\u201cThis is a cold call but I\u2019m not trying to extend your car warranty. I just want to let you know about the PACT Act,\u201d is how Mike Boyd breaks the ice when sharing PACT Act benefits news to his fellow Veterans.<\/p>\n
Boyd works at Atlanta VA<\/a> as a PACT Act and social work toxic exposure screening (TES) navigator. The PACT Act passed in 2022 and VA has seen the greatest outreach efforts in its history<\/a>. But some Veterans still haven\u2019t heard about it.<\/p>\n \u201cVeterans may not be aware of the PACT Act because they may not be a part of Veterans groups, see the flyers or connect on social media. The big bulk of the Community Care Veterans I\u2019ve called are in their elder years, ranging from 65 to 80 years old. They\u2019re not plugged into YouTube or seeing VA ads on the internet. I know from experience because my father would spend his time mainly watching westerns or the Grit channel,\u201d Boyd shared.<\/p>\n The PACT Act expands VA health care and benefits for Veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic substances. It also helps VA provide generations of Veterans and their survivors with the care and benefits they\u2019ve earned and deserve.<\/p>\n \u201cAnytime you get an increase in your pay, it helps you a lot,\u201d said 82-year-old Army Veteran Wendell Bell (pictured above), who was 30% service-connected disabled and unaware of additional service-connected conditions he was made eligible for under the PACT Act. \u201cI didn\u2019t talk to anyone that didn\u2019t try to help. Everyone was very nice to me.\u201d<\/p>\n As the son of a Vietnam Veteran and an Army Veteran, Boyd says he can connect with Veterans by phone easily. \u201cI always stress that health care is important. Even if you\u2019re 100%, it\u2019s important to apply,\u201d Boyd said.<\/p>\n The main mission is awareness. The team provides PACT Act health and benefits information and offers a warm handoff to the Veterans Benefits Administration to get them the non-health benefits they\u2019ve earned.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is only one small example of a \u2018hard to reach\u2019 Veteran that Mike and our team have helped,\u201d said Lauren Ruchin, Atlanta VA\u2019s<\/a> PACT Act coordinator and TES navigator. \u201cWe are constantly reaching out to rural and elderly Veterans who may only be using Community Care to offer a toxic exposure screening and help make connections to VA benefits, health care and other psychosocial resources that may assist them.\u201d<\/p>\n The Veterans Benefits Administration representative reaffirmed what Boyd had suggested to Bell: As a Vietnam Veteran, he should be entitled to more compensation.<\/p>\n The following week, Bell learned he was approved for a 30% increase to his service connection percentage, which brought his total service connection to 60%, making his wife eligible for VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (VA DIC) and Civilian Health and Medical Program of VA (CHAMPVA) benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll in all, it was a nice experience, and I learned a lot,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n The PACT Act is the largest health care and benefits expansion in VA history<\/a>.<\/p>\n With the PACT Act, Veterans may be entitled to additional compensation<\/a>, as it has added more than 20 presumptive conditions for burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic exposures and additional presumptive-exposure locations for Agent Orange and radiation.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re the surviving spouse, child or parent of a service member who died in the line of duty or the survivor of a Veteran who died from a service-related injury or illness, you may be able to get a tax-free monetary benefit called VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.<\/p>\n Find out if you can get VA benefits or compensation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Are you the spouse or surviving spouse of or a child of a Veteran with disabilities or a Veteran who has died? If you don\u2019t qualify for TRICARE (the Department of Defense\u2019s health care program for active duty and retired service members and their families), you may be able to get health insurance through CHAMPVA. Through this program, VA covers the cost of some of your health care services and supplies. This is called cost sharing. Find out if you qualify for CHAMPVA<\/a> and how to apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThis is a cold call but I\u2019m not trying to extend your car warranty. I just want to let you know about the PACT Act,\u201d is how Mike Boyd breaks the ice when sharing PACT Act benefits news to his fellow Veterans. Boyd works at Atlanta VA as a PACT Act and social work toxic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":321289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,36,1269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-pact-act","category-visn-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321290,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321287\/revisions\/321290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/321289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cEven if you\u2019re 100% it\u2019s important to apply.\u201d<\/h2>\n
