Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everyone, Welcome to Life Happens Radio. I'm Loupiro,
your host for this morning, and Life Happens is your
weekly radio broadcast that brings you legal issues in addition
to a whole lot more. We are a law firm,
Pierre connorvan Strauss, located here in Albany, New York, also
New York City and around New York State, and our
attorneys practice in the areas of a state planning, elder law,
(00:21):
special needs planning, business succession planning, a state and trust
litigation guardianship. And today we're going to focus on an
issue in an area that is prompted by the holiday
coming up on Monday, which is Veterans Day. And we
are very happy to have with us today people that know,
people in the know with regard to veterans and veterans benefits,
(00:44):
and I'd like to welcome them to the show. Well,
welcome one back. That's Daryl Benson. Good morning, Darryl, thanks
for having me, Thanks for being here. And we're going
to open up the phone lines, folks, So if you
have questions on VA eligibility benefits, we're going to take
calls throughout this hour, and we also have Sean Tucky
(01:05):
with us and Sean, I think this is your first.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Time to the show. It is. Thank you for having me, Lou,
and thank you for coming in. Shaan, and tell our
listeners what your role is at Stratton.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Sure, I'm a health system specialist here at the Albany VA,
so I do a little bit of everything in the hospital,
particularly with logistics in running the day to day operations
at the hospital. But before I did that, I worked
in mental health at the hospital and I have a
master's and counseling and I'm a veteran, so my main
(01:35):
area of interest was outreach when I worked in on
the clinical side of the house. So when I became
a health system specialist, I was kind of tasked with
helping with outreach for the hospital. So that's how Peter
recommended me coming to the show today.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Fantastic And Darryl, I know your role, but listeners may not.
So what do you do at the VA.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Well, just like Sean, I'm a veteran US Army veteran,
I was first on this show as a lead and
roman specialist for Stratton VA Medical Center. Usually I was
the first person you saw when you came in to
apply and roll for VA healthcare benefits. Since that time,
(02:18):
I've taken on the role as a patient advocate. It's
important that veterans have a voice. Veterans as well as
their families. If there's some concern, if they have a disagreement,
if there's something not to their liking, or if they
just have questions, they want answers, They want someone to
talk to. They need a means of support. I think
(02:42):
all of us in this computer age are used to
calling a number and you know, getting a robot and
touch this number and dial here, dial there. Yeah, But
when you call me, I answer the phone.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
And you know he's because that voice I remember from
last time.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
You should be in this chair. You could be the
DJ with that voice.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
But your role as an advocate is similar to what
we do as attorneys, because people are confused by the
myriad health plans that are out there. You know, veterans
may be on Medicare, they may be told they should
have Medicare supplement policies. They may be using the Veterans'
hospital for all of their healthcare or some of their healthcare.
(03:29):
So talk a little bit about the healthcare side of this,
and that's the systems you came from. So we'll start
maybe with you, Sean, and then move it back over
to Darryl.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
So in terms of a healthcare it's a great time
for veterans to come in and if they've never been
to VA, use things like the Packed Tact, the new
eligibility to register and enroll. Because the example I always
used is like, you know, maybe somebody came in thirty
years ago and they were told, oh, you make too
much money to use the VIA for your healthcare.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Because it's based on it. I hear it all the time.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
With the Packed Act, a lot of that has changed.
Veteran has toxic exposures or environmental exposures. It's a great
time to come in, and I think we're using the
term like get a healthcare check up, come in and
just reregister. Let's see what you're eligible for, because there's
a good chance that you're alder on the Packed Act
and that would help you with getting stup with all
the array of health care service offer at the hospital.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And for our listeners who may not be familiar with
the Packed Act, tell us what that is in what
it has opened up for veterans in terms of additional
benefits and additional eligibility.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Sure, the Packed Act, there's a law that expands the
via healthcare and benefits for veterans who may have been
exposed to burn pits, agent orange and other toxic substance.
And that's a lot of people, and that's a lot
of veterans.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yes, it's like you have to be in the back somewhere,
you know, with the burn pit Pete Nols was open exposure.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
And I always tell veterans to keep it simple. If
you've just just served in the military, call somebody like that.
I'll come on in because that just simplifies it. Whether
because sometimes veterans we self select ourselves out and say
exactly what you said, Loo, I wasn't right next to burnpit.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I'm not all with Chris Let Darryl Design. Let's talk with.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Him, Come in me with him, bring your DT two fourteen,
and then we'll go through. Because there's like hand to do,
like sevenary pages.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Of haven't read it yet, but.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
There's all those little nooks and crannies. The the easy
answer has come. See us and talk to Daryl and
let us review the eligibility with you.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, and it's great that they opened up that eligibility
that we've had a person on here, Chris Gibson, who
has worked in the Congress and worked behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
He's a veteran.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I thank you too for your service, and all the
veterans out there today thank you for your service. But
Chris was instrumental in some of the legislation back to
open up when when people were on boats at they
weren't on land, they were out at sea and getting
eligibility for benefits because they had exposure as well. And
so the legislation has fortunately opened up new opportunities. And Darryl,
(05:57):
when someone calls the the VA, how do they get through?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And how?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I know it's daunting for veterans because a lot of
them have PTSD, a lot of them have issues, a
lot of them don't have the ability to navigate through
that complex system. You know, log into your portal. Everybody
I have five portals, you know, every doctor, every healthcare system,
everybody has.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Their own portal. But how do they get through to
the Veterans Administration in you.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Well, the easiest way, of course is to come directly
in come into Stratton or go to one of our
satellite clinics, community based outpatient clinics and ask for an
application for enrollment. This would be Form ten. That's ten
easy echozulu. You feel this form out, you give it
(06:50):
back to the people. If you go to one of
our community based outpatient clinics, you can give it to
the staff. They'll send it to our Enrollment and Eligibility department,
the Business office, or if you come in in person,
you can go directly to the Business Office on the
first floor and you can meet face to face with
a person who can enroll you, register you into the
(07:10):
VA Healthcare system and inform you of all the benefits
and titlements that you're eligible for once you're enrolled. The
other way for those who are pretty computer savvy is
to go to VA dot gov. If your computer savvy
and you go to VA dot gov, you would have
to first start with getting an identifier. That's setting up
(07:34):
a secure account through either login dot gov or what
is called id me. Now, once you get into the platform,
after you're verified your identity is verified because it's a
secure platform, then you would be able to register online.
And of course we have the Health and Eligibility Center
in Atlanta where you can call them and they have
(07:57):
the ability to record your answers and register you by phone.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I'm going to open up the phone lines right now,
so if you have questions on veterans eligibility, the new benefits,
the New Pack Act, and we're going to go back
over some of the traditional benefits, the VA pensions and
the other health benefits that veterans have available to them.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Give us a call eight hundred talk w g Y.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
That's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine
Again eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine,
and we're in studio with Daryl Benson and Sean Tuckey
from the VA Stratton VA Medical Center. Sean, you know,
veterans health has so many complexities and nuances, and there
(08:42):
are service connected disabilities, there are non service connected disabilities,
there are percentages of disability.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Can you just unravel.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
That for me a little bit in terms of how
those benefits get paid.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I'll do my best, so for if you can't do it,
I know, Daryl.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Well, I might lean on Darryl, because you know it's
an old joke between us, the Marines leaning on the
army to.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Save us they go.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So if a veteran serves in the military and they
injured themselves during their period of service. They are eligible
for compensation for those injuries, which is something the military
doesn't always do the best job educating veterans about. So, like,
the example I always make up is if you broke
your ankle in boot camp and you got delayed in
boot camp and you're still able to serve four years.
When you get out of that four year window and
(09:30):
you're leaving the service, you should still get that ankle
injury service connected because even if the VA Service texts
zero percent, it is a service late injury. We know
you were hurt, and you can get care for that
injury for the rest of your life at no cost. Right,
And that's probably the most basic example. From there, there's
all sorts of things that can be service related. The
Packed Act does a lot to expand that, right because
(09:54):
there's things that we know or we may or may
not know, or service related, and we want to get
veterans to come in and get care so we can
research it and dot minute. Like the example I was
make up, as we know now, if you have ah
RNGE exposure and you have these certain cancers, it's what
they call a presumptive illness.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
You're automatically eligible.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
We just needs your DG two fourteen and the diagnosis
and it gets service con nected pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
And the paperwork is so important.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
And I've had veterans come to me and say, well,
I want to get this benefit or that benefit, and
they can't trace back their discharge papers. They don't have
the availability of the documentation that you're referring to, and
all of the you know, if you're in the military,
you kind of know what these forums are, but what
(10:36):
do you do. What does a veteran do if they're
unable to put together the documentation?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Is their assistance for that?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
There are there are law officers that can law offices
that can assist. There are veteran service officers at the
county and state level. Most of the large veteran service
organizations like the VFW and the DAV we'll all assist
a veteran and helping them file acclaim because we've all
heard a story. I work with tanks, a lot of
tankers that they're very mission oriented. They don't go to
(11:06):
sit call a lot. So maybe they hurt their back,
you know, working on their tank, but they didn't go
to sit call to get a documented that happens all
the time, and I think they're a would agree with me.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I would. One of the things about serving in the military,
and I think a lot of veterans overlook, is that
usually you don't find out that you may suffer an
ailment or a health issue until years down the road.
For many of us, I'll give a perfect example tonightis
or tenatis the bell ringing in our ears. Most veterans
(11:39):
who within in the military, they suffer from that from
the machinery, the gunfire, weaponry, explosions, motor vehicles, that sort
of thing. In my experience, and I'm service connected for
hearing loss antenitis, is that I would blow it off.
The bell ringing in my ear would keep me up
at night. You know, I'll get through it. I'll be okay.
