In a report released in September, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) credited the Department of Defense (DOD) with improving practices to mitigate the risks of exposure to burn pits, but stated that the DOD still needs to ensure that “research specifically examines the relationship between direct burn pit exposure and long-term health issues.”

In the report, the GAO also states that there has not been enough progress over the issue of burn-pit exposure since it was discovered more study was needed five years ago.

The report warns that “The current lack of data on emissions specific to burn pits and related individual exposures limits efforts to characterize potential long-term health impacts of service members and other base personal.”

Right now, the VA’s official position is the research thus far has not established evidence of long-term health problems from exposure to these pits. Since the Department of Defense has not undertaken the necessary research and the Government Accountability Office acknowledges the problem, the VA should give the benefit of the doubt to the veteran. Unfortunately, the extent of the damages to our Veterans may not be confirmed for decades when delayed war casualties slowly emerge.

The Employment-Based Fifth Preference Immigrant Investor Program, known as the EB-5 program, and administered by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), permits immigrant investors who meet certain requirements to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the United States. To be eligible, an immigrant entrepreneur can directly invest $1 million in a business that will create 10 or more jobs, or invest half that amount in an area that is rural or has high unemployment while creating 10 or more jobs. Alternatively, immigrant entrepreneurs can invest in a project through specially set up and approved EB-5 Regional Centers with the same investment amount break points, but where the entrepreneur can be credited with indirect creation of 10 or more jobs.

USCIS had previously conducted multi-agency EB-5 fraud risk assessments in fiscal year 2012 and again 2015 as one-time efforts. While USCIS acknowledged the constantly evolving nature of new fraud schemes, it lacked plans to conduct future risks assessments. GAO recommended regular future fraud assessments be done and USCIS agreed. In February 2016, USCIS agreed to develop such plans by the end of this fiscal year.

According to Gambler’s testimony, while USCIS has increased the size and expertise of its workforce to assess job creation, USCIS still needs to develop a strategy to enhance its information collection, and a methodology to analyze information submitted on program forms to better evaluate the actual number of jobs created and to determine whether the investment amount was appropriate. The GAO recommended that USCIS track and verify data to confirm total investment and jobs created and DHS agreed to implement this recommendation by the end of fiscal year 2017.

No government agencies track data on theft of Social Security numbers from Medicare cards, but it is clearly a problem. The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced the recovery of $4.3 billion from attempted federal health insurance fraud schemes in a single fiscal year – a record high.

In 2007, the George W. Bush administration ordered all federal agencies to cease any unnecessary use of Social Security numbers. And the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) acknowledges the need to remove SSNs from Medicare cards. But doing so would cost between $255 and $317 million, according to a Government Accountability Office report – funds that are hard to secure.

In the meantime, the AARP recommends seniors do not carry the cards, saying it is usually unnecessary to do so. An AARP representative told Reuters her recommendation for seniors who are uncomfortable being without the card is to make a photocopy of it with the first five digits of their Social Security number masked out. Then you can have proof of Medicare enrollment with you, just in case, while protecting yourself from identity theft.

The elder law attorneys at Hook Law Center assist Virginia families with will preparation, trust & estate administration, guardianships and conservatorships, long-term care planning, special needs planning, veterans benefits, and more. To learn more, visit http://www.hooklawcenter.com/ or call 757-399-7506.

‘Pension Poachers’ are “helping” veterans hide assets to ensure they qualify for Aid and Attendance, typically by charging high fees to set up annuities and trusts (up to $10,000).

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has an outrageous backlog of disability claims, reported to amass more than 600,000 claims in all. Both compensation benefit and Aid and Attendance (Pension) benefit applicants are suffering an 8 to 18 month waiting time for benefits to be approved.

(Read more: Skilled Nursing Facilities Face Harsh Reality and Financial Pressures)

The New York Times reports that the VA indicates that there is a specific reason why Aid and Attendance claims are being held up: ‘pension poachers.’

Aid and Attendance or Improved Pension is a benefit available to disabled or aging wartime veterans, in addition to surviving spouses of a veteran who now require assistance covering the cost of care. This benefit helps supplement income being used to pay for medical expenses, including caregivers at home, or adult day care, or care in a facility personal care or skilled nursing. When compared to Medicaid eligibility, it is a simple application. However, there is an asset limit which is where the so-called ‘pension poachers’ apply.

In an effort to prevent lawyers from making the process adversarial, the VA has a prohibition against paying for expert help. Dating back to Civil War times, this prohibition, in modern times, has the opposite effect as intended. A predominant number of families learn about the Aid and Attendance benefit from experts who are also financial planners. These planners often specialize in helping families apply for benefits from the VA but frequently use financial products like annuities and trusts to reduce the assets to within reasonable limits.

(Related: Michigan seniors feel effects of federal cuts)

This variety of planning is not in violation of VA rules since the VA does not currently have a “look back” for transfers when applying for Medicaid. With that said, deferred annuities can be both devastating and expensive for an elderly person, and an irrevocable trust can result in the person’s disqualification from Medicaid if he or she needs to enter a nursing home within the next five years.

(Related: Rural Areas Could Suffer In States That Opt Against Medicaid Expansion)

The system is being clogged by pension poachers who are preying on veterans, who are submitting thousands of applications for people for whom this benefit was not intended. Senator Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina have introduced a bill to cap “bogus claims.” In part, they are relying on the Federal Trade Commission reports and the findings of an undercover operation by the Government Accountability Office that determined that financial and estate planning professionals are “helping” veterans hide assets to ensure they qualify for Aid and Attendance, typically by charging high fees to set up annuities and trusts (up to $10,000). Senator Wyden believes by reducing the abuses, they will reduce the backlog. They added that the benefit was not intended to help veterans save money for their heirs.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130609/LIFE01/130609326/-pension-poachers-blamed-for-backlog-in-approval-of-va-applications

Christopher J. Berry is a Michigan elder law attorney Dedicated to helping seniors, veterans and their families navigate the long-term care maze. To learn more visit http://www.michiganelderlawattorney.com/ or call 248.481.4000

The wars in Iraqa and Afghanistan have dragged on for over a decade now. Since 2001, the U.S. has sent more than 2.2 million troops to battle, more than 6,600 were killed, and 50,000 were injured. This is a dismal reality of war.

However, the strides that have been made in medicine as a result of the war are astounding. The signature wounds of both conflicts, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI), have led the Department of Defense to apportion hundreds of millions of dollars for research studies and treatment.

In the past six years, the Department of Defense has invested a minimum of $2.7 billion in understanding psychological and neurological injuries. $700 million has been apportioned for TBI research which has included an effort to develop a portable diagnostic tool for TBIs. Additional funding has gone towards researching combat wounds that failed to heal, partly attributable to unique bacteria present in Afghanistan.

The VA has its own set of priorities when it comes to researching. The VA is currently faced with rehabilitating veterans who have suffered complex wounds and are considered “polytrauma”, those who have sustained injuries to more than one organ system, or have severe brain injuries, or are amputees, or were severely burned. VA has worked on improving how it coordinates care to this group of veterans. It’s also worked on developing hearing and vision implants as well as robotic prosthetic devices. It even has pioneered its own TBI program which explores different treatment modalities like personalized medicine and nerve regeneration.

There are challenges in coordinating massive research programs and implementing them for our troops and veterans. A January 2012 report by the Government Accountability Office found that the Department of Defense’s mental health and TBI research needed better quality control mechanisms to report financial data. However, despite these limitations, some of the world’s best researchers and massive amounts of money are being utilized in an attempt to assist our nation’s troops and veterans.