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VetsFirst strongly supports the efforts of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to end homelessness for veterans.
VetsFirst believes that by focusing on the needs of homeless veterans, many of whom have disabilities, more veterans with service-connected disabilities will receive the benefits and services needed to allow them to successfully reintegrate into their communities.
Access to VA disability compensation can provide critical financial resources for veterans with disabilities that are connected to their service. As a result, the VA must provide information about programs available to help veterans who are homeless to all community-based organizations that work with people who are homeless. Many community-based organizations are stretched to near breaking in their efforts to provide services. The resources available from the VA must be accessible to those who are on the front lines of this battle. The VA must also develop a variety of materials to educate providers about the special needs of homeless veterans.
Furthermore, the VA must ensure that veterans who contact the VA are made aware of community programs that can be of assistance. Programs available through other federal, state and local agencies may provide additional, immediate resources that could further assist veterans. These types of resources, including emergency services, are also important to preventing veterans from becoming homeless.
Ending homelessness among veterans will be a continuing battle to ensure that those who are able to receive needed supports are able to reintegrate into their communities and that robust interventions are in place to prevent additional veterans from becoming homeless. The VA must also continue to evolve to meet the changing face of homelessness and the unique needs of today’s veterans, including the increasing number of women who are serving and the prevalence of traumatic brain injuries among returning servicemembers. Unless homelessness remains at the forefront of program efforts for the foreseeable future, budget cuts and societal indifference could result in a return to homelessness for many veterans.
Just the facts: VetsFirst supports legislation that will provide the resources and tools needed to eliminate homelessness for veterans, including the Homeless Veterans and Other Health Care Authorities Act of 2010 (S. 1237), which includes provisions of the Zero Tolerance for Veterans Homelessness Act of 2009 (S. 1547), and the End Veteran Homelessness Act of 2010 (H.R. 4810), which includes provisions from H.R. 2504; Help Our Homeless Veterans Act (H.R. 2559), as amended; H.R. 2735, as amended; and H.R. 3906.
Heather Ansley
The VetsFirst Team
The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have passed the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 (S. 1963), which includes critical supports for caregivers of veterans with disabilities. VetsFirst has advocated for the passage of this legislation and is hopeful the President will quickly sign the compromise bill.
As urged by VetsFirst, the legislation includes at least some supports for caregivers of veterans from all eras. Caregivers for eligible veterans of all eras will have access to education sessions, support services, counseling, mental health services and respite care. VetsFirst believes that providing these tools to caregivers will ensure that veterans receive quality supports and services in their homes and communities.
The legislation also provides certain caregivers of OEF/OIF veterans who have a serious injury, such as a traumatic brain injury, with a monthly stipend and access to medical care.
Veterans have the right to receive their services and supports in the least restrictive environment. Most people with disabilities want to live in their homes and have the opportunity to be a part of their communities. Although funding services for caregivers requires an upfront investment, the long-term gains that result from assisting veterans with disabilities in their efforts to reintegrate into their communities are significant.
In addition to the new caregiver benefits, the legislation also seeks to expand and improve care for women veterans who seek care through the VA. The legislation also improves access to mental health services and eliminates the ability of the VA to demand copayments from veterans who have catastrophic disabilities.
VetsFirst will continue to advocate for legislation that ensures that veterans from all eras, their families and dependents have access to vital services and supports.
Last month, VetsFirst submitted written testimony to the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees detailing our 2010 public policy priorities. A major priority for VetsFirst is to continue to improve access to health care for veterans with disabilities.
VetsFirst believes that veterans with disabilities must have access to needed health care services through the VA health care system. Specifically, veterans must be able to receive accessible physical and appropriate mental health services, including long-term services and supports (long-term care). In order to adequately perform these services, Congress must ensure that the VA has the appropriate staffing and resource levels to provide these benefits to veterans of all eras and genders.