(12:02):
Until finally I started to educate myself on what that
was now here it was six seven, eight years after
the military. I found a claim for that disability and
was awarded disability compensation for that. Now, I think for
many of us, we hesitate to do that. Oh, somebody
(12:23):
else needs that, or give that to somebody else. I'm okay,
come and see us, Yeah, come and talk to us
about this.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So with regard to getting care, the VA treats all
types of illnesses in house. So a lot of veterans
rely on the VA for primary care, mental health, and
just kind of go through the other direct services that
veterans are eligible for. And I know my dad used
(12:54):
to use prescription meds, did all his prescriptions through the.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
VA, you know, in one of the v A and
Stratton in particular. It's a it's a great setup because
everything is in one building for the most part. You know,
we have primary care, we have specialty care, we have
we have cancer treatment, uh in a little building off
the hospital. We're the leading expert in cancer care for
all of New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Veterans come,
(13:18):
they stay at the Fisher House, which is in front
of the hospital, a nice little five star hotel hidden gym,
and they'll stay there and they'll come and get their
cancer treatment for however long he's being and they go
they go home. But we offer everything from eyeglasses to
hearing aids and little things.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That uh.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
That that we we don't always think about it like
hearing loss that they're was talking about earlier.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
We're really good at treating hearing loss because a lot
of veterans have hearing loss.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It's probably more common among veterans than any other group
in the population because, as you said, you're you're subjected
to that noise that the bangs on a very regular basis.
And I know a lot of people that I have
friends veterans that have some form up here, and most
of them don't get treated.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
And to your point, you know, get it checked out exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
You know, as Sean said, it's a one stop shot,
and we have the expertise to evaluate and make clinical
decisions which would give you a better quality of life.
I think the professionals at our facility they're so good
at this, and they are experienced in the veteran experience.
(14:30):
I mean, if you go out in the community and
you speak to a doctor in the community, not saying
that they're bad, but I've been to a doctor in
the community and talk to them about what was going
on with me as it relates to my military experience,
and I would get that blank stare. They would just
look at me, and I knew they didn't understand anything
(14:52):
that I was talking about.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So we're gonna take a short break and when we
come back, we're going to explore the different generations of soldiers.
You know, we're kind of at the end of the
greatest generation, the World War Two veterans are dwindling down,
but then you have Korea, then you have Vietnam, then
you have all the other subsequent wars, and they all
have different problems, different issues. So we're going to unpack
that a little bit and talk more about how people
(15:14):
can access veterans benefits. And for all the veterans out
there today and their families, we thank you. We thank
you for your sacrifice, we thank you for your service.
And we're going to take a short break and when
we come back, we're going to be here live in
studio with Daryl Benson and Sean Tucky from the Stratton,
VA Medical Center. We're going to open up the phone
lines for you and we hope you can stay with us.
(15:34):
We'll be right back after this short break. I just
want to give you a heads up. We're talking about
healthcare today and in particular veterans healthcare with Veterans Day
coming up, but healthcare is a topic we address for
all of our listeners and our clients, and we'd like
you to join us for a monthly webinar series. It's
(15:58):
Medicaid Mondays, myself, Frank Hemming, Aaron Connor, and our guests,
and we have a number of guests that join us
on that webinar. It's a thirty minute webinar. It's usually
the second Monday of the month, but because that's Veterans Day,
we're going to push it a week to the eighteenth
of November. And we talk a lot about Medicaid on
(16:19):
this show, and we get talked about Medicaid eligibility, and
we're going to talk today about Veterans benefits and a
Veterans benefit for seniors who want to age at home
or an assisted living And when we talk about Medicaid,
we talk about just that one particular program that you
have to be financially qualified for. But in New York State,
there is a whole array of other benefits for seniors
(16:43):
and we're lucky to have with us on November eighteenth,
Rebecca Prevy, who's the executive director of the Association on
Aging in New York, and she's going to cover all
the non Medicaid benefits. You don't have to give away
your assets, you don't have to do all the planning.
You can access these benefits through offices for the aging
and other community resources, and Becky's going to lay all
(17:05):
that out for us.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
We hope you can join us.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
It's at twelve noon on November eighteenth, and as always,
you can sign up on our website at pyrolaw dot com. Again,
Rebecca Preview, the executive director of the Association on Aging
in New York, Myself Frank Hemming talking about all of
the non Medicaid benefits that you can access today if
you need help out in the community pirolaw dot com,
(17:30):
November eighteenth at noon. Right now, we're going to go
back to veterans benefits and guys, it's really complicated for
people when you have Medicare Medicaid VA benefits and how
do they work together, how do you make them all
mesh together. It's a really challenging area from the perspective
(17:51):
of someone trying to see where they get the best
benefit and what those benefits are. So Daryl, you counsel
people through the VA portion of this. And I was
talking about generational we've been working. My dad was in
World War Two, he was in Korea. His generation, there
are not many of them left, but they still have needs.
(18:14):
So starting with what they call the greatest generation, how
does the VA handle that aging population.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Well?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
For us in all many one of the things we
have that is unique when you think about other hospitals
in the community, we have our own community living centers
in the hospital. We have three community what we call
comunity living centers or the nursing homes that are built
into the hospital where veterans can live as residents for
as long as they need to. Two of the three
(18:44):
wars are brand new. They just opened during COVID, so
they're wonderful. How many beds fifty on four B, A
and B and then I want to say twenty four
one nine bs, but don't quote me on that.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
When I started my care or forty years ago, the
VA funded a lot of nursing home care and anybody
that was service connected would qualify. But those benefits have shrunk.
But it sounds like now there is in house care
at Stratton.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
There is.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
And then they you know, for folks that are listening,
they might not realize this, but Abeny has a very
large catchment area where we go from Kingston to the
Canadian border. A lot of veterans come from Vermont, mass houses.
Is just because it's easier to get to allpaning in
the winter. We serve I think twenty two thousand square
miles where bigger than our hospitals. Catchmentarria is bigger than
half dozen states.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Interesting, it's responsible for over fourteen thousand veterans, I believe,
just in our catchment area alone.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And I know that telemedicine has been part of the
VA and the healthcare system in the VA and the
North Country had telemedicine centers. Is that still part of
your program?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yes, we have.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
We do a lot with telemedicine. Really, it's been a driver,
it was I was. It's interesting you brought that up
because we I was talking about yesterday anriach event. You know,
little things even like like stroke.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Stroke strokes are very important, are very very serious.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
We have a partnership with the Houston VA where they
have the National Telestroke Center. So when all of our
rooms in the ED and the ICU and on our
medical surgical awards, they have the ability to beam in
an expert from the Telestroke Center as soon as they
as soon as someone suspects that veterans having a stroke,
they can get the expert on the hook through to
tel medicine, and that's very important because when youre having
(20:29):
a stroke, brains our minutes, our brain.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Is what they would say.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
The quicker we can get the medication, and if you
need it, the better the outcomes.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
I've had the pleasure of working with the Silver Team
at the VA, which is a lot of aging veterans
and a couple of the doctors there, doctor Dean Thompson,
who was one of the pioneers of the telemedicine program there,
and it was amazing because veterans are in Plattsburgh, they're
in Watertown, they're they're all over the North Country and
for them to get to the VA was virtually impossible
(20:59):
for a lot of them, but they could go right
down the road to a center.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
And how many of them are there in your catchment area?
Speaker 3 (21:08):
So we have ten community based outpatient clinics. But even
the nice thing about tell medicine is even expanded from that.
When I worked in mental health, it's like a VA
version of Skype is easiest way to explain it a
via video connect I was able to beam into one
of my veterans' homes that she had a severe injury,
so she couldn't really drive to Plattsburgh, which it was.
(21:29):
From Plattsburgh here was not feasible, but I was able
to see her face to face and have conversations. And
the nice thing about that was there's little things you
pick up when you have a video visit that you
don't wouldn't do over the phone, Like when she had
her set up. She had a large fish tank, so
we were able to talk about her fish. And I
would not have even known if we didn't have video
via video connect, would have never known she had this
(21:50):
passion for fish.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yes, it wouldn't have come up on a phone call.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
And I've had this conversation with a number of people.
Senator Ashby who was here, he was a veteran, and
we were talking about the healthcare and the telemedicine with
him because he's by trade and occupational therapist. Interestingly, and
so with that, veterans who are next door to the
VA may not want to walk in if it's a
(22:15):
mental health visit, just because of the stigma of walking
in and people know why you're there and you're in
a waiting room. But they will go into their truck
and they'll do it on their phone and they get
much more out of it through that telemedicine visit, even
if they're next door to the person, and there was
(22:35):
a lot of psychology behind that. I know you had
some experience treating those people.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I know.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I always tell the story when I talked to veterans immunity,
when I would talk to VIT NOAM veterans, when I
worked in a crisis clinic, they didn't like coming to
the tenth floor because back in the seventies, the tenth
floor was the flight deck quote unquote ye, and the
whole war was an impatient it. Now it's all out
of pation services, but there's the stigma's real. So anything
we can do to decrease that stigma, whether it's telemedicine
(23:01):
or one of the things that VA is really a
leader and is pushing primary care or mental health into
prime care settings. They have something called behavior health.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And prime care.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
So with our primary care teams, there's usually a social
worker connected. So if doctor's talking with somebody and they're
having signs and symptoms of maybe depression, they can do
a warm handoff and connect them to a social worker
or a psychologist in the clinics. So they're seeing them
on a blue team or the Silver team and they're
not going to mental health. They're you know, they're getting counseling.
Or maybe it's a veteran who served in Iraq Afghanistan.
(23:31):
Maybe they don't want to come to the hospital because
there's statement about coming to the hospital. They might go
to the event center over on wolf Road where they
do telemedicine. There's a lot of options out.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
There, and Darryl, how do how do people get educated
on all of that? That's part of your job.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Well as a patient advocate. I always jokingly say everything
that comes to me is a problem, but it's more
than that. I'm a resource for information, a contact. My
door is always open. Vet's come in all the time,
and you know what we want to inform them. We
want to let them know that there are options for you,
(24:07):
that this is a plague that this country made to
you for your service in this country. We honored that
pledge at Stratton Via.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And that's a great place to take a pause. We
have to break for the news in just a few seconds.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Here. We're very happy to have with us.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Today on the eve eve of Veterans Day, Daryl Benson,
patient advocate, and Sean Tucky who is with the Stratton
VA Medical Center.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
We're going to take a short break for the News.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Proud to be with two veterans here in studio. We
have with us today Darryl Benson and Sean Tucky from
the Stratton VA Medical Center. We're talking about veterans benefits
and all of the care that the government provides.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
And there is a new.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Pack Act Pact Act for anyone who has exposure to
burn pits or any of those related exposures that if
you were a veteran, now's the time to go in
and talk to these gentlemen about what those benefits are
and how you may be able to access them. And Sean,
you made a great point. If somebody tried to get
in this door and get benefits ten years ago, five
(25:09):
years ago, twenty years ago, their conditions.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Have changed and the laws have changed, and.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
So it really pays, Daryl for people to get a
freshener of this, get a new evaluation if there is
anything that has changed.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
And that's exactly correct. It used to be ten years
ago that veterans were not eligible for bea healthcare benefits
because of their incomes. They got out of the military,
they went to college, they got great jobs, you know,
they brought homes, they earned nice income, and they found
out that they were ineligible for BEA healthcare benefits because
(25:48):
of their household income. A lot of that has changed.
