GOVERNMENT CLAIMS VA-DOD COOPERATION IS MAKING CLAIMS HANDLING FASTER

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 
VA-DOD Cooperation Accelerating Claims Handling, Officials Say
By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2013 - Senior officials from the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs assured Congress today that they are closing in on solutions that will alleviate the backlog of veterans' health benefit claims and streamline processing of current and future claims.

Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, testified along with Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, and Jessica L. Wright, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and witnesses from the Department of Veterans Affairs before the House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees.

While the two departments can read each other's health records now, Kendall said, "We want to have an improved system from that, where we're not just reading the records, but actually using them and using the data that's provided."

"We also want to eliminate paper that's currently part of the records that we're sending," he added, noting that the departments are moving very quickly to accomplish both.

Kendall said DOD is committed to the joint, near-term fielding of fully integrated, seamless health records under the interagency program office. At the same time, he noted, the department will solicit bids for a health care management system.

"The health care management software doesn't just make a record," he pointed out. "It helps the physicians do their job. And that's a very important reason for us to modernize our systems."

In a written, joint opening statement submitted for the record, DOD witnesses stated the two departments will work through the calendar year on achieving full interoperability of health data through a series of near-term "accelerator" efforts. These efforts, they said, will result in each service member and veteran having a single, seamless, shared, integrated healthcare record.

"All patients, and the clinicians serving them, will be able to access all of their health data, whether the patient is currently a military member or veteran and treated at a DOD or VA hospital," according to the statement.

The VA announced in June that an initiative launched in April to expedite disability compensation claims decisions for veterans who have a waited a year or longer had cleared more than 65,000 claims -- 97 percent of all claims over two years old -- from the backlog.

Veterans Benefits Administration staff members are now working to complete the disability claims of veterans who have been waiting more than a year for a decision, VA officials said.

VA officials also noted in June that the department expedites disability claims for homeless veterans, those experiencing extreme financial hardship, the terminally ill, former prisoners of war, Medal of Honor recipients and veterans filing fully developed claims.

Claims for wounded warriors separating from the military for medical reasons are handled separately with DOD through the Integrated Disability Evaluation System. Wounded warriors separating through IDES currently receive VA compensation benefits within an average of 61 days of their separation from service, officials said.

VA's claims inventory is composed mostly of supplemental claims from veterans already receiving disability compensation who are seeking to address worsening conditions or claim additional disabilities, officials said.

Regardless of the status of compensation claims, they added, veterans who have served in combat since Nov. 11, 1998, are eligible for five years of free medical care from VA for most conditions.

VA witnesses at today's hearing included Stephen Warren, acting assistant secretary for information and technology, Dr. Robert Petzel, undersecretary for health, and Danny Pummill, deputy undersecretary for benefits.

Warren said DOD and VA have achieved "an unprecedented level of collaboration" to ensure service members can seamlessly transition into veterans.

"Through DOD and VA channels such as the Joint Executive Committee, the Health Executive Committee, the Benefits Executive Committee, independent working groups and the day-to-day work of our respective hardworking employees, our two departments are removing barriers and challenges which impede seamless transition," he said.

Warren noted the departments share two common goals: "Create a seamless health record integrating VA, DOD and private provider data, and to modernize the software supporting DOD and VA clinicians."

That modernization will reach full operational capability by the end of 2017, he said, and VA is also "on track to meet our agency priority goal of eliminating the backlog of claims, those pending longer than 125 days, in 2015."

The total inventory of claims is now below 800,000, he said, and the backlog has been reduced by more than 14 percent from its highest point four months ago.

"For the second month in a row, VA claims processors set production records by completing more claims than in any previous monthly period," Warren added.

Collaboration efforts are ongoing with DOD to allow VA to receive complete service records, and to receive them electronically for faster and more efficient processing, he said.

DOD agreed in December that the military services will certify that service member's military treatment records are as complete as possible at the point of transition to VA, he said, and by the end of this year VA will receive all service treatment records electronically.

"This will contribute to reducing the time it takes to process future disability claims," Warren said.

Pummill noted electronic records will greatly add to VA's flexibility in processing claims.

"That'll put us in a position so that, if a claim comes in from Ohio, it doesn't have to be done ... by a claims person in Ohio," he said. "When the claim comes in, the next available person anywhere in the country can take that claim and work it because all of the records will be electronic, eliminating the need to mail records around the country."

He added, "The advent of the Veterans Benefits Management System and the electronic service treatment records that we're going to be receiving from [DOD] ... will go a long way to preventing future backlogs and ending this backlog right now."