Despite efforts to link veterans to the VA health care system, a substantial number of veterans are accessing health care through community-based, non-VA, providers and services. VetsFirst believes that the VA must fully recognize the importance of veterans being able to receive a wide variety of services in their communities and develop robust partnerships to ensure that these services will be available to veterans when and where they need them. At the same time, however, the VA must find better ways to reach out to veterans to make them aware of the assistance available. Partnering with non-VA providers that also serve veterans with disabilities would help individuals to learn about the VA and receive all of the services that they are eligible for as people with disabilities.
Better access to health care will ensure that veterans are able to maintain their health and functioning, thereby reducing the need for long-term services and supports. When long-term services and supports are required due to disability or age, most people want to live in and be a part of their communities. Evolving the VA’s system of long-term care to one that is more focused on community supports, funded by the VA, will ensure that veterans are receiving services and supports in the least restrictive setting appropriate to their needs.
Lastly, VetsFirst believes that streamlining the transition from soldier to veteran is an important step in making VA health care services accessible. Although the care of servicemembers and veterans is divided between the DOD and VA, it is the responsibility of these agencies to ensure that individuals’ needs are seamlessly met. The DOD and VA must diligently work toward the development and implementation of an electronic records system for medical information and service-related documentation sharing that will help veterans in filing for VA benefits and receiving proper VA health care.
VetsFirst will continue to fight for access to health care and other services and benefits that are critical for veterans with disabilities.
In future posts, we will explore additional VetsFirst public policy priorities.
VetsFirst, through its partnership with United Spinal Association, has joined in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure that veterans with disabilities are able to challenge denied VA benefits decisions in court. If the Supreme Court agrees to allow the appeal to proceed and rules in favor of the veteran who brought it, many veterans whose appeals are routinely dismissed will finally have their day in court.
“VetsFirst finds it intolerable that veterans who are perhaps the most deserving and in need of VA benefits and health care are denied their legal rights because of an overly rigid interpretation of a legal technicality,” said Paul J. Tobin, VetsFirst’s President and CEO.
The Supreme Court appeal centers around David L. enderson, a Korean War veteran who was discharged from the military because of severe mental illness. Almost 50 years later, still suffering from that condition, his claim for VA disability benefits was denied at the administrative and appellate levels. Upon receiving the VA’s complicated and confusing instructions for appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, Mr. Henderson missed the 120-day filing deadline by 15 days. The veterans court subsequently granted the VA’s request to dismiss the appeal because of the missed filing deadline.
Mr. Henderson appealed once more, this time to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Federal Circuit ruled that the 120-day filing deadline is absolute because a timely filed notice of appeal is the only way to confer jurisdiction over the appeal to the veteran’s court. The court based its decision on a Supreme Court case that made a similar finding – except that the appeal involved a convicted murderer who was appealing a procedural matter under criminal law.
Several judges in Mr. Henderson’s Federal Circuit decision vigorously dissented to the strict application of the 120-day veterans court deadline, finding it both “ironic and inhumane”.
Mr. Henderson has appealed the Federal Circuit’s decision to the Supreme Court. The first step in that process is to petition the Court to agree to review the appeal. If the Court agrees to do so, it will then decide the appeal on the merits. VetsFirst has filed a legal brief in support Mr. Henderson’s petition and argues that the principle of “equitable tolling” – a widely-applied legal doctrine that allows appeal deadlines to be extended because of the fundamental unfairness of strictly enforcing them in an individual case – should be applied to the veterans court appeals deadline.
“Since the Federal Circuit’s decision, the veterans court has been dismissing approximately two appeals per week because the veterans’ notice of appeal was not filed on time. Veterans who are not represented by a service organization or an attorney when they appeal a VA denial of benefits are at a distinct disadvantage. Even veterans with less than severe disabilities may find it difficult to understand and follow the complex appeals instructions that the VA sends them,” explained Tobin. “It is patently unfair to treat disabled veterans the same as murderers and other criminals when it comes to appealing denied VA benefits. Why must disabled veterans with meritorious appeals be held to strict deadlines when the VA is allowed to take years or even decades to adjudicate a veteran’s benefits claim?”, Tobin added.
It is likely that the Supreme Court will make a decision on Mr. Henderson’s petition for review before it recesses for the summer.