They have been to Iraq, they've been to other places
in the Persian Gulf, They've been to Vietnam, they were
around containment facilities in Korea. All of these things. Exposure
protocols are now in effect where you can come in
(26:10):
and be eligible for VA healthcare benefits based on that.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And again, if you have a question on any of
the VA benefits that are available out there, it's eight
hundred eighty two five five nine four nine, it's eight
hundred talk WGY. One of the benefits that our office
gets involved with, and I'm going to stick for a
minute with that Greatest Generation because as people age, one
of the fundamental issues we have in this country is
(26:37):
that there are not enough caregivers to take care of
our aging senior population, and that includes veterans. So when
people are aging, they have chronic illnesses, they want to
remain in their home, and that's a fundamental in our
office and in every law office, people come in and
they say, well, I'd love to go to a nursing home.
(26:58):
Can you find me a bed. That's not where this starts.
It starts right at the home. And can you get
services in the home, and how do you pay for
those services in the home? And Medicaid in New York
has been over the years a very generous program, but
we're seeing cuts. Two weeks ago we had Al Cardillo,
who's the head of the Home Care Association of New
York in talking about cuts to the Medicaid budget with
(27:21):
regard to home care. So when people are looking to
hunker down and stay in their home, one of the
benefits that again is often overlooked, is something called the
Aid and Attendance Benefit. And this is a supplemental pension.
It's an income that you can get if you have
certain chronic illnesses and you meet the criteria of needing care.
(27:44):
It's most beneficial if you're in the home or in
assisted living, especially because that benefit will help defray the
cost of assisted living. When you're in a nursing home,
the benefit goes down. I think it used to be
ninety dollars a month. But the benefit if it's for
a married veteran two seven hundred and twenty seven thousand
(28:06):
dollars a month. That's an enormous benefit a supplemental pension.
If you can qualify for EID and attendance a single
veteran twenty three hundred dollars, and even a surviving spouse
of a veteran can be eligible for one thousand, four
hundred and seventy eight dollars monthly, so fourteen seventy eight
(28:27):
up to twenty seven twenty seven. If there are two
vets in the home married, it can be three thousand
and six forty nine per month as a supplemental pension.
But there are some strings to qualify for this aid
and attendance benefit. You have to have served during wartime,
so there are periods of war published and if your
(28:48):
service ninety days of service within any of those time periods.
But what are some of the other criteria that the
senior veterans who want to age at home or want
to use it for assisted living can do well.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
There's a great program that the VAS offer nationwide called
the Caregiver Support Program, where they have staff that will
support the caregivering the veteran as long as they can,
like you were saying earlier, trying to stay at home
as long as possible, as long as the person's physically
able to. And they do counseling, they do support, they
do groups to help provide with caregiver burnout. Sometimes there's
(29:22):
a stipend for the caregiver to be able to provide
home care. Provide the caregiver a stipend so that they
can provide spport to the veteran in their home as well,
along with the aid and attendants and other benefits. And
that's something that like you and I we were talking
off the air, eight attendance is a great benefit a
lot of veterans don't know about. Caregivers port program is
a great program that even less veterans know about because
(29:43):
it's something that's still pretty new. The Career of Support
program as a whole got started after nine to eleven
for global and terrorism and veterans. It's just been the
last couple of years it's been expanded to open to
all eras of service.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So eight attendants also has financial qualification criteria, and this
gets a little tricky because you have an income and
an asset test. You can meet the income test fairly easily,
but the asset test, if you get over a certain
amount of assets, you have to spend them down to.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
That eligibility level.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
But there is a way, just like we do in
our law firm with medicaid, we can create a trust
and that's our solution for most things in our office.
We can create a trust that can hold excess assets
and get the veteran to the level where this aid
and attendance benefit would be available to them. And we
call it a VA Asset Protection Trust. So that's something
(30:43):
that a lot of veterans again don't know about. The
already law school has had a Veteran's Day, they have
a Senior Citizen's Law Day, and they have a Veteran
Education Day at the law school. We've spoke my law
firm and I have spoken at that for many many years,
and we do consultations following that presentation. We don't know
the date this year, but veterans can come get educated,
(31:04):
talk to attorneys and get advice on how they could
qualify for this additional benefit.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
And the law school program is a great program. We've
pushed the information on every year because our veterans just
the tower. Each program always participates with law school, so
if folks can hear about it, it's a wonderful place
to go and contact someone like you and learn about
get in a trust, yeah, or setting up a will,
things of that nature.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Well, yeah, and the other documents that veterans should all
have and everyone should have, which is a healthcare directive,
and I know the VA has its own healthcare directive.
We do a healthcare proxy that's New York State statutory document.
But powers of attorney and healthcare proxies and the basic documents.
Does the VA have a education on that.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Well, you can certainly discuss the options that you have
for healthcare proxies and a legal power attorney through the VA.
With the social worker. Now, in the past, there were
social workers that were assigned to each primary care team.
I think we've changed a little bit. There's an uncalled
social worker every day that a veteran can can speak with,
(32:16):
but we still have clinical social workers. We still have
many of those structures in place where a veteran can
certainly sit down with someone and get guidance and get
more information and definitely guidance on how to fill out
the paperwork and get it scanned into their chart, so
there's legal documentation in their medical record.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Oh sorry.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
One of the things that the clinic clinicians are very
familiar with these things called clinical reminders, So the computer
prompts them to you know, it'll pop up when it's due.
So if I'm seeing Darryl and his clinical reminders do
for discussing this healthcare proxy, social worker, the doctor will
kind of document what your wishes are and put it
into the chart. That way, it's always their permanent.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
And so and our law firm offers free consultations as well,
so if a veteran in their family want to come in,
we'll sit down with them and go through all the
legal side of it from the perspective of a will
and a power attorney in a healthcare proxy, because that's.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
What we do as well, and I think that's very
important that veterans do that and avail themselves of this
opportunity to get everything lined up. They we're not going
to be here forever. And then there's the thing survivor benefits.
You want to make sure that all documentation is placed
so that your family is better off when you know.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
So what are those survivor benefits? Let's dig into that
a little bit.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Well, for many veterans who are service connected, if you're
thirty percent or more service connected than your spouse, your
dependents would be entitled to a survivor benefit from the VBA. Now,
it depends on their math and their formula and how
they dictate that, but they would be entitled to it.
(34:03):
And I think you have a timeframe of up to
two years to apply for that benefit. And so you
could certainly call me or social workers or more importantly
VBA reps that we have in the building. We have
Dan Ingle, who's directly from the VBA, and then we
have two New York State representatives who are in the building.
(34:25):
And also New York State is fortunate because every county
has a Veteran Service officer. Yeah, and you can go
to your county Veteran Service officer and talk to them
about survivor benefits.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, that's so important. And this is the local resources.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
That's what we're going to be talking about with Rebecca
Prevy about a lot of the other things. And I
think she's even gonna mention because we do work with
the counties and the County Office for Aging and the
county Veterans counseling services, and they're so important to get
the word out and.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
To get people educated.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
As you said, Darryl, a lot of veterans don't want
to acknowledge they have a disability. They don't want to
admit it. They don't want to be part of a
system that rewards a disability. But at the same time,
they're suffering and they need help. So getting them through
that over that threshold is so important.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
I can give you a perfect example of that. My
next door neighbor, Dave. He was a metavac chopper pilot Vietnam.
He can't hear anything, so he doesn't hear me when
I'm yelling at him because his dog is crapping in
my yard.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
So I keep trying to convince him to come to
the VA to sign up for healthcare benefits to which
he's entitled to. He's a Vietnam vet, he's a metavac
chopper pilot. And he was like, always, well, give that
to somebody who really needs it, because he had a
great healthcare plan through National Grid. He was a retired
National Grid worker. Finally, his hearing was so bad that
(35:54):
he couldn't He just couldn't hear anything, and I convinced
him to come to the VA. Not only did he
get hearing devices which probably would have cost an excess
of three thousand dollars on the outside, but you also
got the service connection for the hearing laws. He also
got a service connection for his agent, Orange Exposure, and
(36:14):
he was so happy with the services that he received when.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
He got down.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Now does that trigger a survivor benefit because he has
a service connected disability of thirty percent or more?
Speaker 4 (36:25):
It does, and his wife would be entitled to benefits
if he passes on right.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
So it's it's like dominoes. You have to set the groundwork.
You have to get the paperwork in place and lay
the foundation, and things changed. Your health changes, and as
your health changes, you have the ability to increase benefits.
So how often should veterans review their the benefits that
they're receiving.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
I encourage every veteran well, I encourage every veteran to
come in once year you get a physical, and at
least once every one to two years to meet with
her review their benefits in their eligibilities with someone they trust,
like if inner service officer or somebody like Daryl, Because,
like you said, things change, and sometimes you're changed on
a time. Yeah, And I always would say when I
(37:11):
do Melo ribin events where I'm talking, folks are just
coming back from the deployment. You don't want to wait
to enroll in the VA healthcare when you have you
break your ankle playing basketball and you're sitting in the
emergency department and then the administry officer days asking you
what your address, what's your phone number? You want all
have done and taken care of us that way, if
you need it, it's there.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Well, I can see this because I know what a
death like that means to the family and to the
surviving spouse and to the children. And the last thing
that they're thinking about is so I have to go
find the paperwork to get the service connected disability approved.
