VA Secretary Wants to Use Funds for Budget Shortfall

The Department of Veterans Affairs is facing a $2.6 billion financial shortfall that it says is caused by increased veteran demand for healthcare. Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson plans to ask Congress for permission to use money from the Veterans Choice program to cover the funding gap, a measure that could hurt veterans with mesothelioma who seek treatment at a non-VA care facility.

The Veterans Choice program is the centerpiece of a $16.3 billion VA reform law approved by Congress last year in response to a VA scandal over long patient wait times and falsified records. Of the $16.3 billion, $10 billion was put into a fund that allows veterans who are unable to secure an appointment at a VA medical facility within 30 days or who live more than 40 miles from the nearest VA facility to seek care at a private hospital.

More recently Congress amended the legislation to define the 40-mile rule as actual driving distance, not “as the crow flies” distance. And the House is currently considering another amendment to the Choice program that would allow veterans living within 40 miles of a VA facility to seek care at a private facility if their local VA hospital does not offer the specific services they require, such as mental health or cancer treatment services. This would be very beneficial to veterans with mesothelioma who are only able to receive the specialized care they need at a handful of VA mesothelioma centers as well as those unable to get an appointment with a VA oncologist within 30 days.

Secretary Gibson, according to The Columbus Dispatch, says that the program got off to a rocky start, but has expanded significantly in recent months and is likely to expand even more. The ability of the program to meet the health needs of veterans with private care, however, whether they live in rural areas or simply cannot secure a timely appointment, would be hampered by the appropriation of $2.6 billion to other VA health care costs.

That’s more than one-quarter of the entire budget of the Choice program, which runs through August 2017 or until the $10 billion is used up. Using up $2.6 billion of that budget to adjust for what some are calling yet another example of VA mismanagement doesn’t add up for veterans helped by the Choice program.

While Gibson attributes the budget shortfall to increased demand at VA medical facilities—which he says has increased by 7 million appointments in the past year—others have been more critical of the VA.

“The VA’s problem isn’t funding—it’s outright failure,” said House Speaker John Boehner at a news conference. “Absolute failure to take care of our veterans.”

Wait times longer than 30 days for VA appointments have gone up by 50 percent in the last year, a clear sign that, whether due to bureaucratic missteps or more veterans seeking care, the Choice program is needed now more than ever.

Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, says that he is prepared to give the VA Choice program funds to pay for daily health care expenses, according to Stars and Stripes, but in return will demand changes to the way the VA manages its finances.

Veterans who need help paying for mesothelioma medical services at a non-VA facility are encouraged to contact Belluck & Fox, LLP for a free case review. A lawsuit against the companies responsible for your asbestos exposure could provide funds for medical care, lost wages and other expenses related to your illness.

Veterans may also be available for monthly compensation from the VA. Use our VA Benefit Tool to find out whether you qualify.

Sources:

The Columbus Dispatch
https://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2015/06/25/0625-va-budget-shortfall.html
Stars and Stripes
https://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/house-panel-supports-closing-va-s-2-6-billion-funding-gap-1.354590

Mesothelioma Nurse Honors American Veterans

November 11 is the day that Americans set aside for honoring our veterans. Today, less than one percent of the people in the United States serve in the military. Mesothelioma makes up less than one percent of all cancers, yet, approximately 33% of all U.S. mesothelioma victims are veterans. Using the often cited number of between 2,500 and 3,000 newly diagnosed mesothelioma cases per year, it would follow that between 750 and 1,000 of those patients are veterans who served our country.

Veterans, like mesothelioma victims, come from all socio-economic backgrounds, faiths, and walks of life. Over the years, it has always been an honor for me to care for our veterans and families that develop mesothelioma. After sacrificing for our country, decades before, they are then afflicted with mesothelioma.

In recent years, improvements have been made in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs system for caring for mesothelioma veterans whose diagnosis is service related. Claims are now fast-tracked, and the VA acknowledges that the condition is service-connected. Reach out and educate a veteran who is also diagnosed with mesothelioma about the possibility of benefits.

Don’t let today go by without remembering a veteran. This year, more so than in years past, there seems to be more public attention to honoring our veterans. Whether it is displaying a green light, or giving veterans free oil changes, it is a day to honor, and thank those few among us who continue to keep us safe by serving our country.

