State Helps Veterans Collect Their Due

State Helps Veterans Collect Their Due 
by Dean Baker, Columbian staff writer
 
Left, Harvey Pierce, 84, a Marine who served in World War II, can now afford to leave his home at Arbor Ridge Assisted Living in Hazel Dell for a facility with a gym to strengthen his legs.

Vancouver, WA–When he recalls being wounded in the shoulder on Guadalcanal or losing buddies in battles on Eniwetok, Kwajalein or Guam, World War II veteran Harvey Pierce chokes up and his tears flow.

But a smile spreads across the old Marine’s face when he mentions Bill Allman and his aggressive state detective program, which works on behalf of war veterans. Allman has sleuthed out a better life for the 84-year-old vet.

Allman’s intervention, under Washington’s Veterans/PARIS Program, has gotten Pierce a lump sum payment of $4,665 and a $940 monthly allowance. The money is allowing Pierce to move into a larger room in the new Orchards Village Center, a Vancouver assisted living center that fits his needs. It’s got a gym that he plans to use to strengthen his failing legs.

Pierce uses a walker to get around. He has health issues ranging from diabetes to lymphatic filariasis (also called elephantiasis), which he contracted from an insect bite received on Guam during World War II. He’s had two heart attacks and a stroke…

Aging has been hard on his golf game, said Pierce, with a grin. He worked for more than 40 years as a janitor and carpenter in Idaho and Oregon before retiring and then falling ill and seeking refuge in the Vancouver VA hospital.

Luckily, he said, he has a daughter and granddaughter in Vancouver who are registered nurses and are seeing to it he gets proper care.

He also can count on Allman, a 53-year-old Vietnam veteran who is dedicated to taking care of old soldiers. Allman entered Pierce’s life unexpectedly when he was a patient at the VA hospital.
Allman stepped into Pierce’s sickroom and told Pierce he was entitled to help through federal programs. That was good news for the old vet, who had been getting along on Social Security and a $44.50-a-month pension he got from working for 22 years for J.R. Simplot Co.

Allman offered to apply for entitlements on Pierce’s behalf.

Pierce’s daughter Ellen Burns said she was skeptical at first — worried that Allman was a con artist. But, after a few months, the payments came through, and she was impressed and grateful.

“They were just so nice,” she said of Allman and his helpers.

“Our project has grown into a statewide program, and my hope is that many more veterans and dependents will make inquiries,” Allman said. “This includes many returning Iraqi vets that otherwise may apply for public assistance because they’re unaware of our mission.”

Instead of relying on the state, many vets can get help from federal programs, he said.

Allman started the detective project in 2001 with co-worker Tim Dahlin. Veterans who move from state-run programs such as Medicaid to federal programs, such as Tricare or Champva, often receive better benefits, including lower prescription drug prices, and the state also saves money — $4.3 million so far, he said.

Under the project, more than 300 long-term care patients under Medicaid have received increased federal veterans benefits, and 2,000 veterans and family members have been enrolled in military-related health care, according to the state. Allman said the program has saved the state all that money by shifting health care costs from Medicaid to federal programs. Medicaid coverage is funded on a 50-50 federal-to-state match.

When a vet can be matched with the proper federal programs, the federal government will cover up to 80 percent of the cost of health care, including prescription drugs and nursing home care.
The program uses computer searches to identify appropriate benefits. It uses the national PARIS database, the Public Assistance Reporting Information System, which matches client records for state and federal agencies including the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs and participating states’ medical assistance programs like Medicaid.

The computer registry search sifts through state medical assistance claims to verify billings and make sure Medicaid payments are accurate.

The project identifies and refers veterans and surviving family members to the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs to make sure they explore their full eligibility for benefits, including the possibility of a monthly pension or compensation benefit from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

In addition, many military veterans and their families on Medicaid may not realize they are entitled to federal benefits or that Medicaid requires families to use the veteran’s estate to repay the state for its coverage after a veteran’s death. In some cases, that may mean a veteran’s survivors would have to surrender a family home or other assets to repay the state for coverage the veteran received prior to his or her death.

Unlike Medicaid, federal veteran’s benefits do not carry that risk. Those benefits come with no strings attached because they are granted in recognition of military service, Allman said.
“It’s just been wonderful,” said Ellen Burns. The connections that Allman has found are giving her dad a chance at a better life.

Did you know?
* Many veterans are eligible for federal medical help, but are unaware of their rights or unable to find their way through the bureaucracy to collect what’s due them.
* Help is available and can put more money in many vets’ pockets and move them off Medicaid, for which the state pays half the bill, into federal programs, thus saving both the state and the vet money.
* For information, vets should call Bill Allman, Veterans/PARIS Program manager, state Aging and Disability Services Administration, 360-397-9508, or the State Department for Veterans Affairs, 800-562-2308.

Dean Baker writes about military affairs. Reach him at 360-759-8009 or e-mail [email protected].