Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting you. This week, here's Ryan Gorman.
Thanks so much for joining us here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm Ryan Gorman, and we have a very important conversation lined up for you today. We are going to talk about the Packed Act. If you're not familiar with what that piece of legislation does, well with me to talk all about it. I have Deputy Assistant Secretary for the VA's Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, Terrence Hayes, who
is also a twenty year Army veteran. Terrence, thank you so much for a ticket a few minutes to come on the show, and of course thank you for your service to this country. And let's start with the underlying issues that needed to be addressed that led to this piece of legislation being put together and eventually passed and signed by President Biden.
Absolutely first and foremost to all of your listeners out there, I want to thank all of your veterans for their
service and their families. Of course, the fact that the history behind it is pretty simple, Ryan, I mean, for years, there have been women and men who have served our country dating back to Vietnam, coming in contact with substances like agent orange, and even now up into the post nine eleven conflicts that I was a part of, coming in contact with burn pits who have needed healthcare and
benefits for quite some time. Thankfully, because of many advocates out there, I know John Stewart was a main state and really helping veterans get it over the goal line, and of course our members of Congress voting on it, the President was able to sign that bill into law, and now we're in a position to be able to provide benefits and care to veterans who have come in contact with those toxic substances for years, and we're in a great position to actually deliver on that problem now.
But the bill was named after Sergeant first Class Heath Robinson. Unfortunately, Sergeant Robinson is no longer with us, but it's because of him and his wife and his daughter in their pursuit to ensure that his battle buddies that he served alongside were able to be taken care of. And the legacy of the Pact deck rests on the shoulders of that family, and now rest on the shoulders of all
of our VA employees to deliver on that promise. So again, we are very excited at where we are with this law, but we know that we have a lot of work to do to deliver those benefits in that care.
To me, as the veterans, those who have heard about things like agent orange and burn pits, but maybe aren't really familiar with the toxins that so many service members were exposed to. Who kim its contact with all of that, Can you help step us through some of the details there, give us a little bit more insight into why this has become such a problem for so many veterans.
You know, a lot of folks have come back from Vietnam, from the Gulf War, from Iraq, Afghanistan and other places throughout the Central Command region with breathing issues or with other particular rare conditions, like some very rare and unique cancers, and for years we weren't able to put our finger
on what the causes were. But because of the fact that in the research we were able to do and now being in a position to make those conditions what's called a presumptive condition, which means that if a veteran or a surviving family knows that their veteran passed away because of those conditions, we can now assume autically that the condition was because of their service. So again, these
conditions have been very severe for quite some time. And you know, we were just chatting with a Vietnam or a veteran recently who for fifty years had been denied benefits and because of the Pact, that the Pact that allowed him one last opportunity to apply for those benefits related to Agent Orange, and he was able to finally receive that rating, and he was the main part wasn't about the money, It wasn't about any of those things.
He was glad that VA and others.
Had finally heard and seen him, and that the conditions that he had weren't made up were just something in his head. So again we are making huge progress with this, and we encourage anybody who has served in those regions and who may have been impacted by any sort of toxic substances to apply for the benefits.
Today I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Terrence Hayes, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the VA's Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. He's joining me to talk about the packed Act. And you just touched on something that I want to spend a little bit more time on. There was an extended period where veterans who were reporting these health issues, they in some instances weren't taken seriously. They weren't given the
respect and the attention that they deserved. And tell us about that battle to get to where we are today, where conditions like agent orange or toxins from burn pits now are recognized and are covered.
Two years ago, we had.
Many veterans huddled up on the steps of the Capitol and they were spending a night fighting for this legislation, fighting for Congress to vote and pass this law. And the unique thing about it is that VA had supported this and was in support of this bill, and many of us, to include myself, Secretary of VA, Dennis mcdonnough himself visited with these veterans, visited with these survivors on
the steps of the Capitol to show our support. And the unique thing about VA is that we anticipated this law because even months before it was passed by Congress, Secretary of McDonough had already made three conditions presumptive based on the authorities that he had as via secretary, and that was Asthma, ryaniis and cianiis. Again, we knew that when we came on board, when the President appointed us
in these positions. Directly, the Boss Secretary Donnah was told by the President that we would fight like hell for these veterans, and that was at the top of the list to ensure that veterans who had come in contact with these toxic substances and their families, their surviving families were taken care of. And fortunately enough, Congress passed the bill, made it a law, and we are now in a
great position to deliver on that promise. We again, because of the anticipation, we hired a record number of clinicians as well as folks on the benefit side of the House, because we knew once the law was in place and it was time to implement the law, that we were going to get an influx of veterans into our healthcare system and applying for their benefits, and that's what we did.
