so
hello and welcome to cck live my name is kayla ginoffrio i'm an accredited claims agent here at
cck i'm joined today by my colleagues bethany cook and brandon piva also accredited claims agents
here at the firm today we're going to be breaking down va's caregiver program we'll just start with
the very basics what is a va caregiver care caregivers play an important role in the health
and the well-being of a lot of veterans typically a caregiver is a spouse or a family member of a
veteran who leaves their job to care for the veteran full-time due to the extent or nature
of the veteran's disability common disabilities that might require a caregiver include things like
traumatic brain injuries post-traumatic stress disorder paralysis amputation or loss of limbs
or things like deafness or blindness um so brandon what are some of the duties that a
caregiver may be performing or providing for a veteran who needs that kind of assistance
that's a good question kayla so we're going to define what are the duties of this caregiver so
essentially the duties of a caregiver involve helping the veteran with personal care services
now personal care services often refer the services a caregiver may provide to
a veteran to assist with their activities of daily living or often what we refer to as adls
va does outline that caregivers can assist with personal care services when the veteran is unable
to perform these tasks on their own these adls may include things like bathing or personal grooming
dressing and undressing eating and preparing food adjusting a prosthetic or an orthopedic
device or even assisting the veteran with their mobility supporting the veteran's safety which
can occur in instances where the veteran may harm themselves without assistance aiding the veteran
through instruction regarding their daily living environment and essentially just supporting the
veterans day-to-day life great thank you so now that we've kind of outlined very basically what a
caregiver is bethany can you give us some details about what the va caregiver program entails
sure so the caregiver program also known as the comprehensive assistance for family caregivers
program was essentially initially established in 2011 to provide benefits to caregivers of post-9
11 disabled veterans so at the time it was created in recognition of the potential time
and financial loss that can result from being a part or full-time caregiver to disabled veterans
who are in need of a high level of assistance as obviously if you are providing part or full-time
caregiving services then that might impact your ability to be able to earn an income so this
program was actually recently expanded in october 2020 congress and expanded
the mission act to include caregivers or veterans who served before may 1975 so the program is set
to expand its offerings in two phases over the next few years to encompass veterans of all areas
so it will no longer be limited to post-9 11 veterans phase one um which was effective
uh october 1st 2020 allows family caregivers of veterans who were seriously injured in
the line of duty on or after may 7 1975 to be eligible and then phase two which is effective
after two years will allow family caregivers of veterans who are seriously injured in the line
of duty between may 7 1975 and september 10 2001 to become eligible great and some of the benefits
that would be about available to these caregivers include things like a monthly stipend um travel
expenses which would include lodging and per diem while accompanying the veteran for undergoing care
access to health care insurance if the caregiver isn't already entitled to care or services under
a current health plan mental health services and counseling comprehensive va caregiver training and
respite care not less than 30 days for the program there are certain eligibility requirements that
both the veteran and the caregiver do have to meet in order to get this benefit granted
so brandon can you go over some of those requirements absolutely so eligibility is
determined typically by the veterans healthcare administration but those caregivers can appeal
those decisions that deny their eligibility so in short caregivers must be at least 18 years old
be the spouse child parent step parent step child or extended family member of the veteran and
live with the veteran full time or be willing to if designated as the family caregiver
for caregiver assistance a veteran must be a veteran or a member of the armed
forces undergoing a medical discharge having an individual or combined disability rating of 70
or higher the veteran must have served during one of the following periods kind of similar to
what bethany cook had touched on a few moments ago they need to have served on or after september 11
2001 or on over for may 7 1975. veteran must also have service-connected disabilities which were
caused or aggravated by active duty service and need at least six months of continuous in-person
personal care services so there is a number of qualifications and number of requirements
that not only the caregiver must show to va when applying for these benefits but also the
veteran must show in order to qualify for these benefits as well great and bethany what steps
is va going to take to determine whether you do meet those eligibility requirements
yeah so the thing that they'll typically do um is schedule the veteran for a compensation and
pension examination uh to determine if the veteran is eligible and how much assistance they may need
so essentially the examination is going to rate the veteran based on how they're able
to perform on the activities of daily living that um brandon talked about a little earlier
and they do that by putting their activities of daily living their ability to perform them
into one of three categories so the first category is is high dependence they rate this
with the numbers 21 to 28. if a veteran gets this reading it indicates that they need a full-time
caregiver who will provide at least 40 hours of personal care services per week the next reading
is moderate dependence they use the numbers 13 to 20 to get this determination um if a veteran meets
the moderate dependence category then they likely need 25 hours of caregiver assistance per week
and then the final category is low dependence so if they get a rating between 1 to 12. if a
veteran's in this category then they typically need 10 hours of caregiver assistance per week
besides determining how much time of caregiving services the veteran needs they'll also determine
whether the veteran needs supervision or assistance in any of the following instances
so these are safety concerns for example if the veteran has difficulty assessing risks or
experiences frequent falls has memory difficult difficulties other
instance would be if the veteran is prone to seizures has difficulty with life planning um
