By Jim Fausone

 We get asked a lot of questions and try to answer as many as possible by email.  We have also provided answers to FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on our website.  You can also get answers on YOUTUBE. We are now posting short videos that answer common questions and explain some of the inside information on veterans benefits.  Please see if we can answer your questions by checking out our YouTube channel.   http://www.youtube.com/user/LegalHelpForVeterans

by Kristina Derro

An article in The Denver Post highlighted the recent award an Army veteran received for having a surgical clamp left in his chest after surgery at the Denver VA Medical Center—only $130,000. It is astounding as to how little an injury like that is actually worth in the eyes of the VA.

 In order to get $130,000 the veteran had to proceed to trial. Prior to trial, VA only offered $100,000 for settlement. After going through a rigorous and costly three-day trial, the federal judge awarded the veteran $130,000.

 The news article explained that the veteran was disappointed with the award by the judge. Rightly so, considering the fact that the surgical clamp is still inside his chest, because doctors told him that it was too risky to be removed since it was embedded in the muscle.

 Read the article in its entirety:  http://www.denverpost.com/courts/ci_15834692?source=email

by Jim Fausone

Our local VARO is representative of others around the country.  Detroit is better than many from our experience.  VA nationally reports its accuracy rate on disability claims of 83% so it makes errors 17% of the time.   A recent VA IG report is troubling as Detroit had a 21% error rate. The VA IG found in Detroit:

Management did not timely train Rating Veterans Service Representatives (RVSR) regarding new procedures for evaluating traumatic brain injury (TBI) claims despite VBA issuing new guidance in January 2009. Also, staff needs to improve the processing of temporary 100 percent disability evaluations.

VARO staff did not accurately process claims for 25 (21 percent) of 120 claims reviewed. We identified nine additional claims processing inaccuracies attributable to claims redistributed to other VAROs to complete for workload management reasons.

Management also needs to strengthen controls over the following areas:

• Establishing mail procedures to ensure staff timely record Notices of Disagreement (NODs) for appealed claims in the Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System (VACOLS);
• Correcting errors identified by VBA’s Systematic Technical Accuracy Review (STAR) Program; and
• Processing incompetency determinations.

 Read more at http://www4.va.gov/oig/publications/report-summary.asp?id=3668

We know in Detroit if you make automobiles with 21% defects it is not acceptable.  You will go out of business and the competition will eat your lunch.  The Detroit VARO and those around the country need to get to an acceptable error rate so they do it right 99 %  of the time,  not 83% .

by Jim Fausone

The VA is in the process of finalizing new rules that liberalize evidentiary standards for proving stressors in claims for PTSD. The goal is to lessen the burden of proving stressors when the basis of the claim is fear of military action and terrorist’s actions.  The VA has recently issued a Frequently Ask Questions (FAQ) fact sheet. It is worth reading but it will not answer all your questions.   http://www.va.gov/PTSD_QA.pdf

Also this week in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of veterans’ service organizations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit instructed VA to issue by Sept. 1 a final regulation authorizing payment of claims for AO exposure for ischemic heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, or B-cell leukemia for any veteran who stepped foot in Vietnam during the war, or their survivors. 

VA has been urging veterans with these diseases to file claims immediately because payments, when they begin, will be retroactive to the filing date. VA lawyers did concede to the court that VA had missed several deadlines set in the Agent Orange Act for reviewing the latest science report and for publishing rules to expand claims eligibility to these diseases.

By Kristina Derro

Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC is organizing a free event in September that is sponsored by the Canton Community Foundation and the Holbrook Charitable Trust. It will be an opportunity for veterans, their friends, and their family to get together to learn about all the various benefits that are available from VA. The topics will include service-connected benefits, pension, healthcare, various social services, aid and attendance, and housing options.

It will be held September 22, 2010 in Livonia, Michigan at Laurel Manor Banquet and Conference Center. While the event is free, attendees do need to register. For further information and to register, individuals can either access Canton Community Foundation’s website at www.cantonfoundation.org or call them at 734.495.1200

By Jim Fausone

 It has been almost twenty years since the Gulf War, last year the VA once again reviewed how it was handling GW veteran claims.  In August, VA announced three new Gulf War illness studies:

 • A five-year study on the impact of resistance-exercise training to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain.

