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- Written by: Tom Philpott
Though the first batch of payments did go out the middle of the following week, the relatively small number – about 1300 claims worth $8 million – reinforced the fact that the process for calculating retroactive payments is timely and complex.
Veterans Affairs (VA) expects to produce a steady stream of rating decisions and payments each week for these diseases, perhaps in the thousands.
But there will not be a November geyser of checks as some veterans had hoped.
Most of the 163,000 veterans or survivors with pending claims for these diseases should expect a longer wait, at least several more months. The VA goal is to have all these claims processed and paid by October next year.
After VA published its final regulation Aug. 31 to add these diseases to its list of ailments presumed caused by herbicide exposure in Vietnam, Congress had 60 days to block it. To veterans’ relief, it chose not to do so.
VA used that time to do preliminary work on many claims but had to stop short of assigning disability ratings. That’s because VA computers are programmed to assign a payment date with each rating and, by law, none of these claims could be paid before the 60 days had passed.
Claim specialists don’t have all the information they need yet to rate a lot of the old claims. Many veterans and survivors in line for retroactive payments, some going back 25 years, are being asked to provide letters from private physicians explaining when the ailments first were diagnosed.
VA also will try to develop timelines for a disease’s progression in individuals so appropriate disability ratings can be assigned at different stages, and back payments are calculated as accurately as possible.
For ischemic heart disease, for example, a patient initially needing medication might have been rated 10 percent. Years later, when an x-ray showed an enlarged heart, the rating could have been raised 30 percent. As stress tests showed the disease progressing, higher ratings and higher compensation would be made.
Barton F. Stichman, co-director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP), said he doesn’t know how many claims will need to be developed this way or how many can be paid without VA waiting for more information. His organization, NVLSP, is certified counsel for the class of veterans filing Agent Orange claims.
More than 1000 claim specialists in nine VA resource centers are working solely on 93,000 claims filed for these diseases between Sept. 25, 1985 and Oct. 13, 2009. The end date is when VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced his decision to add these diseases to the list of presumptive diseases for Agent Orange exposure.
The earlier date is when VA first published a regulation on presumptive AO diseases, sparking a successful court challenge on behalf ailing Vietnam vets. This resulted in an appeals court ruling, Nehmer v. Department of Veterans Affairs, ordering that VA compensate veterans retroactively for any claim they filed for a disease later deemed service-connected because of new medical evidence linking it to herbicide exposure in Vietnam.
Shinseki’s announcement triggered Nehmer protection for 93,000 previously denied claims. Since then, 70,000 more veterans and survivors have filed new claims for these diseases. The more recent claims are being worked at VA regional offices by another army of claim specialists.
VA has trained hundreds of rating specialists specifically for these new Nehmer claims using a new 100-page instruction manual. These retroactive claims often require complicated calculations and, if veterans have died since claims were filed, often long searches for next of kin.
VA officials know their computers runs haven’t identified all previously denied claims for these diseases. The fault lies with a legacy data system, the Benefit Delivery Network. It was programmed to retain only six conditions claimed by a veteran. So if a veteran claimed 10 ailments, four of them, once denied, would not be found today in the electronic record. The lost conditions could include one of the diseases now deemed compensable.
All claimed conditions would appear in a veteran’s paper record. But only computer records have been used to identify previously denied claims for ischemic heart disease, Parkinson’s disease and B-cell leukemia.
Veterans or survivors who want to be sure their denied claim is being reviewed can call their VA regional office to learn if they are among the 93,000 being eyed for retroactive compensation.
“There’s no time limit on this,” said a VA official. “So if they don’t get some notice that we are working on their claim in the next six months or so they should say ‘Hey, what about me?’”
VA expects five to 10 percent of the 93,000 to involve ailments still not linked to Agent Orange and so they will be denied once more. Officials blame imprecision in use of diagnostic codes found in the case files.
About 10,000 of the older claims were filed by veterans now deceased. For these, award notices will be mailed to last known addresses. If past experience is an accurate guide, 90 percent will be returned as undeliverable. VA will take a few more steps to reach next of kin and then pass on these files to the NVLSP to continue the search.
“We’ve been able to locate a lot of these people in the past” for VA, Stichman said. But for some cases “it’s taken us a few years.”
As certified counsel for the class, the NVLSP also gets a copy of every Agent Orange claim decided so it can monitor VA compliance.
