August 9th, August 9th, August 9th! If there is one thing you remember about this episode, it is that you should apply for your PACT Act benefits by August 9th.
August 9th – that’s the date. If you are unsure what I am talking about, and why I am talking about it repetitively, I bet you have questions.
Today, our guest will help us answer those questions. Joshua Jacobs is the Under Secretary of Benefits for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He leads the Veterans Benefits Administration which provides disability compensation and benefits to millions of qualifying veterans, their loved ones and their survivors.
Main Topics
- Drew F. Lawrence interviews Under Secretary of Benefits Joshua Jacobs about the PACT Act and the August 9th, 2023 milestone.
Additional Resources
- What Survivors of Veterans Need to Know About the PACT Act
- Get Maximum PACT Act Benefits: Aug. 9 Is the Deadline to Get Pay Backdated to 2022
- Call Center: 1-800-MyVA411 (1-800-698-2411)
- va.gov/PACT
- Navigating the PACT Act Claims Process
- PACT Act Performance Dashboard (June)
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Transcript:
Drew F. Lawrence
August 9th, August 9th, August 9th! If there is one thing you remember about this episode, it is that you should apply for your PACT Act benefits by August 9th. August 9th – that’s the date. If you are unsure what I am talking about, and why I am talking about it repetitively, I bet you have questions. Almost exactly a year ago, Congress passed sweeping legislation aimed at providing veterans with health care and disability compensation who were sickened by environmental exposures during their time of service -- things like burn pits, agent orange, and other contaminants. The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 or, abbreviated PACT Act was one of the largest expansions of veterans benefits in U.S. history. Veterans fought hard for the legislation, some protested around the clock for days outside the U.S. Capitol Building after the initial bill failed in the Senate a week before it finally passed.
Prostester
We're going in right now!
Drew F. Lawrence
They protested alongside advocates – Jon Stewart – a long time supporter of veterans, stood by them for example. Jon, how do you -- now that we're walking in -- how do you feel going into the Capitol right now?
Jon Stewart
You know, it's either go in and accomplish what we came here to do, or it's, you know, I just hope it's the right. I hope it's the right answer. That's all.
Drew F. Lawrence
Burn pits were toxic fuming trash fires that incinerated everything from human waste to plastic, creating toxic fumes that caused a bevy of health issues for those exposed to them. And on August 2, 2022 legislation to address those health issues passed and was subsequently signed into law
Rosie Torres
And we did it for all of the fallen that are not here. This is for Wesley Black. This is for Heath Robinson, this is for Will Thompson. This is for Kate Thomas. This is for all of them.
Drew F. Lawrence
It included provisions to compensate veterans exposed to chemicals like Agent Orange, meaning veterans who served during the Vietnam War and after are eligible as well. The law added roughly two dozen “presumptive” medical conditions that qualify an affected veteran for medical care. And over the last year, nearly 330,000 veterans and survivors have completed PACT Act related claims. As of June, the VA says that nearly 80% of PACT Act Claims have been approved. How do veterans sign up for these benefits? How do families or survivors qualify? And what’s up with August 9th? Today, our guest will help us answer those questions. Joshua Jacobs is the Under Secretary of Benefits for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He leads the Veterans Benefits Administration which provides disability compensation and benefits to millions of qualifying veterans, their loved ones and their survivors. For Military.com, my name is Drew Lawrence – it is August 4th and this is Fire Watch. Hi, Josh, thank you for joining us on Fire Watch, today, let's start with potentially the most timely piece of news, and that is August 9. What does this date mean? And what should veterans and families understand about it?
Joshua Jacobs
Well, veterans and families and survivors should understand that there is no deadline to submit a claim for PACT Act benefits. But there are some important milestones and dates to know about. And the August 9th date that you're referencing is one of those. The significance of August 9th is if veterans submit a disability claim, or at this point, what's more practical is that they submit something called an intent to file, they do it on or before August 9th, they may be eligible to have their benefits backdated to the date the PACT Act was signed into law, which is August 10th 2022. So we're trying to get the word out as best we can to make sure that all veterans, families, survivors know about this date, and that they submit a claim or an intent to file to preserve that earliest possible effective date.
Drew F. Lawrence
And I want to reiterate, because I appreciate you mentioning it but this is not a deadline. People can apply for these benefits after August 9th but it is in their best interest to do it by then. Is that correct?
