Overview of VA Long Term Care Services

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following podcast is by Mr Jim Koewler, elder law and special needs attorney helping and protecting those who need long term care. And Welcome back everyone to answers for elder’s radio network and for those of you listening on podcasts or on the radio, please check this program out on Youtube. We do have some power point sides that will be very, very um important if this is something and a topic that you’re interested in. Uh, we are welcome today by Mr Jim Kaylor and he is an elder law attorney and he is educating us again on v a compensation, and this has had to do with if you’ve been injured. Let’s say you haven’t injured while in military service, maybe it comes back later in your life or whatever. The point of the matter being is there is, there is compensation available for veterans, and so we’re talking a little bit today about how you qualify. Um, what are the determining factors? And now we’re in our last segment at this hour and we’re going to talk about long term care and of course that’s kind of my Um Maya Lane, so I might know a little bit more and I won’t be sitting here in the dark. So Much Jim before we jump into long term carriage. To me that there’s one big thing about compensation I probably ought to mention for certain diseases that are presumed to be compensable for someone who served in the military in a certain location. For example, anyone in Vietnam during the Vietnam War is assumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange. And there are cheese, I think, more than twenty uh different health issues that are now attributed to Agent Orange. And if these pop up, and you know in in in a veteran and the veteran served in Vietnam, they just forget it. It’s it’s coming, it’s it’s connected. We just assume it’s connected because we’ve seen it so much. We’re not I’M gonna fight that fight. We The v gonna fight that fight. I think we’re gonna see the same thing with burn pitts at Um at military bases, because burn pitts, you know, if they burn rubber and that put stuff into the air. They burned plastics and that put stuff in the air. They burned their trash and I realized why they do, but it puts stuff in the air and then the personnel on base breathe that Um. I think we’re gonna see the same sort of thing for the Kuwait and Iraq wars, with the war on terror that started in with the Desert Shield Um, because as it was departing as as a rocky, as a rocky soldiers were departing Kuwait, they said many, many, many, many oil wells on fire in Kuwait. So exposure to those fumes, I think it’s gonna be another level of presumptive uh connectedness. And so if we see disease, you know that maybe on a list that hasn’t out yet, and we see that someone served in Iraq or in Kuwait, we’re gonna assume it’s connected. I think we’re gonna see, because you now see these on TV. If you watch Televis, you see advertisements for it. Exposure to the water at Camp Lejune, and this has this this has very little to do with the military. It was a dry cleaner nearby that linked dry cleaning fluid into the water table and then that water got used at Camp Le June and some people were drinking stuff with per Clara ethylene in it, right cleaning fluid, and not to mention things like ct e. exactly uh, you know, T B I, traumatic brain injury, some of those things that they may be somewhat functional during their lifetime but as they get older, Um that can trigger Um Alzheimer’s Dementia, Um much more so and much more quickly, such as early onset, etcetera, which obviously here we are on talking about long term care. But that that presumption from a traumatic brain injury to a dementia hasn’t yet been adopted by the VA to my knowledge. Still have to prove that they are, that one led to the other. I’m not saying you can’t prove it. Yeah, it’s really, really obvious, but that’s like but with ancient orange exposure. If you’ve got a scheming heart disease and you were in Vietnam or you’re on one of the boats rent supplies up the river, or you were on the ships that sent the supplies out meeting, you were there when the when the sailors came back from those supply missions, or you service the airplanes that harried and then dropped the Agent Orange, you’ve got exposure. They’re not going to ask is it connected, because they’ve just presumed is connected. A scheming hard disease and type two diabetes, of the two that I immediately remember because they’re the most common, but there’s another eighteen or more of assumed are presumed conditions. If you were in Vietnam or service, UH, the supply chain, of the supply routes in Vietnam, or the airplanes that carry the the Agent Orange, we basically dropped it like it was bombs, but guess or like we were fighting a fire. Just dropped it on the forest. It was a defoliant. Knocked leaves off and make it easier to see the enemy. Long Term Health Effects. So now that I’ve used my time up to hit those presumptive things, I want to talk about Va Long Term Care Services. The this is not money. V A compensation is money. Va Pension is money. Via Long Term Care services are actual services administered through the through the health side of the V A, the same group that runs the hospitals for good and for ill. The same group that runs the hospitals, okay, but there are number of services available. GERIATIC evaluation is available through be a long term care services. Adult Day healthcare is available, respite care. Granted, that’s taking care of of a veteran who qualifies, but it’s a break for the family and the care verse. Okay, and skilled home healthcare, so nurses and therapists at home. But you flip over to the Medicaid side. It’s the medical versus non medical. The AIDS