulf War illness.
That illness is a condition now identified as the likely consequence of exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered to protect troops against nerve gas.
The 452-page report states that "scientific evidence leaves no question that Gulf War illness is a real condition with real causes and serious consequences for affected veterans."
Disability Claim Denied?Free VA Disability Claim Assessment Get the Benefits You Deserve. www.VADisabilityAttorney.us
The report, compiled by a panel of scientific experts and veterans serving on the congressionally mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, fails to identify any cure for the malady.
It also notes that few veterans afflicted with Gulf War illness have recovered over time.
"Today's report brings to a close one of the darkest chapters in the legacy of the 1991 Gulf War," said Anthony Hardie, a member of the committee and a member of the advocacy group Veterans of Modern Warfare.
"This is a bittersweet victory, [because] this is what Gulf War veterans have been saying all along," Hardie said at a news conference in Washington. "Years were squandered by the federal government ... trying to disprove that anything could be wrong with Gulf War veterans."
The committee's report, titled "Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans," was officially presented Monday to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake.
Noting that overall funding for research into Gulf War illness has declined dramatically since 2001, it calls for a "renewed federal research commitment" to "identify effective treatments for Gulf War illness and address other priority Gulf War health issues."
According to the report, Gulf War illness is a "complex of multiple concurrent symptoms" that "typically includes persistent memory and concentration problems, chronic headaches, widespread pain, gastrointestinal problems, and other chronic abnormalities."
The illness may also be potentially tied to higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) -- more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease -- among Gulf War veterans than veterans of other conflicts.
The illness is identified as the consequence of multiple "biological alterations" affecting the brain and nervous system. iReport.com: Do you know someone affected by Gulf War illness?
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47789
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
Re: GULF WAR SYNDROME STUDIES...
by J.B. Stone » 12/ 21/ 11 6:37 am
Some useful contacts for important programs
December 18, 2011
Veterans Beat
by Ron Seman
The need to be informed about a myriad of veterans programs, from the local, state and national levels, keeps all of us in the dissemination of information business constantly on the watch for new, expanded or discontinued programs.
Individuals who work on the levels noted do their best to keep us up-to-date, but, at times we have to take the initiative to obtain the answers we want by contacting the seemingly endless number of agencies that work on our behalf.
With that in mind, here is a list of the information you can obtain by calling the following phone numbers for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
* VA Benefits: 800-827-1000. This number will assist you in getting information on Burial; Civilian Health Medical Programs of the VA (CHAMPVA); Death Pension; Dependency Indemnity Compensation; Direct Deposit; Directions to VA Benefits Regional Offices; Disability compensation; Disability Pensions, Education; Home Loan Guaranty; Life Insurance; Medical Care; and Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment.
* Beneficiaries in receipt of Pension Benefits: 877-294-6380.
* Education (GI Bill): 888-442-4551.
* Health Care Benefits: 877-222-8387.
* Income Verification and Means Testing: 800-929-8387.
* Life Insurance: 800-669-8477.
* Mammography Hotline: 888-492-7844.
* Special Issues -- Gulf War/Agent Orange/Project Shad/Mustard Agents and Lewisite/Ionizing Radiation: 800-749-8387.
* Status of Headstones and Markers: 1-800-697-6947.
* Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TCD): 800-829-4833.
For health care services, in the Greater Cleveland area, contact the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center, 10701 East Blvd., Cleveland. Phone: 216-791-3800.
In addition, you can enlist the services of a Veterans Service Officer (VSO) who work at the job of assisting veterans everyday of the year. They are paid by their respective veterans organizations and are located in the A.J. Celebrezze Federal Building downtown at East 9th Street and Lakeside Avenue.
There is no charge for enlisting the assistance of the service officer. And you need not be a member of the organization that provides the help.
So, if you have a question about any veterans program, feel free to call one of these dedicated individuals, who by the way, are all veterans. The VSO can help you fill out VA forms, tell you about VA benefits, and provide a wide range of help for veterans and their dependents.
Don't be bashful about accepting the benefits and entitlements you earned as part of your service to this nation. You need not feel as though you are receiving "handouts."
Many state, county and local governments also have trained personnel in their veterans departments who can help. Check the government section of the telephone directory for these agencies in your area.
You may want to keep this column handy for future reference.
* American Legion: 216-522-3504.