But if you have that foundation, lad, I would guess
it's an easy for the for the widow or widower,
(37:50):
it's an easy transition to get to that survivors better.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
It really is. All you have to do is get
with your Bso we already have the documentation, everything is
all already in the system, and then it's just a
matter of you signing on the dotted line and us
sending the information to the VVA and then them contacting
you and letting you know what your survivor benefit or
(38:13):
what your benefits are going to be moving forward.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
So, for all of you listening right now, odds are
you're in the Stratton VA catchment area.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
This is a big station.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
It's the fifty thousand by AM station and the FM
is it puts out a pretty good signal. But chances
are you're serviced by this hospital here in Albany, New York,
the Stratton VA, which has immense resources and people.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Who are willing to work with you.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Not a phone number, not a technical program, not you know,
press one and then three and then twelve. This is
something where you can get human touch and come in
and get your rights determined, your condition can be treated,
and you can avail yourself of all the services.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
That are available through the Stratton VA.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
So how do people contact you if they want to
just make a phone call or a website, Well.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
The Enrollment and Eligibility Department, their number is going to
be five one eight six two, six, six seven four
four or five one eight six two, six, six seven
four or five. Of course you can call me. My
number is going to be area code five one eight
six two six seven four five one. That would be
my direct line. Now, keep in mind, I'm always all
(39:34):
over the building. I'm always visiting with vets, I'm always
taking phone calls, get a lot of emails, and so
just leave me a message. I guarantee you I'll get.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Back to you and we'll give those numbers out one
more time before the end of the show.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
How about the website.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
It's www dot Obaniva dot gov or you just google
Obeniva and it'll come right up.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Albaniva dot gov. Does it have phone numbers by department?
It does on the website it has.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
It has on imers by department, and also the clinic.
So if you're listening and you're near Plattsburgh, you can
look up the number to Plattsburgh Clinic and schedule appointment there.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
We're gonna take one more short break. Albenyva dot gov.
That's where you want to go. Get your rights determined,
get into the system, get things in place, because life happens,
and you never know when it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
We'll be right back. Luke Puro, your host for this morning.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
I am live in studio with my guests Sean Tucky
and Darryl Benson from the Stratton VA Medical Center. We're
thanking all the veterans out there for their service and
the sacrifices that they and their families have made, and
we're talking about the VA services that are available to
our veterans and the things that have improved over time.
(40:47):
And we were talking a little bit Daryl, because we've
had you on the show before. We've been tracking the
VA and there have been a lot of struggles and
a lot of negative publicity about the VA, but I
haven't heard a lot of that lately, so things seemed
to be in a better place.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
Oh definitely. I'd been enrolled in VIA healthcare consumer of
via healthcare benefits for forty three years, and I remember
what it was like when I first enrolled in VIA healthcare.
And I did it because my old man, a Korean
bat Korean warbat, insisted no. He told me I was
going to go in wrong. And one of the things
(41:23):
he passed upon passed down to me was You're gonna
need this later as you get older, you need more
health care, not less. That's what my old man told me.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Smart man.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Interesting, my CEO said the same thing to us as
we were leaving actiduty, Go get a physical because in
twenty years, if your niece hurt because you were jumping
up and down off the tanks, you're gonna need to
be able to help you exactly.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
And so I think as we continue to move forward,
we have different mechanisms, different systems in quality control to
let us know where we're doing good and where we're
doing not so good, and we always strive to improve
on those areas where we're not doing good. One big
(42:07):
part of that is survey responses. A VET like me,
like Sean, every time you have an appointment with specialty
team or somebody like that, you get these surveys in
the mail. I always tell vets do these surveys. Guess
who reads them?
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I do, and.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
Then I report the survey responses the leadership. This is
how we improve care at our facilities.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Yeah, it's the same with your private insurance company. Every
time you go to the doctor, you go to a hospital,
you get follow up surveys and it's important.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
I agree with that one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
It's important to give that feedback so they know what's
going on. And Sean we talked a little bit about
today's veterans and the people that have been deployed and
the people that are being deployed, and what are the
current issues that they face and what advice can we
give them?
Speaker 3 (42:59):
Well, advice I try to give every veterans to come
in and roll and get set up with care so
that you have it. That way, you can get a fit,
preventative health you know, like an annual physical things like that,
because when you're twenty two, twenty four, when you're leaving
a service, not everybody, you don't think about your health care.
As you get you get a little older, you want
to make sure it's there in place for specifically for
(43:21):
global war and terrorism veterans. The number one medical complaints,
surprisingly when we talk about this is muscule skeletal issues.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
We talk which we talk a lot about at the VA.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
We talk a lot about PTSD traumatic brain injuries, which
we need to talk about, But the number one medical
complaint of global and terrorsm veterans is muscular skeletal issues.
Because you wear only sixty pounds of body armor in
quotes only for six to twelve hours, but really it's
probably a hundred pound of body armor for eight to
twelve hours, seven.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Days a week. That's a lot of stress on the body.
It's a lot of stress in the body. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
One of the things I always tell veterans about the
VA and I know we're running out of time, you know,
Darryl said earlier. We all we do is treat veterans,
so we know about the military experience. If you're twenty
four years ol and you come in to see doctors,
seeing a blue team and say, my knees hurt, my backer,
He's not going to look at you like you have
a third eye because you're only twenty four and you
have back pain and me pain.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Right, he knows, right.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
So we do have a few more minutes, and I
want to get into these current veterans a little bit
more and how they're coming in and what you see
in the future. Right now, we don't have an active
military campaign per se, but we might and things are changing,
(44:31):
and we have fronts in the Ukraine and experiences being
gathered up over there. Modern warfare has changed tremendously. It's
drone warfare now. So how has that impacted the experience
that veterans are coming back to you with.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Well, I think it's it's changed, but it's also I
think very similar. One of the outreach events I was
out in the last year or two, we were talking
to a guard unit that they do a lot of
drone pilot work, and.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
You know, they were they.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
Were flying their planes, running their missions, and they might
just be doing a training mission, and then all of
a sudden they get orders, Hey, this might be a
high value target. We gotta go look at it, and
maybe they engage in comment. They're doing it all from
Upstate New York, flying a plane halfway around the world.
Then their tour, their shift is over, and they go home.
Very different than say, like when I was in Iraq
in two thousand and three, or you know, a Vietnam
(45:25):
veteran or a Korean War veteran.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
It's a different experience, That's what I was getting at.
It's modern warfare.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
The technology has kind of subsumed a lot of the Okay,
I'm in a tent and they have to go to
the mess hall and I'm here.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
With all of the other soldiers.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Is there some dissociation that they feel from that the
missions that they're flying.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
I think what they was guess what say is it's
they get very good compartmentalizing, but it also is it's
a different kind of stress.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Because you know, you're you're.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
You're in two different worlds at the same time, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
I would want to add, though, there's a reason why
we're the most powerful military in the world. It is
because the extent of training we undergo day in day out.
They're constantly out there, We're constantly on watch, We're constantly
on the wall, and so I think that there's an
added stress that we have to maintain this capability day
in day out.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Yeah, thank god, we do. I experience.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
I was not a veteran, and it's a regret that
I have. I think mandatory service of some kind, and
I've talked to some of our politicians on this show
about it, whether you do a national service or a
military service, but young people should have some kind of
like in Israeli, they have to go into the military
and they have a commitment to the country, which I
(46:51):
think teaches a great deal, and then they become better
citizens and more functional citizens. So with regard to my dad,
you know his twenty three years in the army, he
was an army guy and was in World War Two,
was in Korea, and then in the reserves that shaped him.
(47:11):
He didn't graduate college, he didn't go to college, he
went to high school. But his military experience is what
led him into places where he would never have gotten
without it. And I think a lot of young people today,
what are the numbers in the ranks.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
It's dwindled substantially.
Speaker 3 (47:28):
So one of the things that most folks don't know
is for was just globar and terrorism. As an example,
only one percent of America's served in globe war and terrorism.
It's about three million Americans, but when you really peel
back the onion, it's one point five because somebody veterans
deployed more than once, which is a huge change from Vietnam.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
World War two.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Vietnam was about one in eight Americans served, So glob
War and Terrorism was about one in one hundred. Vietnam
was I think one to eight. World War two was
about one in four Americans served. You know, the number
keeps getting smaller and smaller.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
Yeah, And I think that impacts the people that are
coming back because when you came back from World War Two,
you went to the VFW and you had all your
buddies that that you were with, You had contemporaries that
all had the same experiences, and there just aren't that
many people today that have those shared experiences.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
I you know, if Daryl's heard his story many times.
I talked to a lot of veterans that would drive
from Plattsburgh or the North Country down to see doctor
Sue in the Blue Team, because he would treat all
male Global War interns and veterans.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
And I'm like, why are you driving two hours?
Speaker 3 (48:31):
And the veterans would tell me, well, I can see
other veterans my age, whereas if I'm living up at home,
I might not see a veteran for a.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Couple weeks or a month. Yeah, exactly. The sense of community.
Speaker 4 (48:41):
One of the talking points that I utilize all the
time when I'm in conversations with veterans is I tell them,
do you know if you were to walk in the
middle of downtown Albany and walk up to twenty different
people and ask them if they served in the military,
You're lucky if you find too.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Exactly, and that is.
Speaker 4 (48:59):
Wanted to talk and points that I always use as
I'm getting them to sign right here so we can
get you have their.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Benefits absolutely, and that sense of community, especially with the
experiences that they have and the need for commonality and
to know that you're not the only person feeling this way.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
You may be the only one in your community.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
Because they're just aren't that many people that deserve But
hopefully they come down and do the the treatments at
the Stratton and get that from the people that we
have here today. So I want to give your phone
numbers out one more time for anyone looking to contact
the Stratton VA.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
Darryl.
Speaker 4 (49:36):
The Enrollment and Eligibility department can be reached at area
code five one eight six two six six what is
it six seven four four six seven four four or
area code five one eight six two six six seven
four or five And as always you can always contact
the main number which is five one eight six two
(49:56):
six five thousand. Our operators will send you to the
right department.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
In the website.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
One more time, Albany v A dot CoV and I
think we can say go Army Army.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
They have a big game today, Darryl. Tomorrow's the Marine
Corps Birthday. So Marine Corps Birthday, Army is in the
top twenty. Who would have thunk ith.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
The winner of the Army Navy game, Darryl and I
the loser will do push ups.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Okay, so for the score. For the score, yeah, I
like it. I like it. We might have to go
back to the studio for that. Will send you the video.
Thank you for joining us today. We'll be back next week.
