And the issue with Caregiver is VA was
not doing these cases correctly.
And so they were taking veterans off who
should have it, or they were reducing
them from one tier to another without any
sort of notice or information
of why that they were reduced.
So there was this Federal Circuit case.
It went up. It was a Baudette case.
And basically when it came back down, it
reopened those old claims and are now
allowing attorneys to
be involved in them.
Because before, since it was Veterans
Health Administration, it was only dealt
with within the VHA.
There was not an option to appeal it, or
there wasn't any way you could check if
you had submitted a
disagreement to that decision.
There was no recourse for these veterans
and their caregivers.
So now with this change that Allison is
talking about, we can actually now appeal
decisions even though they're from the
Veterans Health Administration.
This new law basically allows us to
appeal to the Veterans
Benefits Administration.
Yes, and you can appeal up to the Board,
which is a huge difference.
Prior to the appeal process was only
within Veterans Health Administration.
Obviously it was very messy and that's
why this Federal Circuit case happened
and now attorneys can be involved.
So if you had these benefits and then
were taken away, I just had a new client
yesterday who he was coming for aid and
attendance and the first thing I asked,
he was a TBI veteran.
I said, "Have you heard of Caregiver?"
And he was like, "You know what? I think
I was on that a couple years ago."
And they took me off of
it and I don't know why.
Now that I want to download his records
to find out when he was taken off,
because most likely, especially being a
TBI veteran, it was probably one of those
cases where they were
incorrectly taking people off.
There was kind of no checks and balances.
So now they're trying to create checks
and balances with
this new appeal process.
But saying that, they have to create a
whole new appeal process.
So we have many of these cases, but we
have no clue what's going on with them
because they have to create a system and
train people how to review them.
If you appeal within the Health
Administration at the Board, those go to
the Board and it's kind of the same
process as in benefits.
But the ones that are internally being
appealed, I haven't
received a decision on any.
But I know there is a phone number that
you can call, which we can get where you
can check on the status of that.
The status will be probably received but
pending. The VA doesn't really seem to
have guidance yet on how
they're deciding these cases.
No, and it definitely has gotten pushed
because of the PACT Act.
I've spoken to decision review officers
and they're basically like, "It's in a
stack and we don't
know what's going on yet.
We have to get trained
on it to be determined."
But I think it is important to call to
make sure if you do have a claim or an
appeal that they have it.
Additionally with that, if you do appeal
a caregiver, let's say you were taken off
and you want to appeal it,
it's going to take a while.
However, in the meantime, you can file a
new application and do the whole process
where you do the assessments and stuff
and get on it while you're waiting for
that appeal to get that
earlier effective date.
So that's something new as well.
That's a great point. And they're
processing those original applications a
lot faster than appeals.
Yes, absolutely. It's still a process
though because you have to do the
assessment, things like that.
I would say at least three to six months.
But it is way faster than the appeals
which are to be determined.