THE VETERANS ADMINSTRATION
I am one of a handful of California attorneys who is accredited with Veteran's Administration. Without such credentials one cannot help a lay person with a claim. I have helped many people get the aid and attendance benefit. I have railed on those companies who "help people for free" as they are really trying to get a family to hide their money in annuities that have a great commission attached. These companies have been prohibited from continuing with this charade in California.
As of January 1, 2013, new senior protection statutes came into effect. These statutes outlaw certain practices of insurance agents who have been plying the senior annuity market. The new laws make it illegal for an insurance agent to use the delivery of legal documents as a means for gaining entrance into a senior's home. They also make it illegal for an insurance agent to receive any direct financial incentives for any transaction that leads to a senior acquiring veterans' benefits and severely restricts certain sales practices.
If you want to read more about this you can click here: http://cclawyer.cccba.org/2013/02/new-senior-financial-abuse-protection-statues-for-annuity-sales-practices/. Watch out! There is no free lunch. If you are invited to a free talk at which they promise to do the foot work for free... run away (as fast as you can). Even if (or especially if) this is at your senior facility.
Now, to the abject incompetence of the Veterans Administration: I have been extremely frustrated over the years with the VA's denial of valid claims. To me, the scandal with the VA goes beyond the fake waiting lists. I believe that there is a culture of deny deny deny.
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Molly Forrest is a good friend of mine and the CEO/President of the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging. She forwarded her thoughts and this article to me about the VA and the US Healthcare system. I have to share it with you now...
Molly's note:- Inside healthcare & certainly in governmental policy discussions, there has been a long-standing acknowledgment of the shortages in the labor force of medical professionals. The nursing shortage is much more in the public eye; the shortages of physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants are less well-known. The recent VA delays in providing veterans appointments for medical care should be discussed. Certainly the VA needs physicians; the US healthcare system needs more.
Just in the short time the Affordable Care Act has been in place, approximately six (6) million Americans have enrolled in the Medicaid program. Now that these new Medicaid beneficiaries have access to doctors and healthcare, the issues associated with delays in accessing care will begin to appear in the news. The inability to access healthcare cannot be attributed to the new healthcare program; the problem, as you will read below, has been ignored for decades...and it will take resources, commitment and decades to fix.
VA Hospital Fiasco a Harbinger on Nation's Physician Shortage
John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media , June 4, 2014
The big problem at the VA is that it's competing for doctors with every hospital in the country, physician practices, insurance companies, urgent care centers, retail clinics, and community health centers.
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