Fort Gordon Retiree E-Notes, August 2006

1. Note From the Fort Gordon Retirement Services Officer:
I can be reached at 706-791-2654 and Mr. Beaty, my CRSC assistant, can be reached at 706-791-1967. Walk-ins are welcome, however, appointments have priority. 
Hillary Boyce, Fort Gordon Retirement Services Officer

2.RETIREES ELIGIBLE FOR BONUS:

The Army expanded to retired Soldiers eligibility for the $1,000 recruiting referral bonus on June 1.

This newest recruiting incentive pays retired Soldiers a $1,000 lump sum for referring applicants who enlist, complete basic training and graduate from individual advanced training.

The Secretary of the Army is granted the authority to pay a bonus to any individual who refers to an Army recruiter a person who has not previously served in the Armed Forces and enlists in the active Army, Army National Guard or the Army Reserve.

The referral may not be an immediate family member and the retired Soldier referring may not be serving in recruiting or retention assignment or as a Junior ROTC instructor.

Army retirees includes active Army retirees and Army reserve component retirees-including reserve members who have transferred to the retired reserve but have not yet reached 60 years of age. 

Since the $1,000 referral bonus for currently serving Soldiers was initiated in January, the referral web site has received more than 5 million hits, resulting in approximately 5,000 referrals, 500 contracts and 100 recruits who have begun training.

The Army presented the first $1,000 check on June 8 to a retiree. For more information about this pilot incentive program, retirees should call 1-(800) 223-3735, Ext 6-0473, go to www.usarec.army.mil/smart or contact the local Retiree Services Office.

For referrals to the Army National Guard, retirees should call 1-(800) GOGUARD 1-(800) 464-8273 or go to www.1800goguard.com/esar.

(Association of The United States Army/AUSA News  August 2006)

3. RETIREE DAYS ARE CHANCE TO LEARN:

The Army has a "RADical" way for retired Soldiers and family members to learn more about retirement benefits and, perhaps, even take advantage of free health screenings.

Retiree Appreciation Days (RADs) are one or two day gatherings, held annually at major Army installations and other sites, to give retired Soldiers and their families up-to-date information on the Army and on retirement benefits.

The potential audience for RADs is great in more ways than one.

First, retired Soldiers and spouses number more than a million worldwide.  And, of course, military retirees and spouses from all services are welcome at RADs, increasing the number of possible attendees.

Second, every RAD audience is "great" according to the Army, because the audience members represent thousands of years of service to our country, in war and peace.

Many RADs include "county fairs" with health tests such as blood pressure screening, and representatives from numerous organizations and agencies such as the VA in attendance.

Some fairs feature special events such as a dinner or golf tournament.  The installation exchange and commissary often get involved, conducting special sales and other retiree-related events.

RADs are put together by the installation Retirement Service Office (RSO), often with the help of the installation retiree council and other retiree and spouse volunteers.

These events also provide retirement information for retirees, Soldiers and family members, with guest speakers covering topics such as health care, retired pay, Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) law changes and the current SBP open season, veterans' benefits, Social Security, military legal aid and the continuing connection between retired Soldiers and the Army.

(Association of The United States Army/AUSA News August 2006)

4. VETERAN'S ISSUES IN PROGRESS:

House Action

H.R. 616 - Cosponsors:  39

Provides for a reduction in the backing of claims for benefits pending with the Veterans' Administration.

Introduced by Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif.

Referred to Committee:  Veterans' Affairs

Senate Action

S.13 - Cosponsors:  24

Establishes a mandatory funding formula to provide for the care of veterans enrolled in the Veterans' Administration (VA) system.

Authorizes concurrent payment of military retired pay and VA disability compensation to all retired veterans with a VA-related disability.

Authorizes a Montgomery GI Bill enrollment opportunity for Veterans's Education Assistance Program (VEAP) decliners.

Introduced by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii.