Joshua Jacobs
That is absolutely correct. The PACT act is not going away. You know, many veterans, advocates, members of Congress and President Biden himself fought to get this law passed. And we've been doing everything we can to implement it and get the word out so that as many veterans as possible who might benefit are connected with these earned benefits. And so the reason we're, we're working so hard to get the word out on August 9th is we want every veteran who may be eligible to get as many benefits as possible. And so if a veteran files after August 9th, they file, you know, a year from now, you'll still be eligible for consideration, you just won't have the possibility of having your benefits backdated to the earliest possible date of August 10th 2022.
Drew F. Lawrence
And so let's talk about these benefits, if you could kind of tell us what they are and who qualifies for them.
Joshua Jacobs
Absolutely. So you know, that just at a high level, the PACT Act is perhaps the largest expansion of health care and benefits in VA history. It expands and extends eligibility for health care for veterans with toxic exposures. And it goes to veterans of the Vietnam War, Gulf War and the post-9/11 eras. And what the PACT Act does is it adds more than 20 different categories of health conditions that we now presume were related to exposure to burn pits to Agent Orange and other toxic exposures. So if you served in any of the countries that are covered in the PACT Act, that covers Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the Vietnam, some of the other surrounding areas, and other countries ranging from Djibouti. And beyond, and you served in one of the covered locations, if you have one of these conditions, we don't need to know more than that. We just need to...we need your military records to demonstrate you were there at the right time. We need a diagnosis. We need health records to demonstrate that you have those conditions, and then we assume your military service caused that condition. And then we can provide benefits. Now that's very different than the normal claims process where we need both of those things. But then we need to establish a connection to demonstrate that your military service contributed to exacerbated or created a secondary condition.
Drew F. Lawrence
And just generally, how can families and survivors sign up for benefits?
Joshua Jacobs
Well, there are multiple options to sign up for benefits. The first way you can walk into one of our 56 regional offices we have located across the country, and you can ask for help, you can visit us on our website va.gov/PACT, you can file a claim online, you can learn more about the PACT Act, you can submit an intent to file. You can also call us asking for help. 1-800-MyVA411. That's our national call center. And we can connect you with your earned benefits. And then the final way I'd suggest is working with an accredited representative like veteran's service organization, county VSOs, the State Departments of Veterans Affairs, these are all very knowledgeable, committed personnel who work to provide veterans with free access to benefits support
Drew F. Lawrence
We at Military.com have had a few articles about the PACT Act since it was passed. And as it was coming down the pipeline, and we often get some specific questions from our readers. And I thought I would pose a couple scenarios and questions to you here to help us better understand the process of applying for benefits and what these benefits are, and who can who can apply for them. So we had a family member, email us and I'm just gonna read you what she wrote us. My father is an 80 year old Vietnam veteran who has recently begun the process of enrolling in the VA for the first time. However, we hit a roadblock in registering when he realized he didn't have his service number. It has been a daunting process to just get him enrolled in the VA to receive benefits and we still have not heard anything. I recently read an article about the PACT Act benefits and I would greatly love my father to receive this. What does he need to do to register for the PACT Act benefits?
Joshua Jacobs
Well, first, if we can get the contact information for that individual, we'd love to follow up, I'd love to follow up personally to make sure we connect that veteran with earned benefits. You know, we have what's called the duty to assist. So even when veterans don't have their military records, you may not have access to the DD-214. We have a duty to go out and find that. So if you call us at 1-800-MyVA411. If you stop into one of our regional offices, if you work with a veteran service organization, we will help you track down those records and ensure you get the benefits that you've earned. So what I would suggest to that family member is to work with your father, submit an intent to file. If he has a condition like hypertension 70% of American males over the age of 70 have hypertension. If he has other conditions, diabetes, you can submit an intent to file for the conditions and we can work to see what we can provide. And the great thing about the PACT Act is it's not only expanding access to earn benefits, like disability compensation, but it's opening the door for other benefits. So it's opening the door for things like home loans or insurance or education benefits. It also has an ability to impact expanded eligibility for health care. So there's, it's not just disability compensation you're getting when you get...when you file these benefits. And the other thing I'd say is, beyond all of that, you're helping us help other veterans because the more information the more data we have, the better we understand the true lifelong impacts of war. And as we get more information, we can conduct additional research that's going to enable us to identify potentially other new presumptive service conditions that will help future generations of veterans as well.
