Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Forty if at you five kerosed talk station. Happy Happy Monday. Returning.
We've been talking to Todd Sledge from since Anava for
years and I'm going to miss when you retire, Todd.
But welcome back to the morning show. And you got
some information from my veteran friends. And let me start
with a question from Patrick, who's a listener. Ask the
VA folks if they have an ETA for the Vine
(00:21):
Street Hospitals main elevators repair slash replacement. I don't want
to catch you off guard, Todd, welcome back, but do
you know the answer to that question.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, I wish I had an answer, Brian. The project's
taken a little bit longer than we expected, and it's
related to parts, oh that we can't get. Yeah, these elevators,
you know, these elevator chafts date back to the nineteen
fifties and so you know they've been maintained and repaired
over the many, many years. But yeah, it's a it's
(00:50):
a part issue because of the uniqueness, Yeah, the uniqueness
of these elevators. But hopefully we'll get those back up
and run. And we had we had some flooding to
go through some of the shafts several weeks ago. Yeah,
we're still we're maintaining the other We got other elevators
that folks can use, but they're not as uh, they're
not as convenient for our veterans as they need to be.
(01:12):
But yeah, we're aggressively working on that issue.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Okay, now, I'm sure you are. It's just you know,
I'm I don't know that I'm shocked to find out that,
you know, parts aren't available for something that was built
that long ago. Is that just meant I guess that
makes sense? But repair they must. So anyhow, we have
two things to talk about, because they sound similar, but
they're completely different, the Compact Act and the Packed Act.
(01:36):
So let's remind my listeners in the veteran community about
the Compact Act, what it's all about and what they
need to know.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, I'm glad we start with that one first, Brian,
because I know, I know you've always stressed the importance
of veterans to seek out their mental health needs amen
from us, you know, when it's needed. And so the
Compact Act was a major legislative change, one of the
two that we're going to talk about today, that occurred
roughly about over a little over a year ago where
at any time when a veteran is in distress, suicidal ideation,
(02:08):
having to do some some mental health issues that are
just you know, disrupting their life, instead of needing to
get directly to a VA for care in that immediate
time and urgency, they can go anywhere in the community
to get that care and get stabilized to where they
are more comfortable, they're out of the situations that they're in,
and then that community hospital, that private hospital, or that
(02:31):
health agency will work with us to get the veterans
transferred over to the right VA care. All of that
is at no cost. So that's the big that's the
biggest change. So the two biggest changes under the Compact
Act are the convenience of getting the timely care that
you needed no cost to the veteran. And to date,
since this legislation went in, we've helped closely over eleven
(02:53):
hundred veterans and doing that, so that's that's been a big,
big boat bonus for us and also our veterans in
the community when they need to care at the right time.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
That's great and that's the opportunity to remind folks. I
interviewed a guy named Taylor Gray veteran, and he apparently
was a Delta Force, just constantly adrenaline filled in doing
all kinds of dangerous combat missions. And he got severely
wounded in one of his operations, and of course he
wasn't able to continue service. He could not deal with
(03:26):
what you and I deal with on a day to
day basis, which is a low key for comparatively low
stress environment. So he had to kind of work through
his problems and figure out why he was what he was,
but self destructive behavior, substance abuse, issues with you know, relationships,
and so he really told a great story about exactly
what so many veterans are experiencing. So you've got the
help there at the VA with the Compact Act. You
(03:47):
of course have the Veterans Crisis Line which is ninety
eight eight and then press one when you get connected.
That's an instant opportunity. But you know, understanding the Compact
Act and knowing that they're good people at the VA
are there for your mental health is just a great thing.