Referred to Committee:  Veterans" Affairs

(AUSA Resolutions 06-04)

5. Enrollment-Tricare for Life (TFL):

Many retirees or beneficiaries ask "How do I enroll in Tricare for Life?"   Answer-you don't.  You are automatically eligible for TFL at age 65, as long as you are a participant in Medicare Parts A and B and your information in DEERS is current.  Tricare for Life is only accepted by physicians who accept Medicare.  When your physician files a claim to Medicare, Medicare will pay their share and automatically forwards it to Tricare to complete the transaction.  The majority of retirees and beneficiaries, who were born in 1943 and after, do not qualify for full Social Security until, at the earliest, age 66. Still they WILL qualify for TFL at 65, IF they are enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B.  Even if you are not going to be collecting Social Security, you should enroll in Medicare three (3) months before you reach age 65.  Otherwise, your Medicare medical insurance (Part B) could be delayed and you may be charged a higher premium.  For more information, contact www.socialsecurity.gov/planners   or call 1-800-772-1213 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. M-F.

6. 100,000 Disabled Retirees Due Retroactive Pay:
Retired Army SSgt. Daniel F. Purinton, 71, has argued for almost two years that the Department of Veterans Affairs owes him an additional $8044.
Purinton said the underpayment occurred as DoD and VA officials implemented a complex series of laws, starting in 2003, to end for many retirees the ban on "concurrent receipt" of both military retirement and VA disability compensation.
Purinton is right, but he also is far from alone. Back pay is owed to roughly 20,000 recipients of Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) and 78,000 recipients of Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP). Total back pay owed is said to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Within the next two weeks, Defense officials hope to resolve final details with the VA on how their underpayments will be calculated, how processing costs will be shared between departments, how retirees will be notified and when most of these retirees can expect to be paid.
Most of the payments have to be calculated manually, rather than by computer, so it could take six months for retirees to be fully compensated, officials explained in a draft press release recently shared with Purinton.
Those eligible for back pay have combat-related injuries and illnesses, or service-connected disabilities that the VA rates as at least 50 percent disabling. All of them also had military careers of lasting 20 years or longer.
The delay in fully compensating these retirees can be blamed in part on the twisted path Congress chose for bringing some disabled military retirees relief from the century-old ban on concurrent receipt.
The ban requires that retirees who receive tax-free VA disability compensation accept a matching reduction in taxable retired pay. The dollar-for-dollar offset remains in effect today for retirees with non-combat disabilities of 40 percent or less. Also left out of recent law changes are veterans forced by their disabilities to retire short of 20-year careers.
A total of 222,000 military retirees, however, have seen their incomes climb as a result of CRSC, CRDP or both. Almost half of them, whether they know it or not, are owed more, in some cases thousands of dollars.
CRSC took effect June 1, 2003. Early payments were limited to active duty retirees who applied and were found to have combat-related disabilities of at least 60 percent, or disabilities of at least 10 percent for which they received the Purple Heart. Eligibility was expanded on Jan. 1, 2004, to retirees having any combat-related disability including reserve retirees.
CRDP, which took effect January 1, 2004, is payable to 20-year retirees with disabilities rated at least 50 percent but not tied to combat. CRDP payments are being phased in and will end the retired pay offset for seriously disabled by retirees by 2014. The size of the reduction varies by level of disability. Changes for 2005 and 2006 will end the retired pay offset faster for the most seriously disabled retirees.
Dealing with the complexity of CRSC, CRDP, military retirement and VA compensation has stressed the VA and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) and frustrated some retirees. The experience of Purinton, from Flushing, N.Y., might be typical.
In July 2003, after Congress enacted CRSC, Purinton applied to the VA for a service-connect disability for his prostate cancer. He had served a year in Vietnam. His illness was presumed to be related to wartime exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange. In November 2003, Purinton was found 100-percent disabled and awarded disability compensation retroactive to July.
The VA, however, withheld some of the retroactive payment, enough to equal military retired pay Purinton had received since July. That made sense, Purinton said, because the ban on concurrent receipt still applied.
All that Purinton needed to do at that point was to declare on his 2003 tax return that retired pay received since July should be treated as tax exempt, like the VA compensation previously withheld.  
But in December 2003, Purinton used his VA disability rating to apply for CRSC. Payment was approved in February 2004. CRSC, in effect, replaced monthly retired pay lost to the ban on concurrent receipt. But CRSC is tax exempt. In addition, Purinton continued to draw tax-free VA compensation.
All of that was fine, but CRSC eligibility was retroactive to July 2003. That means the VA owes Purinton the money it withheld from that retroactive payment of disability compensation. The ban on concurrent receipt applies only to military retirement, not CRSC.
"I'm due that money because anytime you're eligible for CRSC and VA 100 percent [compensation] you're supposed to get both, and with no deduction," Purinton said.  
When VA officials rejected the claim, Purinton turned to Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) who asked the Defense Department for an explanation. In November 2004, Air Force Col. Virginia Penrod, director of DoD military compensation, said DFAS was working with the VA to "rewrite" procedures so retirees are paid in full. Eighteen months later -- more than three years after CRSC began -- the process of payment is almost ready, an official said.
In making his case to DoD and the VA, Purinton said he got help from fellow retirees, including Army Lt. Col. Jerry Fleming, another victim of Agent Orange, and Air Force Col. Win Reiter, a founder of VetsPac.com, a lobby group that helps retirees through the labyrinth of concurrent receipt law.
Fleming, who has led online discussions of the CRSC back-pay issue for years, said some combat-disabled retirees, sadly, will not live to see the money. Others, when paid, will have waited nearly four years, he said.