So when they did start to apply, we anticipated a high number of backlaw claims, and because of the dedication of our workforce and because of the record number of employees that we hired, it never even touched that anticipated
backlog number. So again I want to make certain that it's perfectly clear that we anticipated this moment that we came on board in January of twenty twenty one, that we were going to deliver on this because the President demanded that we deliver on this, and we know that we have so much more work to do because there's so many more veterans out there who may not truly understand what the PAC dec is, may not actually have heard of the PACK that, or may have been denied
in the past on numerous occasions. We're encouraging them and their surviving families to return to us apply again so we can get to yes.
And on that note denial of coverage, what were veterans doing who had these serious health conditions before the passage of the Packed Act?
Yes, great question.
So before the Pack deck, you know what made it tough for these conditions that are now presumed to be because of your service. The burden of proof was on the veteran and that's that should have never been the case, but unfortunately that's the way it was with the PAC. That if you have any of those presumed conditions, that's on our website at VA dot gov slash Packed and it's pact. If you have any of those conditions, it's automatically assumed.
It's because of your service is slammed up.
Now no longer is the burden approof in the hands of the veteran or the surviving spouses. So again, that's what made it so tough prior to the PACK that and that's why now we're in such a great position to get to yes, because these conditions are automatically assumed.
So I'll give you an anecdote.
Vietnam War veteran who had been dealing with hypertension high blood pressure as we call it for decades, applied for that same benefit, was denied one time, was denied two times, well denied three times.
Packed Act was signed into law August of twenty twenty two.
We were able to implement the law beginning in January twenty twenty three. His wife convinced him to apply one more time for his hypertension that was very severe. He was hesitant, did not want to do it. The VA had failed him in the past, and his wife said, please just try one more time. He applied one more time, was approved for hyper atension, and now is receiving one hundred percent via compensation disability because of his is conditions
related to his service in Vietnam. That's just one example of thousands of success stories of folks who were denied in the past, and now the pact that has made it easier for us to get to Yes.
I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Terence Hay's, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the VA's Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. He's with me to talk about the Packed Acts and you can learn more at VA dot gov slash pact. That's pact. So let's step through this. Who exactly is eligible for this coverage provided by the Packed Act?
Yes, if you have served in Vietnam, if you served during the Gulf War, if you served in Iraq, Afghanistan and all those places in between in Central Command after September eleventh, two thousand and one, you were eligible to include surviving. So what we are trying to tell folks, Ryan, is that, Hey, if you were in these locations and again you have any of those conditions or any conditions related to those conditions, because you can have supplemental conditions
based on those conditions. Also, if you have any of those we want folks to stop what they're doing immediately and give us a call to see what they may be eligible for. Not only that, as of March sixth of this past year, we also have extended the enrollment eligibility options for health care for veterans because of the pack Deck. It's part of the Section one oh three portion of the pack Deck where veterans no longer have to have an approved benefit rating in order to be
eligible for health care. And there's so many veterans out there that are unaware of this. So again, the pac
dec has done a lot of great things. It has delivered more than six billion dollars of earned benefits to more than one million veterans and survivors, has afforded us the opportunity to enroll more than eight hundred and fifty thousand new veterans into our healthcare system, where we are doing amazing work in delivering top notch care, comparable and in many instances even better than in the private hospital systems.
So it's important that we get this message out as quickly as possible because there are so many people out there who may need these healthcare benefits, especially with the rising cost of health care, and also the benefits the monetary disability payments can.
Change lives, and it's changing lives as we speak.
And I just want to be clear. Even a veteran who had previously tried to get these conditions related to things like agent orange and burn pits covered and was denied coverage. Now with the Packed Act, they can go ahead and do that process again, and this time they're going to be able to get the help that they've been looking for.
Absolutely, if it's any of those conditions that they applied for in the past and were denied and as those presumed conditions, it's a slam dump them. So that's why this is important. Again, we know that there have been veterans out there who have been denied multiple times, and we want to ensure that they understand that. And I know that they may have been told this before in the past, but again because of the Pact that we
can get to yes now. So it's vital that they give us that one last chance to get it right for them because they have served our country exceptionally well and we need to do right by them.
In terms of enrolling. And that part of the process is that going to be easy for veterans listening to do does it take a while to get all of this moving. What can you tell us about the process itself.