Good morning everyone, Welcome to Life Happens Radio. I'm Loupiro,
your host for this morning, and Life Happens is your
weekly radio broadcast that brings you legal issues in addition
to a whole lot more. We are a law firm,
Pierre connorvan Strauss, located here in Albany, New York, also
New York City and around New York State, and our
attorneys practice in the areas of a state planning, elder law,
(00:21):
special needs planning, business succession planning, a state and trust
litigation guardianship. And today we're going to focus on an
issue in an area that is prompted by the holiday
coming up on Monday, which is Veterans Day. And we
are very happy to have with us today people that know,
people in the know with regard to veterans and veterans benefits,
(00:44):
and I'd like to welcome them to the show. Well,
welcome one back. That's Daryl Benson. Good morning, Darryl, thanks
for having me, Thanks for being here. And we're going
to open up the phone lines, folks, So if you
have questions on VA eligibility benefits, we're going to take
calls throughout this hour, and we also have Sean Tucky
(01:05):
with us and Sean, I think this is your first.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Time to the show. It is. Thank you for having me, Lou,
and thank you for coming in. Shaan, and tell our
listeners what your role is at Stratton.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Sure, I'm a health system specialist here at the Albany VA,
so I do a little bit of everything in the hospital,
particularly with logistics in running the day to day operations
at the hospital. But before I did that, I worked
in mental health at the hospital and I have a
master's and counseling and I'm a veteran, so my main
(01:35):
area of interest was outreach when I worked in on
the clinical side of the house. So when I became
a health system specialist, I was kind of tasked with
helping with outreach for the hospital. So that's how Peter
recommended me coming to the show today.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Fantastic And Darryl, I know your role, but listeners may not.
So what do you do at the VA.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
Well, just like Sean, I'm a veteran US Army veteran,
I was first on this show as a lead and
roman specialist for Stratton VA Medical Center. Usually I was
the first person you saw when you came in to
apply and roll for VA healthcare benefits. Since that time,
(02:18):
I've taken on the role as a patient advocate. It's
important that veterans have a voice. Veterans as well as
their families. If there's some concern, if they have a disagreement,
if there's something not to their liking, or if they
just have questions, they want answers, They want someone to
talk to. They need a means of support. I think
(02:42):
all of us in this computer age are used to
calling a number and you know, getting a robot and
touch this number and dial here, dial there. Yeah, But
when you call me, I answer the phone.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
And you know he's because that voice I remember from
last time.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
You should be in this chair. You could be the
DJ with that voice.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
But your role as an advocate is similar to what
we do as attorneys, because people are confused by the
myriad health plans that are out there. You know, veterans
may be on Medicare, they may be told they should
have Medicare supplement policies. They may be using the Veterans'
hospital for all of their healthcare or some of their healthcare.
(03:29):
So talk a little bit about the healthcare side of this,
and that's the systems you came from. So we'll start
maybe with you, Sean, and then move it back over
to Darryl.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
So in terms of a healthcare it's a great time
for veterans to come in and if they've never been
to VA, use things like the Packed Tact, the new
eligibility to register and enroll. Because the example I always
used is like, you know, maybe somebody came in thirty
years ago and they were told, oh, you make too
much money to use the VIA for your healthcare.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Because it's based on it. I hear it all the time.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
With the Packed Act, a lot of that has changed.
Veteran has toxic exposures or environmental exposures. It's a great
time to come in, and I think we're using the
term like get a healthcare check up, come in and
just reregister. Let's see what you're eligible for, because there's
a good chance that you're alder on the Packed Act
and that would help you with getting stup with all
the array of health care service offer at the hospital.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And for our listeners who may not be familiar with
the Packed Act, tell us what that is in what
it has opened up for veterans in terms of additional
benefits and additional eligibility.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Sure, the Packed Act, there's a law that expands the
via healthcare and benefits for veterans who may have been
exposed to burn pits, agent orange and other toxic substance.
And that's a lot of people, and that's a lot
of veterans.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yes, it's like you have to be in the back somewhere,
you know, with the burn pit Pete Nols was open exposure.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
And I always tell veterans to keep it simple. If
you've just just served in the military, call somebody like that.
I'll come on in because that just simplifies it. Whether
because sometimes veterans we self select ourselves out and say
exactly what you said, Loo, I wasn't right next to burnpit.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I'm not all with Chris Let Darryl Design. Let's talk with.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Him, Come in me with him, bring your DT two fourteen,
and then we'll go through. Because there's like hand to do,
like sevenary pages.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Of haven't read it yet, but.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
There's all those little nooks and crannies. The the easy
answer has come. See us and talk to Daryl and
let us review the eligibility with you.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, and it's great that they opened up that eligibility
that we've had a person on here, Chris Gibson, who
has worked in the Congress and worked behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
He's a veteran.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I thank you too for your service, and all the
veterans out there today thank you for your service. But
Chris was instrumental in some of the legislation back to
open up when when people were on boats at they
weren't on land, they were out at sea and getting
eligibility for benefits because they had exposure as well. And
so the legislation has fortunately opened up new opportunities. And Darryl,
(05:57):
when someone calls the the VA, how do they get through?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And how?
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I know it's daunting for veterans because a lot of
them have PTSD, a lot of them have issues, a
lot of them don't have the ability to navigate through
that complex system. You know, log into your portal. Everybody
I have five portals, you know, every doctor, every healthcare system,
everybody has.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Their own portal. But how do they get through to
the Veterans Administration in you.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Well, the easiest way, of course is to come directly
in come into Stratton or go to one of our
satellite clinics, community based outpatient clinics and ask for an
application for enrollment. This would be Form ten. That's ten
easy echozulu. You feel this form out, you give it
(06:50):
back to the people. If you go to one of
our community based outpatient clinics, you can give it to
the staff. They'll send it to our Enrollment and Eligibility department,
the Business office, or if you come in in person,
you can go directly to the Business Office on the
first floor and you can meet face to face with
a person who can enroll you, register you into the
(07:10):
VA Healthcare system and inform you of all the benefits
and titlements that you're eligible for once you're enrolled. The
other way for those who are pretty computer savvy is
to go to VA dot gov. If your computer savvy
and you go to VA dot gov, you would have
to first start with getting an identifier. That's setting up
(07:34):
a secure account through either login dot gov or what
is called id me. Now, once you get into the platform,
after you're verified your identity is verified because it's a
secure platform, then you would be able to register online.
And of course we have the Health and Eligibility Center
in Atlanta where you can call them and they have
(07:57):
the ability to record your answers and register you by phone.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I'm going to open up the phone lines right now,
so if you have questions on veterans eligibility, the new benefits,
the New Pack Act, and we're going to go back
over some of the traditional benefits, the VA pensions and
the other health benefits that veterans have available to them.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Give us a call eight hundred talk w g Y.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
That's eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine
Again eight hundred eight two five five nine four nine,
and we're in studio with Daryl Benson and Sean Tuckey
from the VA Stratton VA Medical Center. Sean, you know,
veterans health has so many complexities and nuances, and there
(08:42):
are service connected disabilities, there are non service connected disabilities,
there are percentages of disability.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Can you just unravel.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
That for me a little bit in terms of how
those benefits get paid.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I'll do my best, so for if you can't do it,
I know, Daryl.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Well, I might lean on Darryl, because you know it's
an old joke between us, the Marines leaning on the
army to.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Save us they go.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So if a veteran serves in the military and they
injured themselves during their period of service. They are eligible
for compensation for those injuries, which is something the military
doesn't always do the best job educating veterans about. So, like,
the example I always make up is if you broke
your ankle in boot camp and you got delayed in
boot camp and you're still able to serve four years.
When you get out of that four year window and
(09:30):
you're leaving the service, you should still get that ankle
injury service connected because even if the VA Service texts
zero percent, it is a service late injury. We know
you were hurt, and you can get care for that
injury for the rest of your life at no cost. Right,
And that's probably the most basic example. From there, there's
all sorts of things that can be service related. The
Packed Act does a lot to expand that, right because
(09:54):
there's things that we know or we may or may
not know, or service related, and we want to get
veterans to come in and get care so we can
research it and dot minute. Like the example I was
make up, as we know now, if you have ah
RNGE exposure and you have these certain cancers, it's what
they call a presumptive illness.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
You're automatically eligible.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
We just needs your DG two fourteen and the diagnosis
and it gets service con nected pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
And the paperwork is so important.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
And I've had veterans come to me and say, well,
I want to get this benefit or that benefit, and
they can't trace back their discharge papers. They don't have
the availability of the documentation that you're referring to, and
all of the you know, if you're in the military,
you kind of know what these forums are, but what
(10:36):
do you do. What does a veteran do if they're
unable to put together the documentation?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Is their assistance for that?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
There are there are law officers that can law offices
that can assist. There are veteran service officers at the
county and state level. Most of the large veteran service
organizations like the VFW and the DAV we'll all assist
a veteran and helping them file acclaim because we've all
heard a story. I work with tanks, a lot of
tankers that they're very mission oriented. They don't go to
(11:06):
sit call a lot. So maybe they hurt their back,
you know, working on their tank, but they didn't go
to sit call to get a documented that happens all
the time, and I think they're a would agree with me.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I would. One of the things about serving in the military,
and I think a lot of veterans overlook, is that
usually you don't find out that you may suffer an
ailment or a health issue until years down the road.
For many of us, I'll give a perfect example tonightis
or tenatis the bell ringing in our ears. Most veterans
(11:39):
who within in the military, they suffer from that from
the machinery, the gunfire, weaponry, explosions, motor vehicles, that sort
of thing. In my experience, and I'm service connected for
hearing loss antenitis, is that I would blow it off.
The bell ringing in my ear would keep me up
at night. You know, I'll get through it. I'll be okay.