(Tom Philpott  July 14, 2006)

7. SSN SECURITY: 

Unlike credit bureaus, the Social Security Administration cannot put a flag or security alert on your social security account if you suspect your social security number has been stolen or is being used by someone else.  To report that someone is using your Social Security number, take the following steps:

Step 1 - Contact the fraud department of one of the three major credit bureaus:

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, Texas 75013

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

Step 2 - Close any accounts that have been tampered with or opened fraudulently. Step 3 - File a police report with your local police or the police in the community where the identity theft took place. Step 4 - File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission by using the FTC's Identity Theft Hotline:

By telephone: 1-877-438-4338

Online at www.consumer.gov/idtheft

By mail at Identity Theft Clearinghouse, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20580.

The Social Security Administration will not issue you a new Social Security number as a precaution, if you are concerned or think your number may have been stolen. SSA assigns a new SSN in rare cases, and only if the number holder provides evidence that the old number has been used with criminal or harmful intent and that the misuse has caused the number holder to be subjected to recent economic or personal hardship. The FTC has produced a booklet to citizens to remedy the effects of an identity theft. It describes what steps to take, your legal rights, how to handle specific problems you may encounter on the way to clearing your name, and what to watch for in the future. The contents of the booklet, Taking Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft, are available on-line at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtheft.htm.

(Source: FirstGov.gov Jun 06)

8. PTSD REEVALUATION:

At the request of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Institute of Medicine conducted a study on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The committee reviewed and commented on the diagnosis and assessment of PTSD and known risk factors for its development.  They found that PTSD is a well characterized medical disorder and that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria for diagnosing PTSD are evidence-based, widely accepted, and widely used.  This committee said the only validated screening tools under DSM-IV were: CAPS - Clinician Administered PTSD Scale SCID - Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV DIS-IV - Diagnostic Interview Schedule for DSM-IV PSS-I - PTSD Symptom Scale - Interview Version SIP - Structured Interview for PTSD.

According to the committee's report, PTSD should be diagnosed and assessed by a health professional with experience in diagnosing psychiatric disorders (e.g., primary care physicians, nurses, social workers) using the DSM-IV criteria. Ideally, this diagnosis should take place in a private setting with a face-to-face interview that can last an hour or more.  Additionally, while screening and diagnostic instruments might help in the diagnosis and assessment of PTSD, these tools cannot substitute for an evaluation by an experienced professional.  At present the way DoD screens for PTSD is the DD Form 2796 or Post Deployment Health Assessment. This form is administered by clerks, admin staff and persons who do not possess the skill to interpret the results because they are non-mental health personnel. The committee wrote that because all veterans deployed to a war zone are at risk for the development of PTSD, it would be prudent for health professionals to query veterans about their wartime experiences and their symptoms, when presenting themselves at primary care and other health facilities (inpatient or outpatient).

The Chairman of the committee, when asked if he believed a veteran could game the system by memorizing the DSM-IV to present false answers to a mental health care provider, responded emphatically that it would be almost impossible because the DSM-IV has built in tools to detect deception and only a minute fraction of society had the ability to pull it off.  This and the aforementioned findings of the committee should end once and for all any claims that veterans were filing fraudulent claims. For additional information refer to www.iom.edu/?id=32410. (Source: IOM PTSD Review Report 16 Jun 2006)