Given the resources VA has committed to these claims, Stichman believes the department is trying to make payments as quickly and carefully as it can. He also isn’t concerned that VA’s own completion deadline is 11 months away.
“That doesn’t surprise me. It’s a hell of a lot of cases,” he said. “We’re not going to complain when they are putting this much effort into it.”
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – In the followup action to a discussion held last week on district reconfiguration scenarios, the Kelseyville Unified School District Board of Trustees voted Tuesday night to look at an option involving leasing or selling some district properties.
The board held a special Nov. 9 meeting in which several scenarios were reviewed, the more controversial ones involving school closures, as Lake County News has reported.
However, the board was unanimous in being against the school closure options, although its members admitted that with declining enrollment and funding, budget cuts are facing the district in the near future.
At the Tuesday meeting, Board member Chris Irwin moved to consider scenario No. 4, with Board member Gary Olson offering the second. The board approved the motion 4-1, with Peter Quartarolo voting no, according to district Superintendent Dave McQueen.
Scenario four, which the configuration study suggests has “no upheaval and change for students and community,” proposes no change in current campus configurations.
However, it does suggest leasing or selling district properties such as Gard Street, the historic Hells Bend school property and a property on Main Street.
McQueen said Irwin's motion removed Hells Bend from sales consideration.
The district's property on Main Street is currently leased to Lake Family Resource Center, it was noted at the Nov. 9 meeting.
“Obviously we're not going to do anything with that,” McQueen said.
With Hells Bend and Main Street off the table, that leaves Gard Street, where a number of classes are held now, said McQueen. The property also is the location of the transportation yard and some sports facilities.
McQueen said the vote gives district staff some direction on what to consider going forward.
In other district news, a teenage boy collapsed during basketball practice at Kelseyville High School on Tuesday night, at around the same time as the meeting was taking place, McQueen said.
McQueen said the teen, whose personal information can't be released by the district because of his minor status, remained in the hospital on Wednesday.
The boy's parents were giving the district updates on his condition, McQueen said.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Judge Wynne Carvill approved the settlement in a lawsuit filed by Parent Voices Oakland and four California mothers who were told that their child care assistance, CalWORKs Stage 3 child care, would end on Nov. 1.
“We are grateful to the judge for recognizing that these working families need reliable child care, and also need to be informed where to find it,” said Patti Prunhuber, an attorney at the Public Interest Law Project, the lead counsel for the petitioners, in a written statement. “The settlement takes the court’s rulings one step further by ensuring that families will have, at least in the short term, Stage 3 care while they seek viable alternatives.”
Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez called the settlement “good news in tough times, and a welcome early holiday gift” for parents who would have lost jobs and providers who would have closed down.
“Even in the most difficult budget circumstances, throwing 60,000 people out of work, into unemployment or back onto welfare makes no economic sense,” he said.
The suit was brought by the Public Interest Law Project, the Child Care Law Center, the Western Center on Law & Poverty, Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, Public Counsel Law Center and Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.
The services are meant to assist working parents who have successfully transitioned off welfare but whose wages are still too low to cover child care.
The settlement, which will affect 56,000 families statewide, preserves the services through Dec. 31, according to a statement from the Child Care Law Center of San Francisco.
“We are happy with this decision – it means parents will be able to stay employed,” said Corean Todd, a board member for Parent Voices Oakland, the lead petitioner in the case. “ We need to make sure families know about their rights. We need parent groups, child care agencies, counties – everyone – to work with families to make sure they ask for a screening and get screened in time.”
In Lake County, 73 local families, 149 children and 100 child care providers faced impacts from the cuts to the program, which had $475,458 in funding, as Lake County News has reported.
Judge Carvill had issued an emergency order on Oct. 29 halting Schwarzenegger's veto of the program's funding, as Lake County News has reported.
A few days after issuing that emergency order, Carvill modified the order to require the state to continue Stage 3 child care and to use its “best efforts” to screen parents for alternative childcare services, the Child Care Law Center reported.
Teri Sedrick, co-director Rural Communities Child Care, a program of North Coast Opportunities which administers the CalWORKS Stage 3 program in Lake and Mendocino counties, said they received word on Tuesday that a management conference in the case was set for Feb. 2.
Then the news came on Wednesday of the settlement agreement.
“We were surprised, but at least it will get everyone through the holidays,” Sedrick said.
The Wednesday settlement extends the Stage 3 program through Dec. 31 and requires state-contracted child care agencies to inform families of their right to request a screening for any available child care alternatives, the Child Care Law Center reported.
