Wednesday, February 29, 2012

VA Women Veteran Programs Update

The Department of Veterans Affairs has published a regulation officially amending VA’s medical benefits package to include up to seven days of medical care for newborns delivered by women Veterans who are receiving VA maternity care benefits. ―The regulation change makes formal the commitment VA made to women Veterans,‖ said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Erik K. Shinseki. ―This falls in line with the broad range of services VA is proud to offer women Veterans who have served this nation.‖ Newborn care includes routine post-delivery care and all other medically necessary services that are in accord with generally accepted standards of medical practice. The effective date of the rule is Dec. 19, 2011, but the regulation applies retroactively to newborn care provided to eligible women Veterans on or after May 5, 2011. VA has women Veterans program managers at every VA medical center to help women Veterans learn more about the health care benefits they have earned with their service. For more information about VA healthcare for women Veterans, visit http://www.womenshealth.va.gov.


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Friday, February 24, 2012

Physician Reimbursement Cuts Avoided:

On Wednesday, the president signed H.R. 3630 into law to extend current physician payment rates under Medicare and Tricare through the end of the year. In 1997 Congress instituted a plan known as the Sustainable Growth Rate to keep Medicare and Tricare reimbursement rates in line with inflation; however, the cuts envisioned have never been instituted. The bill signing averted an “all-at-once” cut of 27.4 percent in the amount reimbursed to doctors, which could have prompted more physicians to opt out of accepting Medicare and Tricare patients.



Wednesday, February 22, 2012

New Veteran Health Benefits Handbook:

The VA began mailing a personalized Veteran Health Benefits Handbook the last week of FEB to all veterans enrolled in VA health care. The new handbook is tailored specifically for each veteran and provides detailed information about the VA health services the veteran may be eligible to receive. The Veteran Health Benefit Handbook provides answers to common questions such as contact information for the Veteran's local facility, instructions on how to schedule appointments, guidelines for communicating treatment needs and an explanation of the veteran's responsibilities, such as co-pays, if applicable. For additional information about the Veterans Health Benefits Handbook refer to "http://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/assets/documents/publications/faq_veterans.pdf" or call VA at 1 877-222-VETS (8387).

Friday, February 17, 2012

President Barack Obama has proposed a $140.3 billion budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The $140.3 billion for FY2013 is roughly a 10% increase over the FY2012 request of $127 billion request for FY2012.
$1 billion over five years for a Veterans Job Corps, a new effort to leverage skills Veterans developed in military service for a range of jobs protecting and rebuilding America’s public lands. The initiative would put up to 20,000 Veterans to work on projects to restore America’s lands and resources.
The proposed budget would fund services for newly discharged veterans, continue the drive to end homelessness among veterans, improve access to benefits and services, reduce the disability claims backlog, improve the Department's collaboration with the Defense Department and strengthen its information-technology program that is vital for delivering services to Veterans.
The budget request includes $64 billion in discretionary funds, mostly for medical care, and $76 billion for mandatory funds, mostly for disability compensation and pensions.
If approved by Congress, the new spending levels would support a health care system with 8.8 million enrollees and! growing benefits programs serving nearly 12 million service members, veterans, family members and survivors, including the eighth largest life insurance program in the nation; education benefits for more than 1 million Americans; home loan guarantees for more than 1.5 million veterans and survivors; plus the largest national cemetery system in the country.
Highlights from the President's 2013 budget request for VA, include
Medical Care
The President's proposed budget seeks $52.7 billion for medical care, a 4.1 percent increase over the $50.6 billion approved by Congress for the current fiscal year, and a net increase of $165 million above the advance appropriations level already enacted for FY 2013.
For the next fiscal year, VA estimates 6.33 million patients will use VA for health care. About 610,000 of those patients will be Veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The budget request also would provide:
$403 million for the gender-specific health care needs of women Veterans, improving their access to services and treatment facilities;
$6.2 billion for mental health, a 5.3 percent increase in funding over the current level, making possible increased outreach and screenings, expansion of innovative technologies for self-assessment and symptom management of post-traumatic stress disorder, and enhancements to programs that reduce the stigmas of mental health;
$7.2 billion for long-term care, meeting VA's commitment to provide long-term care in the least restrictive and most clinically appropriate settings, such as non-institutional programs that serve a daily population of about 120,000 people;
$583 million in direct appropriations for medical research, which receives another $1.3 billion from other sources, with emphasis on research for traumatic brain injury, suicide prevention, PTSD and genomic medicine;
$792 million to support the activation of health care facilities, including new hospitals in New Orleans, Las Vegas, Denver and Orlando, Fla.
Funding in VA's major construction account of $396.6 million is provided to continue construction of new medical facilities at Seattle, Dallas, St. Louis and Palo Alto, Calif.