(12:02):
Until finally I started to educate myself on what that
was now here it was six seven, eight years after
the military. I found a claim for that disability and
was awarded disability compensation for that. Now, I think for
many of us, we hesitate to do that. Oh, somebody
(12:23):
else needs that, or give that to somebody else. I'm okay,
come and see us, Yeah, come and talk to us
about this.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So with regard to getting care, the VA treats all
types of illnesses in house. So a lot of veterans
rely on the VA for primary care, mental health, and
just kind of go through the other direct services that
veterans are eligible for. And I know my dad used
(12:54):
to use prescription meds, did all his prescriptions through the.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
VA, you know, in one of the v A and
Stratton in particular. It's a it's a great setup because
everything is in one building for the most part. You know,
we have primary care, we have specialty care, we have
we have cancer treatment, uh in a little building off
the hospital. We're the leading expert in cancer care for
all of New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Veterans come,
(13:18):
they stay at the Fisher House, which is in front
of the hospital, a nice little five star hotel hidden gym,
and they'll stay there and they'll come and get their
cancer treatment for however long he's being and they go
they go home. But we offer everything from eyeglasses to
hearing aids and little things.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That uh.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
That that we we don't always think about it like
hearing loss that they're was talking about earlier.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
We're really good at treating hearing loss because a lot
of veterans have hearing loss.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It's probably more common among veterans than any other group
in the population because, as you said, you're you're subjected
to that noise that the bangs on a very regular basis.
And I know a lot of people that I have
friends veterans that have some form up here, and most
of them don't get treated.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
And to your point, you know, get it checked out exactly.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
You know, as Sean said, it's a one stop shot,
and we have the expertise to evaluate and make clinical
decisions which would give you a better quality of life.
I think the professionals at our facility they're so good
at this, and they are experienced in the veteran experience.
(14:30):
I mean, if you go out in the community and
you speak to a doctor in the community, not saying
that they're bad, but I've been to a doctor in
the community and talk to them about what was going
on with me as it relates to my military experience,
and I would get that blank stare. They would just
look at me, and I knew they didn't understand anything
(14:52):
that I was talking about.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So we're gonna take a short break and when we
come back, we're going to explore the different generations of soldiers.
You know, we're kind of at the end of the
greatest generation, the World War Two veterans are dwindling down,
but then you have Korea, then you have Vietnam, then
you have all the other subsequent wars, and they all
have different problems, different issues. So we're going to unpack
that a little bit and talk more about how people
(15:14):
can access veterans benefits. And for all the veterans out
there today and their families, we thank you. We thank
you for your sacrifice, we thank you for your service.
And we're going to take a short break and when
we come back, we're going to be here live in
studio with Daryl Benson and Sean Tucky from the Stratton,
VA Medical Center. We're going to open up the phone
lines for you and we hope you can stay with us.
(15:34):
We'll be right back after this short break. I just
want to give you a heads up. We're talking about
healthcare today and in particular veterans healthcare with Veterans Day
coming up, but healthcare is a topic we address for
all of our listeners and our clients, and we'd like
you to join us for a monthly webinar series. It's
(15:58):
Medicaid Mondays, myself, Frank Hemming, Aaron Connor, and our guests,
and we have a number of guests that join us
on that webinar. It's a thirty minute webinar. It's usually
the second Monday of the month, but because that's Veterans Day,
we're going to push it a week to the eighteenth
of November. And we talk a lot about Medicaid on
(16:19):
this show, and we get talked about Medicaid eligibility, and
we're going to talk today about Veterans benefits and a
Veterans benefit for seniors who want to age at home
or an assisted living And when we talk about Medicaid,
we talk about just that one particular program that you
have to be financially qualified for. But in New York State,
there is a whole array of other benefits for seniors
(16:43):
and we're lucky to have with us on November eighteenth,
Rebecca Prevy, who's the executive director of the Association on
Aging in New York, and she's going to cover all
the non Medicaid benefits. You don't have to give away
your assets, you don't have to do all the planning.
You can access these benefits through offices for the aging
and other community resources, and Becky's going to lay all
(17:05):
that out for us.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
We hope you can join us.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
It's at twelve noon on November eighteenth, and as always,
you can sign up on our website at pyrolaw dot com. Again,
Rebecca Preview, the executive director of the Association on Aging
in New York, Myself Frank Hemming talking about all of
the non Medicaid benefits that you can access today if
you need help out in the community pirolaw dot com,
(17:30):
November eighteenth at noon. Right now, we're going to go
back to veterans benefits and guys, it's really complicated for
people when you have Medicare Medicaid VA benefits and how
do they work together, how do you make them all
mesh together. It's a really challenging area from the perspective
(17:51):
of someone trying to see where they get the best
benefit and what those benefits are. So Daryl, you counsel
people through the VA portion of this. And I was
talking about generational we've been working. My dad was in
World War Two, he was in Korea. His generation, there
are not many of them left, but they still have needs.
(18:14):
So starting with what they call the greatest generation, how
does the VA handle that aging population.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Well?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
For us in all many one of the things we
have that is unique when you think about other hospitals
in the community, we have our own community living centers
in the hospital. We have three community what we call
comunity living centers or the nursing homes that are built
into the hospital where veterans can live as residents for
as long as they need to. Two of the three
(18:44):
wars are brand new. They just opened during COVID, so
they're wonderful. How many beds fifty on four B, A
and B and then I want to say twenty four
one nine bs, but don't quote me on that.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
When I started my care or forty years ago, the
VA funded a lot of nursing home care and anybody
that was service connected would qualify. But those benefits have shrunk.
But it sounds like now there is in house care
at Stratton.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
There is.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
And then they you know, for folks that are listening,
they might not realize this, but Abeny has a very
large catchment area where we go from Kingston to the
Canadian border. A lot of veterans come from Vermont, mass houses.
Is just because it's easier to get to allpaning in
the winter. We serve I think twenty two thousand square
miles where bigger than our hospitals. Catchmentarria is bigger than
half dozen states.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Interesting, it's responsible for over fourteen thousand veterans, I believe,
just in our catchment area alone.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And I know that telemedicine has been part of the
VA and the healthcare system in the VA and the
North Country had telemedicine centers. Is that still part of
your program?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yes, we have.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
We do a lot with telemedicine. Really, it's been a driver,
it was I was. It's interesting you brought that up
because we I was talking about yesterday anriach event. You know,
little things even like like stroke.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Stroke strokes are very important, are very very serious.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
We have a partnership with the Houston VA where they
have the National Telestroke Center. So when all of our
rooms in the ED and the ICU and on our
medical surgical awards, they have the ability to beam in
an expert from the Telestroke Center as soon as they
as soon as someone suspects that veterans having a stroke,
they can get the expert on the hook through to
tel medicine, and that's very important because when youre having
(20:29):
a stroke, brains our minutes, our brain.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Is what they would say.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
The quicker we can get the medication, and if you
need it, the better the outcomes.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
I've had the pleasure of working with the Silver Team
at the VA, which is a lot of aging veterans
and a couple of the doctors there, doctor Dean Thompson,
who was one of the pioneers of the telemedicine program there,
and it was amazing because veterans are in Plattsburgh, they're
in Watertown, they're they're all over the North Country and
for them to get to the VA was virtually impossible
(20:59):
for a lot of them, but they could go right
down the road to a center.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
And how many of them are there in your catchment area?
Speaker 3 (21:08):
So we have ten community based outpatient clinics. But even
the nice thing about tell medicine is even expanded from that.
When I worked in mental health, it's like a VA
version of Skype is easiest way to explain it a
via video connect I was able to beam into one
of my veterans' homes that she had a severe injury,
so she couldn't really drive to Plattsburgh, which it was.
(21:29):
From Plattsburgh here was not feasible, but I was able
to see her face to face and have conversations. And
the nice thing about that was there's little things you
pick up when you have a video visit that you
don't wouldn't do over the phone, Like when she had
her set up. She had a large fish tank, so
we were able to talk about her fish. And I
would not have even known if we didn't have video
via video connect, would have never known she had this
(21:50):
passion for fish.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yes, it wouldn't have come up on a phone call.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
And I've had this conversation with a number of people.
Senator Ashby who was here, he was a veteran, and
we were talking about the healthcare and the telemedicine with
him because he's by trade and occupational therapist. Interestingly, and
so with that, veterans who are next door to the
VA may not want to walk in if it's a
(22:15):
mental health visit, just because of the stigma of walking
in and people know why you're there and you're in
a waiting room. But they will go into their truck
and they'll do it on their phone and they get
much more out of it through that telemedicine visit, even
if they're next door to the person, and there was
(22:35):
a lot of psychology behind that. I know you had
some experience treating those people.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
I know.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I always tell the story when I talked to veterans immunity,
when I would talk to VIT NOAM veterans, when I
worked in a crisis clinic, they didn't like coming to
the tenth floor because back in the seventies, the tenth
floor was the flight deck quote unquote ye, and the
whole war was an impatient it. Now it's all out
of pation services, but there's the stigma's real. So anything
we can do to decrease that stigma, whether it's telemedicine
(23:01):
or one of the things that VA is really a
leader and is pushing primary care or mental health into
prime care settings. They have something called behavior health.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And prime care.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
So with our primary care teams, there's usually a social
worker connected. So if doctor's talking with somebody and they're
having signs and symptoms of maybe depression, they can do
a warm handoff and connect them to a social worker
or a psychologist in the clinics. So they're seeing them
on a blue team or the Silver team and they're
not going to mental health. They're you know, they're getting counseling.
Or maybe it's a veteran who served in Iraq Afghanistan.
(23:31):
Maybe they don't want to come to the hospital because
there's statement about coming to the hospital. They might go
to the event center over on wolf Road where they
do telemedicine. There's a lot of options out.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
There, and Darryl, how do how do people get educated
on all of that? That's part of your job.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
Well as a patient advocate. I always jokingly say everything
that comes to me is a problem, but it's more
than that. I'm a resource for information, a contact. My
door is always open. Vet's come in all the time,
and you know what we want to inform them. We
want to let them know that there are options for you,
(24:07):
that this is a plague that this country made to
you for your service in this country. We honored that
pledge at Stratton Via.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And that's a great place to take a pause. We
have to break for the news in just a few seconds.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Here. We're very happy to have with us.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Today on the eve eve of Veterans Day, Daryl Benson,
patient advocate, and Sean Tucky who is with the Stratton
VA Medical Center.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
We're going to take a short break for the News.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Proud to be with two veterans here in studio. We
have with us today Darryl Benson and Sean Tucky from
the Stratton VA Medical Center. We're talking about veterans benefits
and all of the care that the government provides.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
And there is a new.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Pack Act Pact Act for anyone who has exposure to
burn pits or any of those related exposures that if
you were a veteran, now's the time to go in
and talk to these gentlemen about what those benefits are
and how you may be able to access them. And Sean,
you made a great point. If somebody tried to get
in this door and get benefits ten years ago, five
(25:09):
years ago, twenty years ago, their conditions.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Have changed and the laws have changed, and.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
So it really pays, Daryl for people to get a
freshener of this, get a new evaluation if there is
anything that has changed.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
And that's exactly correct. It used to be ten years
ago that veterans were not eligible for bea healthcare benefits
because of their incomes. They got out of the military,
they went to college, they got great jobs, you know,
they brought homes, they earned nice income, and they found
out that they were ineligible for BEA healthcare benefits because
(25:48):
of their household income. A lot of that has changed.