And I'm glad you were able to bring that up
and get a copy of Forged in Chaos by Tyler
Gray on my website. All right, let's pivot over to
(04:08):
the Packed Act. Something completely different.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, something completely different. And then it was out before
the Compact Act. And this relates back to a couple
of years ago where we really were stressing veterans to
the It changed enrollment number one for certain level of veterans,
but also the toxic exposures that veterans had been exposed to,
whether you were in combat or not in combat, you know,
(04:33):
the different exposures that are military folks Brian are exposed
to on a daily basis. This is what the VA
wanted to focus on. You know, you're talking not beyond
the big ones, the burn pits, the oil fires and
agent orange. There's pesticides, diesel fuel, jet fuel, the different
cleaning solutions, things on Navy ships. So all these things,
(04:54):
you know, could have a result into some future medical
condition that you know, there's no family history, it's not
tied to anything other than your exposure in the military.
So that that healthcare piece of it getting a toxic
exposure screen which is a simple questionnaire type screening that
goes through your primary care physician at the VA, and
then the other side of that is sitting down and
(05:16):
talking with a Certified Veteran Service Officer. I focus a
lot about going to the county offices Hamilton County, Claremont County,
and Butler County as well to talk to those folks
about filing for any type of level of disability compensation
that could be related to that toxic exposure. And for
(05:37):
some veterans who are who unfortunately don't become eligible because
of various things, a PACKDACK submission, a new rating some
sort can get that veteran the care in the VA
that they that the result to. So again it's a
little complex. This is why I wanted to focus on
these things, but come and talk to our experts about
those particularly a pack that because I have seen or
(05:59):
made your influences, major changes happen with veterans changing their life,
not also you know, monetarily with their compensation and disability,
but the healthcare that's related to that's very important. And
two of the big major ones a lot of veterans
I've learned as a result of toxic toxic exposure is
ryanidis and cyanidis. Oh, you know, just totally out of
(06:20):
the blue. You know, it's like never had these problems
before I went in. There's no family history to it.
And it's a lot of that's related to the toxic exposures.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Oh about that, and you know that's obviously something that
would not come immediately to mind, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, and that's the point of the packed act. Is
a lot of these i'll call secondary or they call
associated conditions you would never think would be related to
just normal stuff. You just think, God, I'm getting older,
you know, and the allergies or whatever in the air.
But a lot of these things could be related to
that veterans military experience based upon the territory they were in,
(06:55):
the chemicals that they were possibly exposed to, related to
the military service, or their daily MS job that they had.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Fair enough, Well, coming up, we'll take a break care
bring Todd Sledge from the Sincinntiva back talking about a
new pilot effort technology based pilot effort plus phone number
and information about how you can apply for your VA
benefits or sign up for them if you're eligible. Eight
forty seven right now, fifty five k see the talk
stations stick around fifty five KRC. Men, Well, we're look
(07:23):
at the weather this morning, got a partly cloudy to
dinner hands ada Am mid afternoon, possible storms eighty three
for a high tonight, partly cloudy overnight with a slight
chance of showers, low of sixty five, some sun tomorrow,
but qualify by a possible chance of a storm. Eighty
six for the high clouds overnight but dry and the
low of sixty nine and a partly cloudy Wednesday going
(07:44):
up to eighty six degrees closing out at seventy two.
Time for final traffic.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
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forty two Chuck Ingram on fifty five krs the talk station.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Hey fifty one if if you have KR City talk station.
Brian Thomas with since Ava's Todd's led talking about veterans
benefits and what's available for you with the VA. You
earned these benefits and take advantage of them. And for
those that haven't taken advantage of enrolling in the v
get to get their VA benefits. I understand you got
a new pilot program to try to track them down.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah, we do, Brian. You know, you and I together
have collectively worked on trying to make sure we all
of our veterans aware of their benefits. And I always
appreciated that relationship with you. I love it so for
the me too, absolutely me too. So for the last
two years, this is nothing new to the new to
the marketing world, but for the last two years I've
(09:05):
been trying to find a company that specifically could give
me data on households of veterans here in the Tri
State area through through a customer resource management system, which
is every business uses. And we finally found one and
they were able to identify veteran households here in the
Tri State area, which we serve fifteen counties. Brian, that
(09:27):
you know, through three different states, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio.
