FYI Series #22
Did You Know?
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Online Reimbursement Form
Veterans Affairs (VA) has initiated online form VA Form 10-3542 (Veteran/Beneficiary Claim for Reimbursement of Travel Expenses) as a simple way to apply for mileage reimbursement without standing in long lines at your local VAMC. Contact your local VAMC Beneficiary Travel office for details as application process may differ from VA to VA. Travel benefits are subject to a deductible. Exceptions to the deductible requirement include travel for a compensation and pension examination and travel by an ambulance or a specially equipped van.
VA to Remove SSNs
A bipartisan Senate bill proposes removing Social Security numbers of U.S. veterans from all Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) information systems within the next five years in an effort to reduce veteran identity theft.
The Veterans’ Identity Theft Protection Act was introduced on June 16, 2016, by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and is co-sponsored by Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas.
The bill would require the VA, the nation’s largest healthcare provider, to discontinue the use of Social Security numbers with new claims for benefits within two years, and for all other veterans whose data is already in VA systems within five years. The VA, however, would still be permitted to use Social Security numbers if it needs to exchange information with another system outside of the agency that requires the use of those identifiers.
Combined Ratings Table
VA disability ratings are not additive, meaning that if a veteran has one disability rated at 60% and a second disability rated at 20%, the combined rating is not 80%. VA uses the Combined Ratings Table to calculate a multiple disability ratings.
The VA uses the Combined Ratings Table to compute the combined disability. The highest percentage to the lowest percentage is used. The highest minus 100% gives the “efficiency” for the highest degree of disability. Then the second is computed and so on to derive at a combined disability. The combined rating is then rounded up or down to the nearest 10%.
New Task Force Investigating for Remnants of Agent Orange A new investigative task force will “review and record reports from the community” on the use of polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, DDT and Agent Orange on Guam. According to a recent news release.
The task force will reach out to the community, review records and compile recent research data, and will attempt “to correlate these environmental pollutants with an array of congenital health problems that plague the island of Guam.
Agent Orange at Andersen AFB
Recent reports of use of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange at Andersen Air Force Base during the 1960s and 1970s has prompted several Guam officials to request a briefing from the military detailing the handling of Agent Orange at Andersen.
The request came after 68-year-old veteran Leroy Foster went public, saying he sprayed Agent Orange at Andersen AFB. Shortly after that, local 72-year-old veteran Gerard Laitres detailed Agent Orange use he witnessed at Andersen AFB in the 1960s.
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