Yeah, if you're talking about the benefits side of the house, several ways that you can kind of take advantage of applying for your benefits. One you can visit VA dot gov and apply on your own. Two, you can visit what's called a Veteran Service organization, someone like the VFW American Legion DAV. They have accredited service officers free of charge to provide you assistance in navigating the claims process. They are accredited by US, accredited by VA, so they
are trusted agents to be able to handle your benefits. Third, you can contact your county or state Veterans Affairs office and they also have accredited service officers whose role is to provide you, free of charge, the opportunity to apply for your benefits as well. We know that there's some bad actors out there too, So I want to make this perfectly clear to veterans out there, because I know folks have seen ads all over the television and probably
have received mail as well. At no point do you need to hire anybody to receive the benefits you've earned. At no point do you need to provide a percentage of your earned benefits to anybody to get the benefits you've earned. Again, those three options that are laid forth are ways that I encourage you, as a fellow veteran to ensure that you're maximizing your earned benefits.
You earn these benefits.
No one should be receiving anything when it comes to your benefits. And if you have any questions on how you apply, I'm encouraging you to call one eight hundred six nine eight two four one one, and we have folks readily of bailable to address any question that you have to help you navigate that process.
And it's the same for enrolling in your health care.
You know, if you have any questions about enrolling in healthcare, please give me or give us a call at that number and folks will be able to help you navigate and even process your enrollment.
I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Terrence Hay's, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the VA's Office of Public and intern Governmental Affairs. Let's talk about the VA more broadly speaking, and the amount of veterans who are receiving care through the VA and some of the improvements that have been made in recent years because this is an issue not just for veterans, but for all Americans who care about making sure our veterans are taken care of.
Absolutely.
You know, one thing we do know is that care has improved, and it's shown in the outcomes of our veterans. It's shown in our trust surveys. We have all time record highs and certain and trust at VA now. And you know, folks probably asking like, how do you measure trust? Trust is measured any time a veteran goes to a VA facility, anytime a veteran applies for her or his benefits, they receive a survey and at that point they are able to provide unsolicited, unadulterated feedback to VA, so we
can calculate that trust factor. And over the past two years we have seen record numbers of trust. We are now at ninety percent trust when it comes to our veterans coming to our VA medical centers and receiving the benefits that they earned. As you, as the Secretary says all the time, a ninety is a B and that's not good enough. So we're trying to strive for that A status and we're going to keep working at that until we get to where our veterans trust us even more.
But the great thing about VA healthcare is that it's integrated.
And that you know, people may want to know what does that mean exactly? So you know, if save for instance, you go to your local doc, you know, for an appointment, you may have to go somewhere else to get your labs, and then you may have to go somewhere else to get some X rays, and you may have to go to another place to get physical therapy or things of that nature. Well, at VA, it's like one stop shop.
It's all integrated. You can see your primary care physician, who can then put in a consult for you know, ortho where then you can go walk down the hall to see your ortho, who then may put you in for a prescription.
And oh, by the way, then you can walk down the hall.
To get your prescription or we can mail it to you free of charge as well. So everything is integrated and made easier for our veterans. And that's what we want. We want a system as easy. We want a system that high performing, and we want a system that is really making an impact in the healthcare decisions and the lives of our veterans.
So that's what we're doing.
One issue that I know came up a few years ago had to do with wait times at certain VA hospitals. How much progress has been made on that front.
Yeah. Absolutely.
As you know, wait times vary per facility, per region of the country based on the population of veterans that our.
Facilities are seen.
So you know, one facility could have a shorter wait time for a primary care physician appointment than a facility in another part of the country.
But I'll tell you this.
You know, with the use of the Mission Act, which has positioned us in a place where we can if we cannot provide a primary care appointment within twenty eight days, it now affords us the opportunity to have veterans seek that option in the community where they may live closer to we're doing that. As a matter of fact, we are seeing record numbers, record dollars being placed into the community to supplement that at VA. But the unique part about it is that veterans actually want to get their
care at VA. And again, what we have done in that instance is we have conducted record hiring on the clinician front, on the frontline worker front, to ensure that when veterans do come to those facilities that they can get those timely appointments as opposed to having to build their relationship into the community, because again, the community is not an integrated system, and we want to be able to handle all of the needs of our veterans right
at home and VA. So we're using every single authority that Congress has allowed us to have to ensure that we're providing the absolute best outcome to our veterans. And the great part is that this is a discussion between veteran and their physician to ensure that they have the option to ensure that they have the same and where they get their care and how they get their care.
Have steps been taken to address some of the concerns, and I know I've heard from time to time from veterans who live in more rural areas who maybe aren't as close to a VA facility as others.
Yes, absolutely, one of the interesting things that came out of the pandemic. One of the bright spots of the pandemic, which there weren't many, but one of the bright spots for VA is the use of telehealth.
And what we're.