They have been to Iraq, they've been to other places
in the Persian Gulf, They've been to Vietnam, they were
around containment facilities in Korea. All of these things. Exposure
protocols are now in effect where you can come in
(26:10):
and be eligible for VA healthcare benefits based on that.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And again, if you have a question on any of
the VA benefits that are available out there, it's eight
hundred eighty two five five nine four nine, it's eight
hundred talk WGY. One of the benefits that our office
gets involved with, and I'm going to stick for a
minute with that Greatest Generation because as people age, one
of the fundamental issues we have in this country is
(26:37):
that there are not enough caregivers to take care of
our aging senior population, and that includes veterans. So when
people are aging, they have chronic illnesses, they want to
remain in their home, and that's a fundamental in our
office and in every law office, people come in and
they say, well, I'd love to go to a nursing home.
(26:58):
Can you find me a bed. That's not where this starts.
It starts right at the home. And can you get
services in the home, and how do you pay for
those services in the home? And Medicaid in New York
has been over the years a very generous program, but
we're seeing cuts. Two weeks ago we had Al Cardillo,
who's the head of the Home Care Association of New
York in talking about cuts to the Medicaid budget with
(27:21):
regard to home care. So when people are looking to
hunker down and stay in their home, one of the
benefits that again is often overlooked, is something called the
Aid and Attendance Benefit. And this is a supplemental pension.
It's an income that you can get if you have
certain chronic illnesses and you meet the criteria of needing care.
(27:44):
It's most beneficial if you're in the home or in
assisted living, especially because that benefit will help defray the
cost of assisted living. When you're in a nursing home,
the benefit goes down. I think it used to be
ninety dollars a month. But the benefit if it's for
a married veteran two seven hundred and twenty seven thousand
(28:06):
dollars a month. That's an enormous benefit a supplemental pension.
If you can qualify for EID and attendance a single
veteran twenty three hundred dollars, and even a surviving spouse
of a veteran can be eligible for one thousand, four
hundred and seventy eight dollars monthly, so fourteen seventy eight
(28:27):
up to twenty seven twenty seven. If there are two
vets in the home married, it can be three thousand
and six forty nine per month as a supplemental pension.
But there are some strings to qualify for this aid
and attendance benefit. You have to have served during wartime,
so there are periods of war published and if your
(28:48):
service ninety days of service within any of those time periods.
But what are some of the other criteria that the
senior veterans who want to age at home or want
to use it for assisted living can do well.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
There's a great program that the VAS offer nationwide called
the Caregiver Support Program, where they have staff that will
support the caregivering the veteran as long as they can,
like you were saying earlier, trying to stay at home
as long as possible, as long as the person's physically
able to. And they do counseling, they do support, they
do groups to help provide with caregiver burnout. Sometimes there's
(29:22):
a stipend for the caregiver to be able to provide
home care. Provide the caregiver a stipend so that they
can provide spport to the veteran in their home as well,
along with the aid and attendants and other benefits. And
that's something that like you and I we were talking
off the air, eight attendance is a great benefit a
lot of veterans don't know about. Caregivers port program is
a great program that even less veterans know about because
(29:43):
it's something that's still pretty new. The Career of Support
program as a whole got started after nine to eleven
for global and terrorism and veterans. It's just been the
last couple of years it's been expanded to open to
all eras of service.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
So eight attendants also has financial qualification criteria, and this
gets a little tricky because you have an income and
an asset test. You can meet the income test fairly easily,
but the asset test, if you get over a certain
amount of assets, you have to spend them down to.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
That eligibility level.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
But there is a way, just like we do in
our law firm with medicaid, we can create a trust
and that's our solution for most things in our office.
We can create a trust that can hold excess assets
and get the veteran to the level where this aid
and attendance benefit would be available to them. And we
call it a VA Asset Protection Trust. So that's something
(30:43):
that a lot of veterans again don't know about. The
already law school has had a Veteran's Day, they have
a Senior Citizen's Law Day, and they have a Veteran
Education Day at the law school. We've spoke my law
firm and I have spoken at that for many many years,
and we do consultations following that presentation. We don't know
the date this year, but veterans can come get educated,
(31:04):
talk to attorneys and get advice on how they could
qualify for this additional benefit.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
And the law school program is a great program. We've
pushed the information on every year because our veterans just
the tower. Each program always participates with law school, so
if folks can hear about it, it's a wonderful place
to go and contact someone like you and learn about
get in a trust, yeah, or setting up a will,
things of that nature.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Well, yeah, and the other documents that veterans should all
have and everyone should have, which is a healthcare directive,
and I know the VA has its own healthcare directive.
We do a healthcare proxy that's New York State statutory document.
But powers of attorney and healthcare proxies and the basic documents.
Does the VA have a education on that.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Well, you can certainly discuss the options that you have
for healthcare proxies and a legal power attorney through the VA.
With the social worker. Now, in the past, there were
social workers that were assigned to each primary care team.
I think we've changed a little bit. There's an uncalled
social worker every day that a veteran can can speak with,
(32:16):
but we still have clinical social workers. We still have
many of those structures in place where a veteran can
certainly sit down with someone and get guidance and get
more information and definitely guidance on how to fill out
the paperwork and get it scanned into their chart, so
there's legal documentation in their medical record.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Oh sorry.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
One of the things that the clinic clinicians are very
familiar with these things called clinical reminders, So the computer
prompts them to you know, it'll pop up when it's due.
So if I'm seeing Darryl and his clinical reminders do
for discussing this healthcare proxy, social worker, the doctor will
kind of document what your wishes are and put it
into the chart. That way, it's always their permanent.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
And so and our law firm offers free consultations as well,
so if a veteran in their family want to come in,
we'll sit down with them and go through all the
legal side of it from the perspective of a will
and a power attorney in a healthcare proxy, because that's.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
What we do as well, and I think that's very
important that veterans do that and avail themselves of this
opportunity to get everything lined up. They we're not going
to be here forever. And then there's the thing survivor benefits.
You want to make sure that all documentation is placed
so that your family is better off when you know.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
So what are those survivor benefits? Let's dig into that
a little bit.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Well, for many veterans who are service connected, if you're
thirty percent or more service connected than your spouse, your
dependents would be entitled to a survivor benefit from the VBA. Now,
it depends on their math and their formula and how
they dictate that, but they would be entitled to it.
(34:03):
And I think you have a timeframe of up to
two years to apply for that benefit. And so you
could certainly call me or social workers or more importantly
VBA reps that we have in the building. We have
Dan Ingle, who's directly from the VBA, and then we
have two New York State representatives who are in the building.
(34:25):
And also New York State is fortunate because every county
has a Veteran Service officer. Yeah, and you can go
to your county Veteran Service officer and talk to them
about survivor benefits.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah, that's so important. And this is the local resources.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
That's what we're going to be talking about with Rebecca
Prevy about a lot of the other things. And I
think she's even gonna mention because we do work with
the counties and the County Office for Aging and the
county Veterans counseling services, and they're so important to get
the word out and.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
To get people educated.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
As you said, Darryl, a lot of veterans don't want
to acknowledge they have a disability. They don't want to
admit it. They don't want to be part of a
system that rewards a disability. But at the same time,
they're suffering and they need help. So getting them through
that over that threshold is so important.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
I can give you a perfect example of that. My
next door neighbor, Dave. He was a metavac chopper pilot Vietnam.
He can't hear anything, so he doesn't hear me when
I'm yelling at him because his dog is crapping in
my yard.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
There you go.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
So I keep trying to convince him to come to
the VA to sign up for healthcare benefits to which
he's entitled to. He's a Vietnam vet, he's a metavac
chopper pilot. And he was like, always, well, give that
to somebody who really needs it, because he had a
great healthcare plan through National Grid. He was a retired
National Grid worker. Finally, his hearing was so bad that
(35:54):
he couldn't He just couldn't hear anything, and I convinced
him to come to the VA. Not only did he
get hearing devices which probably would have cost an excess
of three thousand dollars on the outside, but you also
got the service connection for the hearing laws. He also
got a service connection for his agent, Orange Exposure, and
(36:14):
he was so happy with the services that he received when.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
He got down.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Now does that trigger a survivor benefit because he has
a service connected disability of thirty percent or more?
Speaker 4 (36:25):
It does, and his wife would be entitled to benefits
if he passes on right.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
So it's it's like dominoes. You have to set the groundwork.
You have to get the paperwork in place and lay
the foundation, and things changed. Your health changes, and as
your health changes, you have the ability to increase benefits.
So how often should veterans review their the benefits that
they're receiving.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
I encourage every veteran well, I encourage every veteran to
come in once year you get a physical, and at
least once every one to two years to meet with
her review their benefits in their eligibilities with someone they trust,
like if inner service officer or somebody like Daryl, Because,
like you said, things change, and sometimes you're changed on
a time. Yeah, And I always would say when I
(37:11):
do Melo ribin events where I'm talking, folks are just
coming back from the deployment. You don't want to wait
to enroll in the VA healthcare when you have you
break your ankle playing basketball and you're sitting in the
emergency department and then the administry officer days asking you
what your address, what's your phone number? You want all
have done and taken care of us that way, if
you need it, it's there.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Well, I can see this because I know what a
death like that means to the family and to the
surviving spouse and to the children. And the last thing
that they're thinking about is so I have to go
find the paperwork to get the service connected disability approved.