for example if they're unable to manage their medication schedule or their finances
as well as difficulties with mental disorders or conditions
difficulties with mood disorders or conditions and sleep irregularity great thank you bethany
go ahead i'm sorry no that's okay i'm just gonna say as just like with any other um
claim they also will consider your medical records they might request absolutely great thank you so
much um now if you are thinking that you do fall into some of these eligibility requirements and
you do want to apply for this program um va does require a specific form just like they would for
any other benefit um the form that they require for the caregiver program is the va form 10-10 cg
which is called the application for the program of comprehensive assistance for family caregivers
um the form does have sections for providing information including the
veterans identification information the caregiver's identification information
as well as information if there is a secondary family caregiver secondary caregivers may be
eligible for the same benefits that the primary caregiver is particularly in instances where the
veteran does require more than one individual's assistance as part of their daily routines there's
a lot of things that both the caregiver and the veteran should be prepared for
when they're kind of going through this claims process so brandon can you give some tips that
might help to get families approved for this program absolutely and again just like you would
state you know these difficult you know these these benefits are available but kind of you know
finding your way to applying for these benefits or even finding out you know do you apply how do you
apply what do i need to show those could be kind of difficult waters to navigate so we're going
to go over just a few tips that we have here at cck that potentially help you if you have fallen
into you know any of these circumstances while the application process for becoming approved for the
va caregiver program may seem daunting there's a few things veterans and their caretakers can do to
really kind of help boost their chances of success in applying to this program and hopefully getting
granted these benefits so when we're talking about veterans veterans should be prepared for a home
visit with a va clinician it's usually one of the first steps kind of similar to a cmp examination
the veteran will want to talk about specific activities of daily living or the adls in which
they require assistance and then you know follow through definitely with any cmp examinations that
they may be scheduled for after the initial va clinician visit now we're talking about caregivers
just some tips we have for the caregiver as well complete all the caregiver training that
is required of you um there could be a number of forms that you may have to fill out maybe a couple
you know other tasks we may need to complete make sure you complete everything so that way you can
make sure that your eligibility requirements are fulfilled another thing that we want to do just
as a veteran you know we encourage them to be honest you know during the va clinician visit with
you know exactly how much assistance they need and how often we want the caregivers
to be honest as well be honest about the type of tasks that the caregiver assists the veterans with
you know with the veterans care schedule and any other specific details that may help kind of
paint a picture of you know you as the caregiver what exactly you have to go through on a daily
basis to assist the veteran to ensure that you know they're living a safe and fulfilled life
and if you have any questions about this because again these these are difficult to navigate as the
caregiver you know you can always contact the caregiver support coordinator to assist with
any of the questions i believe their information can be found on va's website you just search for
program there's a number of resources available out there as far as faqs you know we have this
cck live that we're putting out as well to hopefully help veterans kind of navigate this
with their caregiver situation as well great now what va is going to do is they're going to take
a look at all this information and they're going to issue a decision which either grants or denies
eligibility for this caregiver program now if you are denied this benefit it
doesn't necessarily mean it's the end of the road for you so bethany can you go
into some options that veterans and their caregivers may have if they are denied
yes so this was actually only very recently clarified that you can actually go through the
appeals process with a caregiver benefit denial um but once uh the they issue a decision um
like kayla said um you do have appeal rights so if you disagree in whole or in part with a v decision
under the program of comprehensive assistance for family caregivers you have a few options
so the first option is to file a supplemental claim
and this option is only available for decisions provided by the va on or after february 19 2019 so
this would require you to submit new and relevant evidence in the new appeals system the second
option is to file a higher level review decision and this is again um only available for decisions
decided on or after february 19 2019 and the higher level review decision um you would not
be able to supply any uh new evidence they would take a look at the decision
as it was issued based on the evidence already of record to determine if there were any errors
and the last option is to file an appeal to the board of veterans appeal and this
option is actually available for all decisions regardless of the date the decision was provided
the veterans health administration also offers the clinical review process so this is different from
filing an appeal if so if you disagree with one or more um caregiver decisions regardless of when
those decisions were made um you can choose this option uh which will uh remain in vha
and there's a lot to kind of take in here it's kind of difficult waters to navigate
as we've sort of alluded to um throughout the presentation so if you are confused on what you
need to do whether you're eligible or really what your options might be we definitely do recommend
seeking help from an accredited representative whether that be a veteran service organization
or another accredited um another accredited attorney or accredited claims agent just to
kind of help you navigate the waters a little bit because we do know that it can be rather
complicated but with that i do think that's a good place for us to wrap up today for more information
on ba's caregiver program you can go ahead and visit our website at cck-law.com thank you so
much for tuning in today and be sure to subscribe to our channel for more veteran related videos
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