* AMVETS: 216-522-3500.
* Disabled American Veterans: 216-522-3507.
* Jewish War Veterans: 216-522-2446.
* Military Order of the Purple Heart: 216-522-7237.
* Vietnam Veterans of America: 216-522-3119.
* VFW: 216-522-3510
* * *
Items for this column can be mailed to Ron Seman, 5811 Renwood Drive, Parma 44129, or email: SemanRJ@aol.com.
Remember our men and women serving America in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and at other posts around the globe. Keep them in your daily prayers.
I know many of our readers are engaged in the rush to finish their Christmas shopping and plan for the New Year celebration. So, let me, at this time, wish you and your families a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and Happy Kwanzaa!
Thanks for your generous support of the Veterans Beat column, and my mission to keep veterans and their families up-to-date on news that affects their lives. God bless.
http://www.tallmadgeexpress.com/news/article/5136455
December 18, 2011
Veterans Beat
by Ron Seman
The need to be informed about a myriad of veterans programs, from the local, state and national levels, keeps all of us in the dissemination of information business constantly on the watch for new, expanded or discontinued programs.
Individuals who work on the levels noted do their best to keep us up-to-date, but, at times we have to take the initiative to obtain the answers we want by contacting the seemingly endless number of agencies that work on our behalf.
With that in mind, here is a list of the information you can obtain by calling the following phone numbers for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
* VA Benefits: 800-827-1000. This number will assist you in getting information on Burial; Civilian Health Medical Programs of the VA (CHAMPVA); Death Pension; Dependency Indemnity Compensation; Direct Deposit; Directions to VA Benefits Regional Offices; Disability compensation; Disability Pensions, Education; Home Loan Guaranty; Life Insurance; Medical Care; and Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment.
* Beneficiaries in receipt of Pension Benefits: 877-294-6380.
* Education (GI Bill): 888-442-4551.
* Health Care Benefits: 877-222-8387.
* Income Verification and Means Testing: 800-929-8387.
* Life Insurance: 800-669-8477.
* Mammography Hotline: 888-492-7844.
* Special Issues -- Gulf War/Agent Orange/Project Shad/Mustard Agents and Lewisite/Ionizing Radiation: 800-749-8387.
* Status of Headstones and Markers: 1-800-697-6947.
* Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TCD): 800-829-4833.
For health care services, in the Greater Cleveland area, contact the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center, 10701 East Blvd., Cleveland. Phone: 216-791-3800.
In addition, you can enlist the services of a Veterans Service Officer (VSO) who work at the job of assisting veterans everyday of the year. They are paid by their respective veterans organizations and are located in the A.J. Celebrezze Federal Building downtown at East 9th Street and Lakeside Avenue.
There is no charge for enlisting the assistance of the service officer. And you need not be a member of the organization that provides the help.
So, if you have a question about any veterans program, feel free to call one of these dedicated individuals, who by the way, are all veterans. The VSO can help you fill out VA forms, tell you about VA benefits, and provide a wide range of help for veterans and their dependents.
Don't be bashful about accepting the benefits and entitlements you earned as part of your service to this nation. You need not feel as though you are receiving "handouts."
Many state, county and local governments also have trained personnel in their veterans departments who can help. Check the government section of the telephone directory for these agencies in your area.
You may want to keep this column handy for future reference.
* American Legion: 216-522-3504.
* AMVETS: 216-522-3500.
* Disabled American Veterans: 216-522-3507.
* Jewish War Veterans: 216-522-2446.
* Military Order of the Purple Heart: 216-522-7237.
* Vietnam Veterans of America: 216-522-3119.
* VFW: 216-522-3510
* * *
Items for this column can be mailed to Ron Seman, 5811 Renwood Drive, Parma 44129, or email: SemanRJ@aol.com.
Remember our men and women serving America in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and at other posts around the globe. Keep them in your daily prayers.
I know many of our readers are engaged in the rush to finish their Christmas shopping and plan for the New Year celebration. So, let me, at this time, wish you and your families a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and Happy Kwanzaa!
Thanks for your generous support of the Veterans Beat column, and my mission to keep veterans and their families up-to-date on news that affects their lives. God bless.
http://www.tallmadgeexpress.com/news/article/5136455
-
J.B. Stone - Posts: 47789
- Joined: 04/ 11/ 03 10:01 am
- Location: Northwest Montana
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