But if you have that foundation, lad, I would guess
it's an easy for the for the widow or widower,
(37:50):
it's an easy transition to get to that survivors better.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
It really is. All you have to do is get
with your Bso we already have the documentation, everything is
all already in the system, and then it's just a
matter of you signing on the dotted line and us
sending the information to the VVA and then them contacting
you and letting you know what your survivor benefit or
(38:13):
what your benefits are going to be moving forward.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
So, for all of you listening right now, odds are
you're in the Stratton VA catchment area.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
This is a big station.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
It's the fifty thousand by AM station and the FM
is it puts out a pretty good signal. But chances
are you're serviced by this hospital here in Albany, New York,
the Stratton VA, which has immense resources and people.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Who are willing to work with you.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Not a phone number, not a technical program, not you know,
press one and then three and then twelve. This is
something where you can get human touch and come in
and get your rights determined, your condition can be treated,
and you can avail yourself of all the services.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
That are available through the Stratton VA.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
So how do people contact you if they want to
just make a phone call or a website, Well.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
The Enrollment and Eligibility Department, their number is going to
be five one eight six two, six, six seven four
four or five one eight six two, six, six seven
four or five. Of course you can call me. My
number is going to be area code five one eight
six two six seven four five one. That would be
my direct line. Now, keep in mind, I'm always all
(39:34):
over the building. I'm always visiting with vets, I'm always
taking phone calls, get a lot of emails, and so
just leave me a message. I guarantee you I'll get.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Back to you and we'll give those numbers out one
more time before the end of the show.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
How about the website.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
It's www dot Obaniva dot gov or you just google
Obeniva and it'll come right up.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Albaniva dot gov. Does it have phone numbers by department?
It does on the website it has.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
It has on imers by department, and also the clinic.
So if you're listening and you're near Plattsburgh, you can
look up the number to Plattsburgh Clinic and schedule appointment there.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
We're gonna take one more short break. Albenyva dot gov.
That's where you want to go. Get your rights determined,
get into the system, get things in place, because life happens,
and you never know when it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
We'll be right back. Luke Puro, your host for this morning.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
I am live in studio with my guests Sean Tucky
and Darryl Benson from the Stratton VA Medical Center. We're
thanking all the veterans out there for their service and
the sacrifices that they and their families have made, and
we're talking about the VA services that are available to
our veterans and the things that have improved over time.
(40:47):
And we were talking a little bit Daryl, because we've
had you on the show before. We've been tracking the
VA and there have been a lot of struggles and
a lot of negative publicity about the VA, but I
haven't heard a lot of that lately, so things seemed
to be in a better place.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
Oh definitely. I'd been enrolled in VIA healthcare consumer of
via healthcare benefits for forty three years, and I remember
what it was like when I first enrolled in VIA healthcare.
And I did it because my old man, a Korean
bat Korean warbat, insisted no. He told me I was
going to go in wrong. And one of the things
(41:23):
he passed upon passed down to me was You're gonna
need this later as you get older, you need more
health care, not less. That's what my old man told me.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Smart man.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Interesting, my CEO said the same thing to us as
we were leaving actiduty, Go get a physical because in
twenty years, if your niece hurt because you were jumping
up and down off the tanks, you're gonna need to
be able to help you exactly.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
And so I think as we continue to move forward,
we have different mechanisms, different systems in quality control to
let us know where we're doing good and where we're
doing not so good, and we always strive to improve
on those areas where we're not doing good. One big
(42:07):
part of that is survey responses. A VET like me,
like Sean, every time you have an appointment with specialty
team or somebody like that, you get these surveys in
the mail. I always tell vets do these surveys. Guess
who reads them?
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I do, and.
Speaker 4 (42:24):
Then I report the survey responses the leadership. This is
how we improve care at our facilities.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Yeah, it's the same with your private insurance company. Every
time you go to the doctor, you go to a hospital,
you get follow up surveys and it's important.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
I agree with that one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
It's important to give that feedback so they know what's
going on. And Sean we talked a little bit about
today's veterans and the people that have been deployed and
the people that are being deployed, and what are the
current issues that they face and what advice can we
give them?
Speaker 3 (42:59):
Well, advice I try to give every veterans to come
in and roll and get set up with care so
that you have it. That way, you can get a fit,
preventative health you know, like an annual physical things like that,
because when you're twenty two, twenty four, when you're leaving
a service, not everybody, you don't think about your health care.
As you get you get a little older, you want
to make sure it's there in place for specifically for
(43:21):
global war and terrorism veterans. The number one medical complaints,
surprisingly when we talk about this is muscule skeletal issues.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
We talk which we talk a lot about at the VA.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
We talk a lot about PTSD traumatic brain injuries, which
we need to talk about, But the number one medical
complaint of global and terrorsm veterans is muscular skeletal issues.
Because you wear only sixty pounds of body armor in
quotes only for six to twelve hours, but really it's
probably a hundred pound of body armor for eight to
twelve hours, seven.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Days a week. That's a lot of stress on the body.
It's a lot of stress in the body. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
One of the things I always tell veterans about the
VA and I know we're running out of time, you know,
Darryl said earlier. We all we do is treat veterans,
so we know about the military experience. If you're twenty
four years ol and you come in to see doctors,
seeing a blue team and say, my knees hurt, my backer,
He's not going to look at you like you have
a third eye because you're only twenty four and you
have back pain and me pain.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Right, he knows, right.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
So we do have a few more minutes, and I
want to get into these current veterans a little bit
more and how they're coming in and what you see
in the future. Right now, we don't have an active
military campaign per se, but we might and things are changing,
(44:31):
and we have fronts in the Ukraine and experiences being
gathered up over there. Modern warfare has changed tremendously. It's
drone warfare now. So how has that impacted the experience
that veterans are coming back to you with.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Well, I think it's it's changed, but it's also I
think very similar. One of the outreach events I was
out in the last year or two, we were talking
to a guard unit that they do a lot of
drone pilot work, and.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
You know, they were they.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
Were flying their planes, running their missions, and they might
just be doing a training mission, and then all of
a sudden they get orders, Hey, this might be a
high value target. We gotta go look at it, and
maybe they engage in comment. They're doing it all from
Upstate New York, flying a plane halfway around the world.
Then their tour, their shift is over, and they go home.
Very different than say, like when I was in Iraq
in two thousand and three, or you know, a Vietnam
(45:25):
veteran or a Korean War veteran.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
It's a different experience, That's what I was getting at.
It's modern warfare.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
The technology has kind of subsumed a lot of the Okay,
I'm in a tent and they have to go to
the mess hall and I'm here.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
With all of the other soldiers.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Is there some dissociation that they feel from that the
missions that they're flying.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
I think what they was guess what say is it's
they get very good compartmentalizing, but it also is it's
a different kind of stress.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Because you know, you're you're.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
You're in two different worlds at the same time, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
I would want to add, though, there's a reason why
we're the most powerful military in the world. It is
because the extent of training we undergo day in day out.
They're constantly out there, We're constantly on watch, We're constantly
on the wall, and so I think that there's an
added stress that we have to maintain this capability day
in day out.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
Yeah, thank god, we do. I experience.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
I was not a veteran, and it's a regret that
I have. I think mandatory service of some kind, and
I've talked to some of our politicians on this show
about it, whether you do a national service or a
military service, but young people should have some kind of
like in Israeli, they have to go into the military
and they have a commitment to the country, which I
(46:51):
think teaches a great deal, and then they become better
citizens and more functional citizens. So with regard to my dad,
you know his twenty three years in the army, he
was an army guy and was in World War Two,
was in Korea, and then in the reserves that shaped him.
(47:11):
He didn't graduate college, he didn't go to college, he
went to high school. But his military experience is what
led him into places where he would never have gotten
without it. And I think a lot of young people today,
what are the numbers in the ranks.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
It's dwindled substantially.
Speaker 3 (47:28):
So one of the things that most folks don't know
is for was just globar and terrorism. As an example,
only one percent of America's served in globe war and terrorism.
It's about three million Americans, but when you really peel
back the onion, it's one point five because somebody veterans
deployed more than once, which is a huge change from Vietnam.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
World War two.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Vietnam was about one in eight Americans served, So glob
War and Terrorism was about one in one hundred. Vietnam
was I think one to eight. World War two was
about one in four Americans served. You know, the number
keeps getting smaller and smaller.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
Yeah, And I think that impacts the people that are
coming back because when you came back from World War Two,
you went to the VFW and you had all your
buddies that that you were with, You had contemporaries that
all had the same experiences, and there just aren't that
many people today that have those shared experiences.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
I you know, if Daryl's heard his story many times.
I talked to a lot of veterans that would drive
from Plattsburgh or the North Country down to see doctor
Sue in the Blue Team, because he would treat all
male Global War interns and veterans.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
And I'm like, why are you driving two hours?
Speaker 3 (48:31):
And the veterans would tell me, well, I can see
other veterans my age, whereas if I'm living up at home,
I might not see a veteran for a.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Couple weeks or a month. Yeah, exactly. The sense of community.
Speaker 4 (48:41):
One of the talking points that I utilize all the
time when I'm in conversations with veterans is I tell them,
do you know if you were to walk in the
middle of downtown Albany and walk up to twenty different
people and ask them if they served in the military,
You're lucky if you find too.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
Exactly, and that is.
Speaker 4 (48:59):
Wanted to talk and points that I always use as
I'm getting them to sign right here so we can
get you have their.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Benefits absolutely, and that sense of community, especially with the
experiences that they have and the need for commonality and
to know that you're not the only person feeling this way.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
You may be the only one in your community.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
Because they're just aren't that many people that deserve But
hopefully they come down and do the the treatments at
the Stratton and get that from the people that we
have here today. So I want to give your phone
numbers out one more time for anyone looking to contact
the Stratton VA.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
Darryl.
Speaker 4 (49:36):
The Enrollment and Eligibility department can be reached at area
code five one eight six two six six what is
it six seven four four six seven four four or
area code five one eight six two six six seven
four or five And as always you can always contact
the main number which is five one eight six two
(49:56):
six five thousand. Our operators will send you to the
right department.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
In the website.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
One more time, Albany v A dot CoV and I
think we can say go Army Army.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
They have a big game today, Darryl. Tomorrow's the Marine
Corps Birthday. So Marine Corps Birthday, Army is in the
top twenty. Who would have thunk ith.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
The winner of the Army Navy game, Darryl and I
the loser will do push ups.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Okay, so for the score. For the score, yeah, I
like it. I like it. We might have to go
back to the studio for that. Will send you the video.
Thank you for joining us today. We'll be back next week.
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