VetsFirst recently wrote to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Eric K. Shinseki demanding the VA must immediately change the way it provides notices and other information to claimants for VA benefits in order to comply with the law.
Recent federal court decisions have made it clear that Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires that individuals with disabilities may not be excluded from, denied access to, or be discriminated against when seeking benefits under any federal executive agency program on the basis of their disabilities.
The courts have ruled that federal agencies with benefits programs like the VA that rely on standard print written correspondence sent by regular mail do not satisfy their section 504 obligation to provide adequate notice and other important information to claimants for agency benefits. Rather, these agencies are required to provide “adequate alternative modes of communication” to ensure that claimants understand the significance of the notice.
In response to VetFirst’s demand, the VA, in a letter from its General Counsel, advised that the VA is committed to complying with the requirements of section 504 and the federal courts. In order to do this, the VA stated that it intends to partner with the American Council of the Blind to determine the best ways of addressing the issues raised in VetsFirst’s letter and that it will study other federal agencies’ best practices concerning crafting adequate alternative notices and other communications.
“We are gratified by the VA’s recognition of our concern that a large segment of claimants for VA benefits could have their benefits and health care jeopardized because they receive notices that are inaccessible to them because of the very disabilities that underlie their claims,” said Paul J. Tobin, VetsFirst’s President and CEO. “We intend to work closely with the VA to ensure that it promptly develops and implements adequate alternative communications that allow veterans and their family members to receive vitally needed benefits and health care earned through military service.” Tobin said.
VetsFirst was joined by United Spinal Association, Vietnam Veterans of America and the Veterans Law Section of the Federal Bar Association in its letter to Secretary Shinseki.
Terry Moakley |
As a service-connected quadriplegic veteran going on 43 years now, I’m the first to admit that I never thought much about Veterans’ Mortgage Life Insurance. I’ve been living in the same wheelchair-accessible house for nearly 30 years, so one might assume that my mortgage is nearly paid in full.
Not exactly. There was a legal separation and eventual divorce that happened 18 years ago, and to continue living in my accessible home, I had no better choice at the time than to re-finance my mortgage.
Then, after “flying solo” for the first 14 of those years, close friends re-introduced me to a beautiful lady I had seen occasionally in social situations over the previous 21 years. We were both single, and two years hence we were married.
Apart from being the luckiest man on the planet, not long after our wedding is when the U.S. economy started to tank, and among other reactions, mortgage interest rates began to come down. I had a relatively high rate in late 2008, with 12 years of payments remaining. By re-financing in January of 2009, I reduced my interest rate significantly enough that I was able to obtain a 15 year mortgage.
If I haven’t lost you yet, let me add that my new spouse is a bit younger than me, so my worries include the possibility that she will be left with a burdensome mortgage payment after my demise. Suddenly, Veterans’ Mortgage Life Insurance is very important to me, and I’m guessing to many more disabled veterans, too.
Sometime during the past couple of years, I also learned from a colleague that a service-connected vet whom we both knew passed on unexpectedly, reducing his family’s income to about 15% of what it was when our mutual acquaintance died.
However, there is hope. Two separate and significant increases in Veterans’ Mortgage Life Insurance (VMLI)—one to take place this year and the second in 2012—were included in the version of the Veterans’ Benefits Enhancement Act (H.R. 1037) that passed the U.S. Senate. Although H.R. 1037 has passed both the House and the Senate, final action awaits because of significant differences between the versions passed by each chamber. Please take a moment to write to your members of Congress and urge them to turn the bill as passed by the Senate into law as soon as possible. You will be protecting the future of families like mine if you do.
VetsFirst submitted written testimony last week to the House and Senate Committees on Veteran’s Affairs concerning our legislative priorities for 2010.
VetsFirst’s submission builds on our commitment to proactive advocacy on key issues that impact veterans with disabilities, their families and survivors. The five main advocacy areas include reforms to the VA claims system to address the claims and appeals backlog, improved access to health care, expanded employment opportunities for veterans, increased access to housing, and better supports for veterans’ families and survivors.