Monday, February 13, 2012

Examiner's Perspective Relating To PTSD

VA Compensation & Pensions Update


The following is written from a C&P (Compensation and Pension) examiner‘s perspective relating to psychiatric exams to assist veterans in navigating the VA system. It is also a good guideline for all VA exams. A little common sense and clarity of thinking will go a long ways towards getting you what you are entitled:

(1) Be on time or a little early.

(2) Be polite. Yelling at the examiner for the injustices you perceive will do nothing but alienate him/her.

(3) Curse at your risk. You can get your point across much better with proper English than you can with outlandish language.

(4) Keep in mind that your examiner is the person that is going to judge you. It's his/her job and that is why you are there. To be adjudicated fairly how would you like to be remembered? A skuzzy stereotypical veteran or a troubled one who is doing the best he/she can.

(5) Do not talk about alcohol or drug related issues. You are not there to be assessed for those problems. You are there to be assessed for your psychiatric functioning as today relates to your service history. If the examiner asks about alcohol or drugs, politely remind them that you are not there for those issues (assuming you've ever had them,) but for how impaired you are in your daily functioning. It's best to avoid even talking about them.

(6) Don't waste your time relating how badly you believe you've been mistreated. The examiner only has a short time to figure out how impaired you are and they need the facts. In coherent, concise, sentences, and not rambling rants that end nowhere.

(7) Answer the questions to the best of your ability. If you don't know say so.

(8) Be honest. Don't embellish your stories with fanciful tales. Just the facts please. Be able to document everything you tell the examiner. You may run into someone who checks stories out. If possible have letters from people you served with, unit diary copies of incidents that occurred during your time and space, and letters from family members. Family member letters usually don't add a lot of weight to your case because families are there to support you and examiners understands that.

(9) When responding to examiners you need to pick the worst moment of time relating to that question. You need to be rated for the worst times you have had. As an example, pick a really bad day you have experienced and relate all of your answers to that day. Such as, the day you could not sleep, was anxious and startled easily, was grouchy to your wife and friends, you felt like your heart was coming out of your chest, and nothing went right for you. That day should have been in the last 30-90 days. If it was a year ago you may not need to be having this exam.

(10) Remember when you are asked, ―ow are you doing today?‖ to report how you REALLY are doing and not how you'd like to be doing. Most veterans want to be doing MUCH better than they really are. It's like they know they can be doing better, and have done better, but their pride does not want to let anyone know how badly they really are doing

(11) Ask if it would be okay to have your husband/wife in the room with you during the exam. Husbands and wives can tell the truth much better than the veteran. Ask your spouse how well you've done in the past ten days versus your own opinion of how you've been doing. Quite a dramatic difference if you are truthful!


The questions you are being asked are on a script in front of the examiner. After examiners do this for a while they get a sense of what is in front of them. It's not too difficult to determine when someone is flat out lying and when they are struggling with memory. Examiners can be scammed but the scammers often pay a price. It's a Federal criminal act to lie in order to gain monetary compensation. And the odds are you will be prosecuted. It simply isn't worth it. Examiners are generally good people trying to do a very difficult job. Make it easy for them. [Source: Mountain Home AFB Counselor Steve A. Neff, MSW Dec 2011 ++]


Friday, February 3, 2012



Do You Qualify For VA Health Care?

Answer a few questions to find out if you qualify for free or low-cost health care benefits from the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
1. Are any of these statements true?
  • You served in the active military, naval, or air service and were honorably discharged or released
  • You were/are a Reservist or National Guard member and you were called to active duty by a Federal Order (for other than training purposes) and you completed the full call-up period