Woodson agreed, noting, "Not only will we be able to exchange that information so that it can be read by whomever might need the information in the Veterans Administration system, but it will be computable data."

Woodson added that DOD and VA staffs have learned that modernizing health care management and health records involves not just technology solutions, but also reengineering business processes.

"I want to thank our VA colleagues," he said, "because through information-sharing summits and the like, we have illuminated areas where the business processing reengineering needs to occur so that they can take advantage of the technology solutions."

Kendall told the representatives that while it wasn't the subject of the hearing, he wanted to make a comment on sequestration.

"I cannot sit before this committee today two days after we started furloughing our employees and not mention sequestration," he said. About 85 percent of DOD civilian employees will be furloughed one day a week through the end of the fiscal year, a total of 11 days without pay.

"The effects of sequestration are real," Kendall said. "They're distributed all across the department. They are not dramatic in any specific instance, but their cumulative impact is dramatic. And they will have over time, particularly if allowed to continue in [fiscal year 2014], a devastating impact on the department."

Wright said the furlough won't affect the pace of claims processing.

"Yes, furloughs are real," she said. "Yes, they're damning. But we have kind of locked [claims processing] down as hugely important and we're putting a full-court press on it."

VETERANS AFFAIRS AND DEPARTMENT ON DEFENSE WORK TO PREVENT SUICIDE

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

DOD, VA Partner to Help Prevent Suicide

By Cheryl Pellerin

WASHINGTON, June 20, 2012 - Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said his agency is working with the Defense Department to end veteran homelessness and to identify possible contributors to service member and veteran suicide.

On the first day of the June 20-22 Annual DOD/VA Suicide Prevention Conference here, Shinseki -- a retired Army general, former Army chief of staff and a combat-wounded Vietnam veteran -- took the stage to a standing ovation from hundreds of mental health professionals, clinicians and military leaders.

"Suicide is a national concern. The Centers for Disease Control's annual report on the top 10 leading causes of death ... lists suicide as one of the top four causes of death in Americans ages 10 to 54," Shinseki said.

Suicide is the second-highest cause of death for young people ages 25 to 34, he added.

"These also happen to be the recruiting years," the secretary said. "Should we be surprised that recruits out of such a population bearing some level of increased stress for much of the past decade would experience suicides at some elevated level, or that the suicide rate among male veterans appears to be almost twice that of the general population?"

Shinseki said intervention, or the act of interrupting a potential suicide, primarily is a reactive response.

"We have demonstrated that we can react well," the secretary told the audience, "but is that good enough for the long term?"

To aggressively tackle some potential precursors of suicide, officials said, the VA is focusing on veteran homelessness and on creating a "warm handoff" for service members who transition from the military to the VA.

Three years ago, Shinseki said, the VA made ending veterans homelessness by 2015 one of its key priorities "because homeless veterans are evidence, no matter how good we think we are at this, that we have gaps in our system of care and benefits."

The VA team decided to challenge all of its assumptions about homelessness to find and close those gaps, he said.

"Many experts on homelessness felt then that the primary contributor to homelessness was mental illness. Today, after nearly three years of work, they've concluded that the leading contributor to veteran homelessness is more specifically substance abuse. That gives us a target to go after."

He added, "My question to this audience is, have we made similar assumptions about suicides over time? Do we know causes, cures and measures of effectiveness in our treatment regimens for those vulnerable to suicide? Do we have sufficient tools to prevent as well as rescue when dealing with those at risk? Are we asking the right questions to challenge all of our assumptions about suicide ideation?"

Veterans suffer disproportionately from depression and substance abuse, and they are high on the list for joblessness as well, Shinseki said. All of these factors, he added, contribute both to homelessness and suicide.

Another focus at VA is the transition of the service member to veteran, and how that process works for those who may be vulnerable to suicide or its precursors.

"At VA we know that when we diagnose and treat, people get better. This is reflected in our suicide treatment data that shows a declining trend between 2001 and 2009, the last year for which we have verifiable data," the secretary said.

"But we also know that veterans who commit suicide, perhaps as many as two out of three, are not enrolled in the VA health care system," he added. "So as good as we think our programs are -- we don't even get a shot at these veterans."

To narrow this gap, Shinseki said, efforts at the VA must focus on aggressive outreach to veterans and families, and the provision of high-quality and cutting-edge mental health treatments to those in need.