Drew F. Lawrence
I want to throw another question that we received. And this is kind of about backdating, which is, I think, something that you had mentioned in the beginning, but we had a veteran email us that said I retired in January 2006 from the Army. I did tours in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq and am eligible for a presumptive claim. In February 2017 I was awarded a claim for Sarcoidosis (30%). That respiratory disease has been added to the PACT Act list. In that same submission, I was denied claims for psoriasis (skin condition), chronic fatigue and joint pain which all have been added to the list. If I do a supplemental claim for those 2017 claims – which were denied, will the VA retroactively pay me from 2017 or from August 2022, the month and year the PACT Act was signed into law??
Joshua Jacobs
Yeah, that's a great question. If we have the ability to provide a direct service connection, which is using the normal process where we identify military service, the health condition, and then if we can create that connection, based on evidence, we can potentially backdate the claim. However, when a number of these conditions were added as presumptive service conditions, it enabled us to bypass those direct connections where we don't yet have enough evidence to make those types of decisions in favor of the veteran, but we're going to do so anyway. And in those cases where we aren't able to provide that direct service connection and say, 'Hey, your military service absolutely contributed to caused exacerbated condition.' We have the authority to provide that benefit going back to August 10 2022 when the law was enacted. So in some of those cases, we're just not going to have the ability to backdate pay. But if we always do look and if we have the ability to provide a direct service connection, we will do so with the potential to backdate pay.
Drew F. Lawrence
So for this scenario, they were talking about claims from 2017. Obviously you need to potentially need to know more about this person to make a determination but there is a potential to backdate to 2017 but likely it would be August 2022.
Joshua Jacobs
Yeah, likely and you're right, right every every particular claim is unique their individual circumstances. So you'd have to take a look at the individual details of the claim. More likely than not without knowing the details, my assumption is that we will be able to pay back to August 10 2022. But there may be something in this individual claim that could allow us to go further beyond that if we're able to establish a direct service connection. My guess though, is that we would have to go back to August.
Drew F. Lawrence
For our final scenario. This is from a survivor. I had been reading off and on about the PACT Act and in the past did not think it applied to me. I currently receive monthly [dependency and indemnity compensation] payments due to my husband's death being determined 100% service related from his time in Vietnam. His death certificate states the cause of death as "metastatic non-small lung cancer with brain metastasis. I accessed the PACT Act form and it really looked overwhelming to me to fill out so I thought I should ask someone first if I am entitled to more benefits than I am currently receiving and would therefore fill out the form.
Joshua Jacobs
Yeah, that's that's a great a great scenario. And first, my condolences on the loss of your spouse. You know, if you're a surviving family member of a veteran, you may be eligible for a monthly dependency and indemnity compensation payment. One time Accrued Benefits payment and a Survivors Pension. It really depends on the individual details. So what I would suggest this person do is reach out to us at 1-800-MyVA411 or work with an accredited veteran's service organization. The tragedy assistance program for survivors is a great program but you can also call the American Legion, DAV, VFW AmVets, Wounded Warrior Project, any number of those groups can also be helpful, so that we can provide the most appropriate, tailored response to meet the individual circumstances.
Drew F. Lawrence
Thank you. And just to clarify, you know, this person is receiving DIC payments. But I think they were on the fence of whether or not they should apply, because they're not sure if they're eligible. Would you recommend to people who are kind of on the fence about this to declare their intent or to apply anyway, even if they're unsure what benefits they may be eligible for?
Joshua Jacobs
Yes, even if you're not sure it does no harm to pursue those earned benefits, submit an intent to file and then we can work through to determine whether or not there is eligibility. What we want every veteran and survivor to know is, we're here to serve you. We want you to know about these benefits. And as we run up to the August 9th 2023, milestone, we want you to submit your claim and then we can work out the details of whether or not you may or may not be eligible.
Drew F. Lawrence
I want to get back to some some general questions here. Because this has been a really major lift for the VA. The VA hired 2000 new employees last year to help manage the surge of new claims and potential need for medical care. Was that enough? And have you seen any adverse impacts to wait times and care from having so many new veterans enter the system?