As part of the settlement, the California Department of Education agreed to a process that allows
any Stage 3 family who asks to be screened before Dec. 10 to be considered for other available child care, officials reported.
“They want them put onto the centralized eligibility list, which we also run in both Lake and Mendocino counties,” Sedrick said.
Families put on that list will compete with other low-income families for services, she added.
The Child Care Law Center said that even the families that request a screening may be put on a waiting list that already has 200,000 children on it statewide.
Sedrick said North Coast Opportunities is hoping to be able to serve local parents with other programs after the Dec. 31 program deadline.
The settlement's term's require that families cut off from child care by the governor’s veto retain the right to return to the Stage 3 program if funding is restored.
At its Oct. 27 meeting, the Lake County First 5 Commission approved a $140,000 bridge loan to help the CalWORKS Stage 3 families from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31, said commission Executive Director Tom Jordan.
He said the decision was prompted by letters from Pérez and Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg to the 58 First Five commissions across the state, asking for bridge loans, “all with the idea that the Legislature, with the new governor in place, would pass reinstatement funding legislation and that Governor-Elect Brown would sign it,” he said.
While there is no current statement from Brown about his intentions on such proposed legislation, Jordan said Brown has a history of sensitivity to families trying to become independent.
First 5 commissions have flexibility and can act quickly, said Jordan. Many of the commissions also have reserves that can be called upon “in this kind of unprecedented request,” Jordan said.
Pérez's office reported that more than $40 million in bridge funding has been obtained to ensure the child care services can continue until legislation restoring the cuts can be enacted.
Of that, $6 million of the bridge funding comes from the Assembly, which is contributing funds from cuts made to the Assembly’s own operating budget, and more than $34 million in additional funding has come from local First 5 commissions throughout the state.
Meanwhile, there is pressure on the Legislature and the new governor to enact a permanent solution.
“We are looking to the Legislature and the governor-elect to step in quickly,” said Robert Newman, senior counsel at the Western Center on Law & Poverty. “Otherwise many of these hard-working families will have nowhere to send their children in the New Year.”
Jordan said that with the state having an estimated $26 billion deficit and a constraint against raising taxes, the path of least resistance is to cut services, which has been going on for the last three years.
That led him to wonder when there be no more to cut.
He added that the settlement may be a Pyrrhic victory.
“It certainly has created a tremendous challenge for the majority party,” Jordan said.
Pérez said the decision gives the Legislature time to work on restoring the funding in January. In doing so, they'll continue working with First 5 commissions and children's advocates.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
Many crashes result from driving too fast, so the first and foremost tip is slow down, the CHP said.
It’s a simple matter of physics that your vehicle can’t stop as fast or turn as accurately on wet or icy pavement. In fog, reduced speed is equally important because vision is impaired.
Prepare for potential inclement weather by leaving early, allowing plenty of time to get where you’re going. Make sure your gas tank is full. Always leave ample distance between your vehicle and the one ahead.
Check to see that your windshield wipers are in good condition. And don’t forget the law requires you to have your headlights on anytime the windshield wipers are operating continuously.
Check in advance for road conditions by calling: 1-800-427-7623 (when inside California); 1 916 445 1534 (when outside California); 1-702-793-1313 (Nevada road conditions).
According to the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) in 2008 (the most recent year of finalized data), 175 victims were killed and another 12,737 were injured in vehicle crashes that occurred in rainy, foggy or snowy conditions throughout the state.
If you’re heading to mountain country or anywhere you may encounter snow bring chains, chain tighteners, and warm, waterproof clothing. Other items which may prove useful: flares, flashlight and strong batteries, small shovel, windshield scraper, blankets, drinking water and snacks.
Studded tires may be used only between Nov. 1 and April 1 with this exception: The law now allows the use of pneumatic tires with retractable metal-type studs year round, as long as the studs are retracted between May 1 through Oct. 31. The law prohibits a tire with retractable metal-type studs on a vehicle from being worn to a point that the studs protrude beyond the tire tread when retracted.
If you’re driving in rain stay alert for potential hydroplaning, apply brakes slowly, be sure headlights are on, and maintain proper following distance.
If you’re driving in fog keep headlights on low beam, don’t stop on the roadway (except in emergency), move away from a stalled or disabled vehicle, watch for CHP pace vehicles which may be guiding traffic through fog, consider turning off the road and waiting until the fog eases.
Winter Driving Tips are available at www.chp.ca.gov.
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