And with this program, with that veteran data, we're able
to now send text messages directly to veterans that are
not enrolled MVA and ask them if they would like
to be contacted about their benefits, and if they press one,
we get that data back and then we will be
(09:49):
reaching out to them and scheduling them appointments to see
an eligibility specialist at at the closest community based out
patient clinic that we have. As a game changer, I
didn't really realize how much possible data was out there,
but our first round of this pilot, that was close
to thirty thousand pieces of data of veteran households that
(10:10):
we could reach, and there's about fifteen thousand, or almost
half of that data of veterans who are not rolled
that are interested. So you know, our current marker of
treating forty three thousand veterans, we have the potential of
finding those veterans that are not using us, engaging them
and getting them into the healthcare system for various kinds
of things that they can use us for. Because I'm
(10:31):
always talking about how the VA can fit into that
personal healthcare portfolio as a benefit. Non insurance has a
benefit to them, and we're really excited about this. So
if veterans, if you're received a text message, it seems suspicious.
We all get those, Brian, we all get these really messages.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
That's exactly what I was thinking of, Todd Tech.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, yeah, so we we're what we've done, We've taken
this a step further. If you've gotten a text message
that talks about being a vetter and then talking about
the Cincinnati VIA you can go to our website and
on our eligibility section you will see that we are
validating that yes, this is coming directly from us, and
this is real, and we have a love for you
to respond.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Well, and you know the impetus to get to the
VA's website. If you get a text message, you always
can't trust that it's actually coming from the original source,
but you're reminding them that you're eligible for VA benefits,
and that might prompt them to go directly to the source,
which is the VA website, which address you're going to
give here in a second, when I shut up, that
will be a benefit even if they choose not to
(11:33):
click the one on the link. I mean, that's just
putting them in contact with you directly.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Our website is very simple with Cincinnati
dot VA dot gov. The three top things that folks
are very interested and looking on our website as where
locations of our care are and our healthcare services and
also the eligibility, so all of that's wrapped into that.
But we wanted to make sure because I've got veterans
in my office, They're like, tod, I get these messages.
(12:00):
I don't know if they're real or not exactly, So
we wanted to take the extra step the valid data
to say, yes, we are reaching out to do we
want to hear film me you and we're excited to continue.
I'm still about the personal touch, and this is why
we'd have live people will be following up with these
veterans that press one and a live person is going
to be scheduling you with a live person on another
(12:23):
end to talk with you about your eligibility.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
That's great. I know you're all about personal service, Todd Sledge,
and I truly appreciate what you're doing on behalf of
the veteran community, a lot of whom in my listening
audience since ava Dot get your benefits. And I'll just
put a shout out to the various Veterans Service commissions
in the various counties because they can help you navigate
any challenges you might come up with with enrolling for VA,
(12:46):
but I know Todd and the team they're trying to
make it as easy as possible. Todd, always a pleasure
talking with you. Thanks again for what you're doing for
the veteran community.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, you too, Brian. Appreciate the relationship. And if I
get an update on the elevator status between now and
our next time, I will definitely let you know. Sir
Patrick also gets his question answered. I know you will.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Thanks, brother, Have a great week day fifty five ffty
five car see the talk station Christopher Smithman Always on
Fire on a Monday with the Smitherman Check That Out
podcast fifty five car Sea dot Com Money Monday, variety
of different topics with uh Brian James, and of course
again my conversation with Todd. We just finished their fifty
five kr Sea dot Com. Tomorrow Tuesday, the Breitbart Inside
(13:25):
Scoop and the Daniel Davis Deep Dive and I maybe
we'll talk up at Israel and Iran with Daniel Davis
moving away from Russia and Ukraine, or maybe we'll talk
about both. You and I will find out together tomorrow.
Have a great day, folks. Thanks as always to Joe Streker,
executive producer, you do a fantastic job, my friend. If
folks don't go away, Funbeck's coming up next. News happens fast,
(13:45):
stay up to date. At the top of the hour,
we're moving very quickly at fifty five KARC, the talkstation.
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