• A four-year study on therapies to enhance mood and memory, aiming to improve cognitive function and reverse depressive and anxiety-like behaviors with anti-depressants, antioxidants and exercise.

• A two-year pilot on “mindfulness-based stress reduction.”

More studies is not really the answer. In May 2010 , a VA report recommended seven areas in need of attention on GW claims. Then VA  released new training documents for doctors and claims adjudicators that explain environmental factors troops may have been exposed to, as well as how to document and get benefits for those veterans. Let VA simply give the benefit of the doubt to the GW veteran as it is required by law. We don’t need more studies and more training documents.

http://www.armytimes.com/benefits/health/military_gulfwarvets_VA_080310w/

By Kristina Derro

An article published in “USA Today” reviewed the recent findings from an Army study. http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-07-29-army-suicides_N.htm?POE=click-refer The study found that in 2009, 160 active-duty soldiers committed suicide, 146 more died during “risky activity” such as drug use, and 1,713 soldiers attempted suicide. The study found that a record high number of suicides are linked to a “permissive” Army environment where soldiers use alcohol and drugs, commit crimes, and refuse to get psychological help.

General Peter Chiarelli was quoted as saying that “[w]e must realize that on occasion we need to do the right thing for both the soldier and the Army through firm enforcement of discipline, retention, and separation policies”. The Army determined that the push to prepare and deploy troops into combat zones has caused commanders to become lax on prosecuting disciplinary cases, completing paperwork on disciplinary cases, doing unannounced urinalysis testing, and checking barracks.

The report found that too many soldiers who failed drug tests or committed crimes were allowed to remain in the Army because the Army was focused on a commitment to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and allowed routine oversight of soldier behavior to lapse. The report continued, explaining that “[s]oldiers who ultimately take their lives have typically been engaging in high-risk behavior long before their tragic end….Ultimately it poses the question: Where has the Army’s leadership in garrison gone?”

 It seems that yet another Army study has missed the mark, to put it lightly. Claiming that soldiers who commit suicide are engaged in “high-risk” behaviors beforehand is ludicrous and seems to imply that the Army is filled with drug addicts who engage in criminal behavior. Perhaps if the Army investigated what it alluded to in the article—a push to keep its soldiers in combat—it would find the true reason behind the high suicide rate. Mental health concerns have skyrocketed in the Army. With both long and repeated deployments, soldiers face the rigors of war on a daily basis, sometimes for years on end. It’s understandable that depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder are on the rise, leading soldiers to attempt suicide or self-medicate through drinking and drugs.

While discipline and order belong in the Army, the Army should also investigate the way it handles mental health treatment. More access to services, less stigma or negativity if the soldier does seek treatment, and perhaps mandatory mental health treatment for returning combat soldiers would all help lessen the increasing levels of mental health concerns. Less mental health concerns in turn means less self-medicating and less suicide.

by Jim Fausone

About 1.8 million women have served in the U.S. military.  Over the last few years 245,000 female soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.  It is estimated that within a decade, women will make up 16 percent of all veterans. As someone with a wife who has been in the military for over thirty years, this is old news. But the VA is now trying to address that it is not set up to deal with the upswing in female veterans.  Read about the VA efforts in a recent Washington Post article.

http ://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/28/AR2010072805872_2.html?hpid=topnews

by Jim Fausone

In late July 2010 the US House passed a funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Within the bill was $13.4 billion for the payment of benefits to Vietnam veterans and survivors for exposure to Agent Orange related to the three diseases recently added to the “presumptive-connection” list: Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease, and hairy cell/B cell leukemia.   Now the Congress has to reconcile the bill and the President has to sign it. But things are a step closer.

An estimated 86,069 people will be eligible to receive retroactive payments and 67,259 people will be eligible to receive new benefits.  Veterans with these diseases can file claims now.  You can contact us at www.legalhelpforveterans.com or for more information go to:  http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/