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edition of cck live my name is Brandon paiva and I'm an accredited claims agent here at Chisholm
Chisholm in Kilpatrick and with me today I'm joined by my two colleagues Alex Gamache and
Matt Fusco who are both also accredited claims agents here at cck today we're going to break
down the difference between what VBA and what VHA are so essentially we're going to determine what
is the difference between what is the Veterans Benefits Administration and what is the Veterans
Health Administration and then we're going to touch a little bit about how they may interact
or intersect with one another so first I think we'll start with defining what VBA is because
that seems to be where we do most of our work and what our clients might be more familiar
with so Alex can you talk to us a little bit about what VBA is and what VBA does yes so the
veterans benefit Administration or the VBA as well abbreviate it moving forward is one of the three
branches of va that manages the disbursement of benefits to Veterans and their dependents
um the VBA jurisdiction spans from disability compensation to pension loan guarantees Education
Services and Vocational Rehabilitation the VBA is led by the under Secretary of benefits who
works under the Secretary of VBA so there are four branches to the VBA that we're going to
be talking about and they're all underseen by the undersecretary so the first Branch we're going to
talk about is the office of strategic planning and this Branch handles a strategic and operational
planning of the VBA including implementing the VA and VBA strategic plans and properties
the second branch is the office of Deputy under secretary for disability assistance
and this Branch Works closely with the regional offices and manages the
administration of benefits and services to Veterans their family members and survivors
um this Branch oversees the Opus of compensation which is the office that administers monthly
payments to the veterans for their service connected condition but they also oversee
pension fiduciary insurance and benefit assistance service the third branch is the office of Deputy
under secretary for Economic Opportunity and this Branch oversees programs such as
Vocational Rehabilitation transition assistance employment Education Services and Loan guarantees
and finally the last branch is the office of Deputy under secretary for field operations
and this manages the operations at the VA Regional Offices records Management
Center and appeals Management Center and these offices handle veterans claims for compensation
pension Vocational Rehabilitation and housing benefits perfect thanks Alex so essentially
VA deals with benefits seems to be where we kind of do most of our work so now we've kind
of explained what the framework is and what VBA is and the different branches contained
in the veterans benefits Administration let's talk about what vah is and try to explain you know the
difference and maybe what VHA is overall Matt can you tell us a little bit about what VHA is
I can so the veterans Health Administration or VHA is the largest Health Care Network in the United
States the largest branch of va the VHA is led by the under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for health
now VHA is tasked with serving the millions of veterans enrolled in VA Healthcare it's
made up of 1243 Health Care Facilities 172 of which are VA medical centers and 1062 of
which are outpatient sites with varying purposes those facilities are divided based on geographic
location into 18 veterans Integrated Service networks and VHA itself is made up of several
types of medical facilities Each of which serves a different function for veterans
veterans Health Administration medical centers are usually large Hospital facilities located
in major cities across the United States and each Medical Center offers traditional hospital-based
services and some offer Specialty Care Services such as and this is a long list so bear with me
Mental Health Services Orthopedics Pharmacy Radiology Physical Therapy Audiology and Speech
Pathology Dermatology Dental Services geriatrics neurology and Vision Care
another portion of VHA is called community-based outpatient clinics which are facilities contracted
by VA to provide veterans with common outpatient services such as health and wellness visits
without having without those veterans having to actually visit a VA Medical Center themselves
there are also Community Living centers or nursing homes which are skilled nursing facilities for
veterans with stable chronic conditions who need Rehabilitation or who require Hospice
Care there's also VHA domiciliary care facilities which provides veterans with
short-term residential medical or psychiatric treatment and Vocational Rehabilitation in a
home-like environment for those veterans and lastly there are vet centers which offers
free Outreach Services and Readjustment counseling to all combat combat veterans
great thank you Matt and thank you Alex as well for your explanation so essentially when
we're talking about VBA veterans benefits Administration we're sort of dealing with
um the administration uh Department of Veterans Affairs that deals with dealing with disabilities
and paying veterans or potentially paying Veterans for their disabilities whereas VHA
is more so the treatment of those conditions so I think those are kind of the main differences
where we represent and do a lot of our practice at VBA the veterans benefits Administration you
know VHA is essentially responsible for treating those veterans and some of our clients for those
conditions so now that we've kind of laid the framework generally kind of go over what
VBA is what VHA is and you know very generally speaking differences between the two you might
be wondering well how or when do these two kind of seemingly separate entities kind of interact
so there are some instances when VHA and VBA actually do work together most notably this is
when a veteran is required to attend a CMP or a compensation and pension examination
when this occurs VBA usually reaches out to schedule an exam at a local VA Medical Center
through the veterans health administration when the exam is complete the results will be sent to
VBA or the veterans benefits Administration for review if the veteran had Care at any other vamc
or non-va provider they can sign what's called an Roi which is a release of information which
permits the provider to send records directly to the veterans benefits Administration so just
because you may seek your treatment exclusively at a VA Medical Center doesn't mean that if you
also treat privately that you can't send your records over to the veterans benefits
Administration in support of say your disability compensation claim you can certainly do so so
those are kind of how those two interact but what I think is really important to note is VA doctors
will likely not know anything regarding a veteran specific claim for VA benefits
that's really handled by VBA and really not VHA although they do sometimes work together and
intersect it doesn't necessarily mean that both entities are going to have the same information
any questions that you have about VA claims if you do have any questions about VA claims or your own
claims or your own appeal that should be something that you can bring to VBA maybe represented by a
vso or any other representative that you may have that may be assisting you through that process
so I think we've kind of generally touched on and explained differences between what VBA is
what VHA is and also kind of touched on what you know what circumstances they may interact
so I think we've covered a good amount for this cck live today as always check out our
website for more detailed information on the veterans Health Administration
and Veterans Benefits Administration and we also want you to be sure to subscribe
to our channel to catch our other videos as we post and as always thank you for watching
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