We would like to thank all our veterans, those currently serving in our military, and those attending our service academies. To choose to serve our country, when so many other avenues are open for young adults, is a source of inspiration for all of us.

If you have questions about your mesothelioma treatment or any aspect of your mesothelioma care, please email me at [email protected].

Know more about Mesothelioma and how you can deal with it.

Veterans Still Facing Long Wait Times at VA Facilities Despite Reforms

A year after it was revealed that sick patients at Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals were dying due to lack of care, the number of patients waiting more than 30 to 60 days for medical appointments remains flat, reports the Associated Press.

“VA statistics show that the number of patients facing long waits has not declined, even after Congress gave the department an extra $16.3 billion last summer to shorten waits for care,” writes the AP.

In April 2014 CNN reported that 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments with the Phoenix VA health system. A retired clinical director from that system told CNN that the Phoenix VA deliberately covered up delayed veteran care through a secret wait list.

The scandal grew to include VA facilities nationwide. An investigation by Senator Tom Coburn released in June 2014 concluded that over a 10-year period, VA misconduct resulted in 1,000 or more veteran deaths. An internal VA audit ordered by the White House found patient wait time manipulation at more than 60 percent of VA facilities investigated. It concluded there was a “systemic lack of integrity” within some facilities.

The findings resulted in the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and the $16.3 billion Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act. Signed into law by President Obama last August, the Act aims to speed up veteran access to healthcare by funding the hiring of more health care workers and allowing patients facing long delays to receive private sector care.

But according to a new report by the Associated Press, from August 1 to February 29 nearly 894,000 VA medical facility appointments did not meet the agency’s 30-day timeliness goal, including around 230,000 appointment delays of more than 60 days.

Delays were unequally distributed across the VA network, with a high percentage clustered in the Southern states of Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Facilities in these states accounted for fewer than 6 percent of patient visits but were responsible for 20% of the appointments delayed 60 or more days. Long wait times were also found at facilities in New Mexico and Colorado.

It’s worth noting that the VA is dealing with rising demand. VA system enrollees increased from 6.8 million in 2002 to 8.9 million in 2013. The VA added 800 doctors and 2,000 nurses between April and December and is building new health centers, but demand still seems to be outpacing capacity.

“We are doing a whole series of things…to deal with the immediate issue,” Sloan Gibson, Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs, told the AP. “But we need an intermediate term plan that moves us ahead a quantum leap, so that we don’t continue over the next three or four years just trying to stay up. We’ve got to get ahead of demand.”

The VA provides health care to nearly 9 million veterans. It also offers monthly compensation and other benefits to veterans.

You can use our online tool to find out whether you qualify for VA benefits.

13,000 North California Veteran Claims Ignored, Say Whistleblowers

Five whistleblowers at a Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) regional office in Oakland, California say that more than 13,000 veteran requests for disability benefits were deliberately—and illegally—not replied to, reports CBS News.

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/02/25/oakland-whistleblowers-say-veterans-being-denied-benefits

The Veterans Benefits Administration is the arm of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that provides disability compensation and other entitlements to former military members and their families.

Claimants are allowed to file what’s known as an informal claim with the VBA in order to establish an effective date for benefits. By law, the VBA must respond with a formal application to the claimant, who then has one year to complete the application. If the veteran’s claim is approved, he or she is entitled to a retroactive lump sum payment based on the effective date established by the informal claim.

But according to CBS, the Oakland VBA office ignored more than 13,000 informal claims received between 1996 and 2009. When a team was assigned to process those claims two year ago, supervisors told team members to mark them “no action necessary”.

One whistleblower, Rustyann Brown, said she voiced concerns over the claims and was taken off the project.

“We were getting letters from elderly veterans and from widows who were literally at the end of their life, begging for help,” Brown said. “The VA didn’t help them. The VA didn’t care about them. They took [the claims], they put them in a file, and they stuffed them away.”

Brown says that many of the veterans were owed money. At the very least, they were owed an answer from the VA.

Report Underscores Importance of Having VA Claims Representative

The VA’s recent history of claims mismanagement is one reason why veterans and their families should work with an experienced, VA-accredited claims representative.