Seeing is that especially in rural areas where they obviously have some sort of Internet connectivity. Rather than them drive four hours to the closest facility, they can now jump on their laptop, jump on their phones, jump on their tablets and have a primary care or a specialty care appointment, or even a mint health appointment through VA. Again, we're seeing record numbers of that. Prior to the pandemic, we were in the low thousands in delivering telehealth. Now we're
averaging Ryan over forty thousand telehealth appointments a day. And that's because the feedback from our veterans. They like getting their care at VA, but they also like the convenience of getting it through VA. So we have expanded our telehealth access because of that demand, and we're only going to continue to expand that because we know that it's paying dividends for many veterans across the country.
I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Terence Hay's, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the VA's Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. This is Suicide Prevention month. Mental health a huge issue, especially among our veteran community. What has the VA been doing to address that specific part of health care for our veterans.
Mental health is very important to me. It's very important to the mission here at VA. As a matter of fact, suicide prevention is our number one clinical priority at VA. Recently, I did a TED talk on mental health because I myself am diagnosed with general anxiety disorder, was diagnosed while I was in service, and obviously I continue to navigate that even after I've taken a uniform off.
So that's why this is important to me.
VA has taken necessary steps to ensure that veterans who are in crisis that they are able to receive the care that.
They need at a moment's notice.
And what's called the Compact that has positioned us to be able to when a veteran is in the midst of a crisis, they can go to any facility in the country, any er in the country, VA or non VA, and get the crisis care that they need right then and there, free of charge. They don't have to think about it, they don't have to worry about it. They just need to go to the nearest facility get the care they need. We will take care of the rest. This is something that Congress passed because again, this is
a whole government effort to end veterans suicide. We are also positioning ourselves to hire more mental health professionals, social workers, all those great folks who are helping us meet the demand of veterans who may be dealing with any mental health condition. We are still battling that out because, as you know, Ryan, that's a tough hire, not just MVA, but in all hospital systems. It's just a shortage of mental health professionals and social workers across the country.
So we're fighting for the demand.
Congress has helped us increase certain hiring authorities so where we can provide bonuses and things that nature to be competitive with the private sector. And we're doing that, and I think the one place that veterans are really maximizing their time and efforts to get the care that they need also with the use of our vet centers. Not many I think veterans know about the capabilities of our
vet centers. They're actually located in many of our towns and cities and things that nature in the retail settings, and they're.
All run by veterans. It's all veterans helping other veterans.
And the great thing about the vet centers is that it's pretty much like off the grid. You know, they don't have to report those items to the health to VHA. You know, they can have those sit down sessions with their other battle buddies and deal with those kind of concerns together collectively, because we know when veterans, you know, come in contact with other veterans, they tend to help each other out. And so we're in a position now to be able to really tackle the suicide problem. Over
the past three years, the suicide had declined. Last year it increased, we believe because of the nature of the pandemic. But I tell you, all hands are on deck right now, ran across the country to ensure that we're putting an an end to this thing called veteran suicide.
As we start to wrap up here one more time, for those who maybe are just joining the conversation, can you once again give us an overview of the Packed Act and what veterans need to know about that really important piece of legislation that has now celebrated its second anniversary.
Absolutely, the critical piece here is that if you served in Vietnam, if you served in the Gulf, for you served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and anywhere in between posts nine to eleven in the Central Command region.
You most likely are eligible for benefits if you come.
In contact with toxic substances like burn pits, agent orange, or you don't know for a fact if you have come in contact with those substances, contact VA. We are in a position where we can give you what's called a toxic exposure screening, and based on that screening, it could result in further testing and other things to ensure that we're delivering the care and benefits that you have earned.
And this includes our survivors as well.
So if there are any survivors listening right now and your loved one, your veteran may have passed away because of any of the new conditions related to the PAC that Act, you two are eligible for benefits and we want you to stop everything you're doing. Visit the website at VA dot gov slash Packed Pact, or give us a call at one eight hundred six nine eight two four one one and we'll be able to take care of you as quickly as possible.
And again that's VA dot gov slash Packed PAC or eight hundred my VA four one pint one with us. Terrence Hay's Deputy Assistant Secretary for the VA's Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. He's a twenty year Army veteran
here to talk about the Packed Act. Terrence, thank you so much, obviously for your service to this country and for taking that time to break all of that down for us so veterans have a better understanding of the benefits and the services that are provided to them through the VA. We really appreciate it.
Goo Ron.
I appreciate you highlighting this major issue, this major effort, this major implementation plan that we're undertaking, because you know, we know that our veterans and their families are extremely important to us, and I want to do everything I can to get this information out to them.
All right, Thanks again, Terrence, and that's going to do it for us. Here on iHeartRadio Communities, I'm your host, Ryan Gorman. We'll talk to you again real soon.