What\u2019s the PACT Act and how will it affect my VA benefits and care?<\/h2>\n
VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation<\/h2>\n
CHAMPVA benefits<\/h2>\n
![<\/a>Army Veteran Wendell Bell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\u201cVeterans may not be aware of the PACT Act because they may not be a part of Veterans groups, see the flyers or connect on social media. The big bulk of the Community Care Veterans I\u2019ve called are in their elder years, ranging from 65 to 80 years old. They\u2019re not plugged into YouTube or seeing VA ads on the internet. I know from experience because my father would spend his time mainly watching westerns or the Grit channel,\u201d Boyd shared.<\/p>\nThe PACT Act expands VA health care and benefits for Veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic substances. It also helps VA provide generations of Veterans and their survivors with the care and benefits they\u2019ve earned and deserve.<\/p>\n\u201cAnytime you get an increase in your pay, it helps you a lot,\u201d said 82-year-old Army Veteran Wendell Bell (pictured above), who was 30% service-connected disabled and unaware of additional service-connected conditions he was made eligible for under the PACT Act. \u201cI didn\u2019t talk to anyone that didn\u2019t try to help. Everyone was very nice to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cEven if you\u2019re 100% it\u2019s important to apply.\u201d<\/h2>\nAs the son of a Vietnam Veteran and an Army Veteran, Boyd says he can connect with Veterans by phone easily. \u201cI always stress that health care is important. Even if you\u2019re 100%, it\u2019s important to apply,\u201d Boyd said.<\/p>\nThe main mission is awareness. The team provides PACT Act health and benefits information and offers a warm handoff to the Veterans Benefits Administration to get them the non-health benefits they\u2019ve earned.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is only one small example of a \u2018hard to reach\u2019 Veteran that Mike and our team have helped,\u201d said Lauren Ruchin, Atlanta VA\u2019s<\/a> PACT Act coordinator and TES navigator. \u201cWe are constantly reaching out to rural and elderly Veterans who may only be using Community Care to offer a toxic exposure screening and help make connections to VA benefits, health care and other psychosocial resources that may assist them.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Veterans Benefits Administration representative reaffirmed what Boyd had suggested to Bell: As a Vietnam Veteran, he should be entitled to more compensation.<\/p>\nThe following week, Bell learned he was approved for a 30% increase to his service connection percentage, which brought his total service connection to 60%, making his wife eligible for VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (VA DIC) and Civilian Health and Medical Program of VA (CHAMPVA) benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cAll in all, it was a nice experience, and I learned a lot,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s the PACT Act and how will it affect my VA benefits and care?<\/h2>\nThe PACT Act is the largest health care and benefits expansion in VA history<\/a>.<\/p>\nWith the PACT Act, Veterans may be entitled to additional compensation<\/a>, as it has added more than 20 presumptive conditions for burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic exposures and additional presumptive-exposure locations for Agent Orange and radiation.<\/p>\nVA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation<\/h2>\nIf you\u2019re the surviving spouse, child or parent of a service member who died in the line of duty or the survivor of a Veteran who died from a service-related injury or illness, you may be able to get a tax-free monetary benefit called VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.<\/p>\nFind out if you can get VA benefits or compensation<\/a>.<\/p>\nCHAMPVA benefits<\/h2>\nAre you the spouse or surviving spouse of or a child of a Veteran with disabilities or a Veteran who has died? If you don\u2019t qualify for TRICARE (the Department of Defense\u2019s health care program for active duty and retired service members and their families), you may be able to get health insurance through CHAMPVA. Through this program, VA covers the cost of some of your health care services and supplies. This is called cost sharing. Find out if you qualify for CHAMPVA<\/a> and how to apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is a cold call but I\u2019m not trying to extend your car warranty. I just want to let you know about the PACT Act,\u201d is how Mike Boyd breaks the ice when sharing PACT Act benefits news to his fellow Veterans. Boyd works at Atlanta VA as a PACT Act and social work toxic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":321289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,36,1269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-pact-act","category-visn-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321290,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321287\/revisions\/321290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/321289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/11\/Wendell-Bell-in-service_r1.jpg\"){kind=link}