Newsbytes August 16, 2024

In this issue:
VA Website, Call Center to Protect Veterans
2 Years Since PACT Act Enacted
PDBR Review of Disability Claims Continues
New FRA Headquarters

VA Website, Call Center to Protect Veterans from Fraud and Scams
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced the launch of VSAFE.gov and 1-833-38V-SAFE (1-833-388-7233) – a new government-wide website and call center designed to protect veterans, service members, and their families from fraud and scams. These new resources will help inform veterans and their families of common fraud schemes, provide them with tools to protect themselves, and offer an outlet for reporting and further assistance. The call center and website combine resources from the Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of State, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, and the Office of Management & Budget to ensure there is no “wrong door” approach for veterans and service members to access reporting tools and resources to combat fraud. Fraud prevention resources are particularly critical at a time when the VA is delivering more care and more benefits to more veterans than ever before under the PACT Act, which was signed into law two years ago. This influx of new benefits may make veterans, service members, and their families targets for bad actors.
Additionally, the VA is sending cease-and-desist letters to predatory actors, conducting public outreach to educate veterans about the risks, launching this new one-stop-shop resource page for veterans, creating a veteran fraud protection resource kit, and more. All veterans, service members, and their families are encouraged to visit VSAFE.gov to learn more and find out what to do if they experience fraud.

2 Years Since PACT Act Enacted
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has noted the two-year anniversary of the enactment of the comprehensive veterans toxic exposure law, the PACT Act. The PACT Act has delivered VA healthcare and benefits to generations of toxic-exposed veterans, from Agent Orange in Vietnam to more than 3.5 million post-9/11 veterans who were exposed to burn pits and other toxins in Iraq and Afghanistan.
During these past two years, more than 1 million veterans and survivors have received compensation benefits from the VA, and more than 300,000 veterans have enrolled in the VA healthcare system. The PACT Act also made critical investments in research to make it easier to identify and treat conditions related to toxic exposure. Because of this law, toxic-exposed veterans and their families are finally receiving the support they deserve, and the VA is better equipped to care for them.
Implementing legislation as expansive as the PACT Act is not an easy task, and turning the text of the law into meaningful programs for veterans has been fraught with challenges. The VA is responsible for implementing the law, as Congress intended, and being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars Congress has provided.
One provision requires every veteran enrolled in the VA healthcare system to be screened for toxic exposure. This is intended to make VA clinicians aware of exposures their patients may have experienced and to enable them to proactively address them. The VA has conducted more than 5 million of these screenings since the PACT Act became law. However, according to reporting by Military.com, many veterans are dissatisfied with the screenings, and it remains unclear whether they are being used to guide care and treatment or simply to check a box in the veteran's medical record.
Furthermore, in May, the VA Office of Inspector General found that the department had improperly diverted $10.8 million in PACT Act funds to increase the salaries of senior executives in the VA Central Office in Washington, D.C. This is unacceptable and an unethical use of federal funds. Most concerning of all, the VA recently announced a $15 billion shortfall in the department's healthcare and benefits accounts. Mismanagement of taxpayer dollars could have a severe impact on all veterans, including those depending on the PACT Act.
The FRA is working to ensure that the PACT Act is implemented effectively. These challenges must be addressed, but they do not detract from the importance of the PACT Act. The FRA and the veteran’s community fought too hard, for too long, to help toxic-exposed veterans and the families they left behind only for this legislation to be hindered.

PDBR Review of Disability Claims Continues
The Physical Disability Board of Review (PDBR) was created by an FRA-supported provision in the FY2008 Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that reassesses the accuracy and fairness of combined disability ratings of 20 percent or less for service members who were separated from service rather than medically retired because of medical conditions.
To be eligible for a PDBR review, service members must have been medically separated between Sept. 11, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2009, with a combined disability rating of 20 percent or less and found ineligible for retirement. The PDBR claims that more than half of the reviewed claims have been upgraded to a disability rating of 30 percent or more.
The review panel is authorized to recommend an increase in a disability rating, uphold the previous finding, or issue a disability rating when the previous board did not assign one. The board, however, is not able to recommend a lower rating. Eligible veterans can request a board review by submitting a Department of Defense Form 294, Application for Review of Physical Disability Separation from the Armed Forces of the United States.

New FRA Headquarters!
As noted in last week’s Newsbytes, on August 29, 2024, FRA HQ will be moving to its new home at 1600 Duke Street, Suite 300, Alexandria, VA 22314. We will be offline from August 28 through September 3, 2024. We will attempt to keep things as normal as possible; however, some tasks may take a little longer than usual to complete as we prepare for the move. We ask for your patience during this time. Some of our IT processes are already in the cloud, while others will be down for a few days. We will need to shut down servers, move them, and then bring them back online. Our goal is to minimize the amount of time that systems, including the phone system, will be out of order. (Our phone numbers will remain the same.)