One of VetsFirst’s top priorities is to reform the VA benefits claims process. VetsFirst believes that implementing systemic reforms to the claims process is the key to ending the backlog. VetsFirst supports changes to both the manner in which claims are processed and the rules that govern claims adjudication. Without this two pronged strategy, the current problems will likely continue.
VetsFirst believes that there are some critical reforms that must be implemented to change the manner in which claims are processed. One of these reforms includes reorganization of the claims decision-making system so that each claim is processed by a single team that specializes in claims related to a particular disability. VetsFirst also believes that staff must receive increased training and that supervisors must be held responsible for continued patterns of error. Lastly, when evaluating employee performance, the quantity of claims processed must not overtake quality in importance or focus.
Although changes to the manner in which claims are processed must be implemented, VetsFirst also supports changes to the rules that govern claims adjudication. Specifically, VetsFirst believes that innovative approaches must he employed to create greater efficiency in both the procedural and substantive aspects of claims adjudication. An example of an innovative approach that VetsFirst believes should be explored is revising the evidentiary burdens of establishing entitlement to service connection. For example, removing the need to establish a nexus between the onset or aggravation of a disease, disability, or injury during active military services and medical evidence of a current diagnosis would remove a substantial burden from the veteran and the VA in the development of the evidence process.
VetsFirst will continue to pursue policies that ensure that veterans with disabilities are able to experience a greater sense of self-sufficiency and have access to needed services and benefits.
Stay tuned for more posts in the coming weeks exploring VetsFirst’s other advocacy priorities.
by Terry Moakley
When I became an individual with a physical disability in the late 1960s—a level C-6 quadriplegic as the result of a spinal cord injury—I was fortunate to go through an outstanding rehab program. By the time I left the VA Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Center nearest my home, I was able to provide some of my personal care, dress myself, move safely from my wheelchair to my bed and vice versa, drive my car, etc.
I was pretty independent back then, but still from the day I was discharged from the SCI Center, I needed a trained caregiver for a couple of hours per day, three times each week.
When my job took me out of town, I simply planned ahead by hiring a nurse or a nursing assistant and renting any needed medical equipment from a company in the city to which I was traveling. No sweat. I did this all the time, including for some fun and much-needed vacations.
I was also very lucky to have found some excellent caregivers over the years. The first nursing assistant I hired was with me for six years, and he left my employ to take care of his ailing spouse. Three other health professionals worked with me for 10, 13 and 16 years respectively. They were all wonderful people who became my friends as well.
Today, I’m not as independent as I used to be, but I can still come and go as I please, and I stay out of my spouse’s hair by serving on three Boards of Directors, including VetsFirst. Mostly, I’m blessed with a terrific wife who believes, “you take care of the one you love.” My lovely spouse is my primary caregiver and she provides tender, loving care every single day.
All caregivers, however, need a break, and many need critical supports like counseling and respite care. To help caregivers, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed “The Caregiver Assistance and Resource Enhancement Act,” H.R. 3155, and the U.S. Senate has passed “The Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act,” S. 1963.
Both bills contain language that would provide critical supports for caregivers of our nation’s severely disabled veterans, yet both have undesirable limitations: the House bill provides stipends and medical care only for caregivers of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans, with the authority to provide those benefits sunseting on October 1, 2012; and the Senate bill, while providing a full range of benefits for primary caregivers, only makes them available for caregivers of seriously disabled veterans who entered military service on or after September 11, 2001.
The House and Senate must each pass a bill with the same language before caregivers can get the help they need. A compromise is pretty obvious to me: a full range of caregivers benefits must be available to the caregivers of all seriously disabled veterans of all wartime periods, and without any sunset provisions. Please write to your Congressional representative and both of your Senators today to advocate this outcome. The caregivers of seriously disabled veterans have earned these benefits as much as their loved ones.
by Terry Moakley
VetsFirst Board of Directors Chair
Almost 43 years ago while serving in the United States Marine Corps, I dove into a river and fractured my neck at the sixth cervical vertebrae. I was face down in the water unable to move anything for what seemed like an eternity. Then, buddies from my platoon pulled me up the river bank to safety.