who clean you up after you go to the bathroom and who help you shower. That’s non medical. The nurses and therapists who come the you know, nurses taking the wealth pressure in and giving you I v S and inserting I v Needles, are changing I v bags or whatever? Or are the therapists with speech, Occupational Health Therapy, physical therapy, etcetera. Um, those are all skilled or medical healthcare. Va offers home healthcare that is skilled. Does not yet seem to offer Um home healthcare that is non skilled. But adult day healthcare may cover some of that. Granted it’s not in the home. May Have to go to adult day center. Okay, Um, but those services are available. And then a number of services that are tied to being in a particular residence. Va Helps Support Assistant Livings. They have a number of assistant living communities where they have a contracts can be there really inexpensively or maybe even free. Um, there are personal care homes, which is like an assistant living even smaller them here in the state of Washington. Can Adult family homes? Yeah, Yep. Family care homes are are kind of similar. Um, and then group living homes, where you don’t quite need as much care, but they are group living homes against supported by The v A. Psychiatric Community residential care homes. Yeah, okay. So now we’re talking mental health issues. So it’s kind of group home living or personal care home, but maybe with some security and a focus on psychiatric and psychological care more so than your routine health care. Okay, not that not to say that psychological care isn’t health, but it’s right exactly. Um, there are v a community living centers. So that’s all Va. That is all Va. They have a lot of contracts with community nursing homes, yea. And then most states, maybe all, have at least one state veterans home. Now these are as, I understand them, mostly operated by the state but overseen by The v A. Right, so there’s a partnership there between the State and the V A and operating these homes. So now those are all the veteran has to live somewhere. Now the services I’ve described here in v a long term care because they’re through V a health are not available to the spouse or dependence. So this does not go to parents, children and and spouses, like compensation does. It doesn’t go to surviving spouses like va pension does. This is v a healthcare, not in a V A hospital, because that that’s a different animal. But that’s not a long term care. Okay, that’s a cute stuff. Same, uh, same arm of the V A. I’m assuming they’re kind of divisions with NBA health so that the people operating the hospitals aren’t all spent an equal amount of time operating along the long term care arm because there are two different skill sets. Uh. But it all is under the same V A health umbrella. Okay. And then to qualify for this, have to qualify for V a compensation or va pension. have to have income low enough to qualify. So then it’s kind of the pension test. UH, and I don’t know that there is a heart and fast number on that because some of the costs of costs of living and costs of these services around the country vary so widely, where as a, you know, va pension is simply does your income uh cover your health costs and if not, so that’s very dependent on your income and cost of healthcare. But compensation is just were you injured ill or ill because of something of military and you’re now disabled, here’s money. It’s the same in Washington as it is in California as it is in Ohio. Compensation rates don’t vary by location. Okay, but if you have other government benefits available, a k a Medicaid, then you may not qualify here because if Medicaid is gonna pay for V a doesn’t want to. But these, these are available. Medicaid may pay for the spouse. Medicaid may pay for the spouse because these these V a long term care might pay for the spouse. That there’s different types of ways in which that’s what an elder law attorneys for. Yep, exactly. And just as a parting note, if anyone is watching this on Youtube, they may have noticed the National Business Institute logo and the lower right these are slides for a presentation I’ve done for NBI a number of times now. First did it for a seminar aimed at Ohio attorneys, but they couldn’t find a volunteer for New York seminar. So I did it. I think I did one for Georgia recently. I’ve got one coming up for Connecticut and I just rearrange these. It’s a little bit to be able to cover the same topic. So yes, they were for NBI, but these are still Jim Kaylor slide. Well, we’re thrilled to have you on the program Jim Again. Um. You know you always educate us and your information is so badly needed. So thank you so much for being with us our thank you. Good to be here and for each and every one of you, we’re very glad you’ve been with us this hour talking about v a compensation. And for those of you that are interested in reaching out to Jim in Ohio. Jim, how do we reach you? You can check out my website at protecting seniors dot com and there’s a contact page there, or you can reach me through an email I have created specifically for answers for elders. J Kaylor. My Name J K O E W L E R Dash. So one dash, one hypher a f e like answers for elders. So J Kaylor, dash a fee at protecting seniors dot com. Yes, I’m fussy about me emails. I’d like to know how people found me. Well, we like that you are with us this hour and certainly always, and so to each and every one of you. Have a wonderful week and until then, be good to each other. State of Ohio residents, you have a friend to help you navigate long term care while protecting your assets. You can reach Jim at www dot protecting seniors dot com, or just email him at J K O E W L E R Pyphen a F e. that’s J Kaylor a F E at protecting seniors dot com.