Rather than filing an informal claim with the VA, your best chance of a successful benefits application lies in submitting all necessary documents at one time (known as a Fully Developed Claim, or FDC). A claims representative will make sure that all paperwork and evidence requirements needed to obtain VA benefits are properly filed and let you know what to expect next in the application process.

A claims representative helps not only veterans but also their survivors. In some cases, the spouses and children of deceased veterans are not even aware that they are entitled to benefits.

The CBS report describes how Dorrie Stafford, whose husband’s claim was ignored by the Oakland VBA, didn’t realize there was such a thing as widow benefits. These benefits include things like help with burial expenses, monthly compensation, and educational assistance.

And veterans themselves may not be aware that having an asbestos-related disease such as mesothelioma or lung cancer can entitle them to disability compensation.

Veterans and survivors can find out whether they qualify for disability compensation and get started with the application process using our VA benefits guide.

Please keep in mind that receiving VA benefits does not disqualify you from filing a lawsuit against the asbestos companies responsible for your asbestos exposure.

If you have questions about benefits or applying for them, or you want to know more about an asbestos lawsuit, please contact Belluck & Fox.

You served your country. Now we are here to help you.

Survivor of Royal Navy Vessel Sunk in WWII Succumbs to Mesothelioma

A former serviceman who survived the sinking of a battleship torpedoed by Germans in the Second World War recently died at his home in Berkshire, England of the asbestos-related disease mesothelioma.

Herbert Pocock was one of 1,200 crewmembers aboard the HMS Royal Oak in October 1939 when it was sunk by a German U-Boat in Scapa Flow, a harbor in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, that served as a deep water anchorage for Royal Navy ships during World War II. More than 800 men died in the nighttime attack.

One of fewer than 400 survivors of the sinking, Mr. Pocock, according to an article in the Scotsman, considered himself to be a very lucky man. But more than 75 years after he narrowly escaped with his life from the Royal Oak, it turns out that Pocock’s service to his country did, in the end, cost him his life, as a coroner ruled that his death was the result of asbestos.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/scapa-flow-torpedo-survivor-killed-by-asbestos-1-3610691

Coroner Peter Bedford found in his post-mortem examination of Pocock that the former Royal Navy engineer had malignant mesothelioma on his right lung as well as asbestos fibers in his tissue.

“As soon as I hear Royal Navy and engineer, that is a known link to asbestos,” Bedford told the Scotsman. “His exposure to asbestos is a result of his employment at some point in the past.”

Navy Veterans Diagnosed With Mesothelioma at a High Rate

Asbestos is the only known cause of mesothelioma, a cancer that’s rare in the general population but not among certain groups of workers, including Navy veterans. In fact, Military.com reports that veterans make up just 8% of the entire U.S. population but represent around one-third of all U.S. mesothelioma deaths. And among veterans, Navy veterans are the highest risk group for asbestos-related diseases.

The reason for this is that virtually all Navy ships commissioned between 1930 and 1980 contained asbestos-containing materials. In Navy vessel engine rooms and boiler rooms, asbestos was used on pumps, valves, boilers and turbines. Valves and pumps also had asbestos gaskets and packing.

If you worked aboard a Navy vessel with asbestos, particularly in the engine or boiler room, there is a very good chance that you inhaled asbestos fibers. Civilian shipyard workers who built and maintained Navy vessels may also have been exposed to asbestos. There is even a risk of exposure among the family members of Navy veterans and shipyard workers because asbestos fibers may have been carried home on clothing.

With a latency period of 15-60 years, mesothelioma is difficult to diagnose, especially because symptoms, such as chest pain and a persistent cough, can mimic those of less-severe respiratory ailments. Herbert Pocock, for example, in recent years suffered with fluid on his lungs—a symptom of mesothelioma—but a diagnosis was never made.

Contact an Experienced Mesothelioma Attorney

If you were diagnosed with mesothelioma, the law firm of Belluck & Fox, LLP, can help. We are a nationally-recognized New York law firm that represents Navy veterans and shipyard workers in cases against asbestos companies that failed to provide warning of their products’ dangers. We’ve obtained substantial compensation for those harmed by asbestos, including a $32 million verdict for a Navy veteran.

For help with your claim, contact Belluck & Fox, LLP, today for a free consultation.

Category: Veterans