After a total of 19 months of acute care at a military hospital and rehab at a VA Spinal Cord Injury Center, I was discharged to my parent’s home as a “quadriplegic work-in-progress.” I had some self-care skills, enough to return to the local university to work on a degree that was paid in full through the VA Vocational Rehabilitation program. It was, as it turns out, a great investment since I worked from 1972 through 2008.
I started working the same year I was married. I remember thinking many times long before the wedding, “where will we live?” Again, I turned to the VA and gathered information about their Specially Adapted Housing grant. It was determined that I was eligible for this program and my options, to me anyway, were either to build a wheelchair-accessible home from scratch or to purchase an existing accessible home that was up for sale.
I found that existing wheelchair-accessible home in an ad in United Spinal Association’s newsletter. It was located 15 minutes from my parent’s home. We purchased it using the Specially Adapted Housing grant as a more-than-adequate down payment. Our monthly mortgage payment was manageable, but this, too, was thanks in large part to the equity investment made in my behalf by the VA Specially Adapted Housing grant.
For most of my “wheelchair life,” I have lived in only two houses. I lived in my first home until 1980 when I moved to my brand new, somewhat larger current home. The real value to me has not been the appreciation of the value of these houses but having a home where I could function at my maximum ability, and from which I could come and go easily so that I was able to be a productive, employed disabled veteran for 36 years. Having a wheelchair-accessible home has played a large part in my life of fulfillment.
The VA Specially Adapted Housing grant helps many seriously disabled veterans obtain a suitable home so that they can complete their long road back to community and productivity.
This grant helped me immensely. Congress, grow this important benefit so that today’s newest seriously disabled veterans can own the home that they need to experience success in their lives.
Just the Facts:
As of October 1, 2009, the Specially Adapted Housing maximum allowable grant is $63,780. VetsFirst strongly supports H.R. 1169, which would provide a significant increase in not only this housing grant program but also the Special Home Adaptation grant program and the grant to purchase an automobile. Under this proposed legislation, the maximum allowable Specially Adapted Housing grant would be increased to $180,000. The legislation is currently being considered by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is one of only a few federal agencies for which the President requested an overall spending increase for the coming fiscal year.
For fiscal year 2011, which begins on October 1, 2010, the President is seeking $125 billion for the VA. Specifically, the President is requesting $60.3 billion for discretionary spending for the VA, which is nearly on par with the $61.5 billion called for by veterans service organizations in the Independent Budget (IB). Discretionary funding is mainly used for health care for veterans. The President’s budget request also includes $64.7 billion in mandatory funding, which is spending mainly for disability compensation and pensions for veterans.
One of VetsFirst’s top public policy priorities is to reform the VA’s benefit claims process to reduce the backlog. The President’s budget requests $2.149 billion for the Veterans Benefits Administration’s (VBA) operating budget, which is one of the few categories for which more was requested than was suggested by the IB. The 27 percent increase over the last fiscal year is intended to help reduce the claims backlog. In 2011, the VA estimates that veterans will submit 1,319,000 claims, which would be a 30 percent increase from 2009. The VA believes that hiring additional staff members and better business practices will help decrease claims processing times. The budget request also includes $145 million for the creation of a paperless claims processing system.
Unfortunately, increases in funding and staffing levels for the VBA have not yet been effective in reducing the backlog of claims and appeals. According to the Government Accountability Office, the VA has made only limited progress in recent years toward decreasing average claims processing times. Although VetsFirst believes that VBA must have the resources necessary to meet the current challenges, the VA claims process and substantive regulations and adjudicative principles must also be reformed.
As the budget process continues to move forward, VetsFirst will continue to advocate for the level of funding the VA needs and the strategies that must be adopted to efficiently and effectively address the challenges facing today’s VA. Both the Senate and House Budget Committees will create budget resolutions that must be voted on by their respective bodies. Once a concurrent resolution is agreed to that reconciles any differences between the House and Senate passed resolutions, each body will vote on the concurrent resolution. Although not law, the concurrent resolution provides broad spending guidelines for the appropriations process.
Click here for more information about the President’s fiscal year 2011 budget.
Heather Ansley
The VetsFirst Team
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