Joshua Jacobs
Yeah, so I would say this is perhaps the largest expansion of health care and benefits in VA history. What we've seen in this fiscal year is a almost 35-36% increase in the total number of claims we've received compared to last year. And to me, that's a good thing that tells me, one, the expansion of benefits in the PACT Act is opening up access to more benefits. And our outreach, which has been aggressive and sustained across the country over the past year, and will continue that way is having its desired impact. Now, with that impact comes an increased workload. And so what we've been doing to prepare for that workload is 1.) very aggressive hiring. You mentioned the hiring campaign, we started even before the PACT Act was enacted. We have grown by 22%, in the Veterans Benefits Administration over the last 18 months. And we're now over 30,000 employees. And largely as a result of that aggressive hiring, the onboarding and the training, we've been able to increase total production, while maintaining high quality. So we have delivered more benefits to more veterans than any other time in our history. In fact, we have produced 15, almost 16% more claims decisions this fiscal year than we did at the same point last year. And I think that's significant because last year, we produce more decisions for veterans than any other time in our history, we produced 1.7 million claims decisions in fiscal year 22. And we're on pace to blow that record out of the water. And so that has been an incredibly challenging, it has been taxing on the workforce. But it's the reason why we all wake up and do what we do. More than 50% of the people who work at VA are veterans, many more military families, and every single one of us is a veteran advocate. And so the opportunity to deliver more benefits to more veterans, families and survivors is incredibly exciting. And it also is what motivates us to continue to try to do better and do more.
Drew F. Lawrence
One aspect about the PACT Act that I think often gets underreported when we're talking about benefits and who can apply is a VA warning that came after the PACT Act was initiated about potential scams related to the legislation. And I'm wondering what you would tell veterans, their families, survivors to look out for and where should veterans go if they think they are being scammed?
Joshua Jacobs
Yeah. Well, thanks for raising that. It's a significant concern on our part. I think the major concern that we've identified is, we have veterans who are being charged to file a new claim. And these are companies that are saying, 'Hey, we promise we'll get you a good disability rating, just sign on the dotted line, and then you'll end up paying us 1000s of dollars.' And what we want veterans to know, we want families and survivors to know: you don't have to pay anything to file a disability claim. You can do it directly online, you can go to va.gov/PACT, you can call and seek assistance, 1-800-MyVA411. Or you can work with the 1000s of accredited representatives like veteran service organizations, county VSOs and State Department's of Veterans Affairs, whose sole mission or whose primary mission is to help you file your disability claim. These are very experienced, seasoned and knowledgeable people. And their job is to do this work for free on behalf of a grateful nation.
Drew F. Lawrence
And you mentioned it several times in this interview, but I really want to drive home to our listeners about where veterans and their families can go to get more information about PACT Act benefits.
Joshua Jacobs
Well, thank you so much for continuing to put that out there because I think this is one of the the most important things we can do. It took a lot to get this law passed. You may recall the legislative fight that took place with veteran advocates camping out in front of the Capitol. And it's incredible what this what PACT Act does, but it doesn't mean a thing if veterans and families and survivors don't know about it. So in order to get information, you can go online to our website, va.gov/PACT. And that website not only includes all sorts of information and frequently asked questions about the law, but it also has a link where you can apply for benefits or submit your intent to file. You can also call us at our call center, 1-800-MyVA411. And you can get more information or seek help for filing a claim. You can visit one of our 56 regional offices located all across the country or come to one of the many vet fest events that we're hosting all throughout July and into August trying to connect veterans with their benefits. Or you can work with American Legion, DAV, VFW AmVets, other VSOs, county VSOs and State Department's of Veterans Affairs to file your claim or ask questions about your earned benefits.
Drew F. Lawrence
Joshua Jacobs, Undersecretary for Benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Thank you so much for joining us on Fire Watch. Especially, I know you're taking time off of your vacation to be with us. And I appreciate that. And I know our listeners will to.
Joshua Jacobs
Drew, thanks so much for having me. And thanks for helping us get the word out about the PACT Act and making sure that the millions of veterans who fought for this country get the benefits that they've earned. Really appreciate it.
Drew F. Lawrence
Thank you so much for listening to this special episode of Fire Watch. Thank you to our guest, Joshua Jacobs. Thanks also to executive producer Zachary Fryer-Biggs. If you liked this episode and want to let us know, give us a rating – wherever you get your podcasts. And as always, thanks for listening.