"We do this best with 'warm handoffs' between [DOD and VA]," he added, referring to a fledgling process through which a health care liaison is tasked to collect transitioning service members' medical records, make initial appointments in an appropriate VA medical center, and facilitate a personal handoff to the new facility.

"VA will continue to work closely with DOD to strengthen our collaboration on behalf of veterans leaving the service and reservists returning from operational deployments," Shinseki added. "We simply must transition them better."

He added, "There are folks still not convinced that warm handoffs are key to preventing suicides."

In May, Shinseki and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta met in Chicago to announce the goal of creating a fully operational integrated electronic health record that seamlessly will be able to move from DOD to VA by 2017.

"A significant challenge," Shinseki said, "but without it these warm handoffs are just more difficult."

Shinseki said VA investments in mental health programs increased from $4.4 billion in 2009 to $5.9 billion in 2012.

"Our funding specifically for suicide prevention has doubled, from $35.8 million in 2009 to $72.8 million in our 2013 budget request, with $6.2 billion requested for 2013 for overall mental health," he said.

As DOD anticipates growth in its mental health patient load, Shinseki said, the VA will pace its own growth accordingly.

"But that takes warm hand offs or else we're stuck in that primarily reactive response of rescuing [those who attempt suicide] during crisis, he added.

"Secretary Panetta's leadership and close partnership on behalf of those who wear the uniform today and those who have worn the uniform in times past has been monumental," Shinseki said. "As a result, we've brought our two very large departments much closer together than they've ever been before."

PROGRAM ASSISTS VETERANS IN GETTING ON WITH THEIR LIVES

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

Programs Assist Veterans with Jobs, Education, Homes

By Terri Moon Cronk

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2012 - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs wants veterans to know about their benefits, from job and education opportunities to home loans and programs for those who are disabled, a VA official said yesterday.

Veterans caught in today's high rate of unemployment likely can find a job in one of the more than 200 high-demand careers that have been identified by the Department of Labor, said Curtis Coy, VA's deputy under secretary for economic opportunity. Those occupations are listed on the VA's Web site.

The U.S. Department of Labor's most-recent figures from last year show 900,000 veterans out of work, averaging 7.7 percent of Americans, and 12.1 percent for veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. "The high-demand jobs list is not a narrow one; in fact, it is a very broad list," Coy said, adding that the 2011 legislation, VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 was enacted for veterans looking for "meaningful employment in high-demand jobs."

Overall, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act would lower the rate of unemployment among the nation's veterans, and combine two Congressional provisions from the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act and the Hiring Heroes Act, VA officials said. The act also would provide veterans tax credits in an all-inclusive jobs package to fight the veteran unemployment rate. The act has more than 20 provisions, including tax credits for businesses that hire veterans, Coy said.

It also makes the Transition Assistance Program mandatory as of Nov. 21 for every departing service member. TAP readies departing active-duty personnel to re-enter the civilian world, officials said. "[TAP] is going to have a major impact on VA, DOL and the Defense Department because what used to be a voluntary program is now mandatory," Coy said.

Coy also wants veterans to know they can apply for up to a year of paid training to qualify for high-demand jobs through the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program.  The VRAP training is geared toward veterans between the ages of 35 and 60, the hardest-hit unemployed age group, he said, adding that the education benefit must, by law be used toward earning an associate's degree or job certification. "The marketing tool we use is if you are or know of a veteran between ages 35 and 60 who's unemployed and [can] use another year of educational benefits to attain a high-demand job, the VRAP program is the exact, wonderful new benefit that will help them get that meaningful employment," Coy said.

Applicants for the education program are taken on a first-come, first-served basis after their eligibility is confirmed, he added. The VA Web site has details. "I think the VA always has been the institution that takes a look at our veterans, not only today, but veterans of the past, and provides those services and benefits that Congress has so generously provided to [them]," said Coy, a 24-year Navy veteran. "Our job is to ensure veterans know of and get the benefits they so richly deserve."

In addition to benefits for training for jobs, Coy wants veterans and active-duty service members to know about VA's Home Loan Guaranty program for VA mortgages and Specially Adapted Housing Grants.VA mortgages in the past 15 quarters had the lowest foreclosure rates of any component in the country, Coy said.

"That speaks volumes about our veterans, their responsibilities, and how they deal with business," he said. "The foreclosure rate in this country and the number of homes under water is a problem for many Americans. What we've done to help our veterans is keep a very close eye on [their] mortgages."  VA doesn't lend veterans the money for mortgages. Instead, VA provides a loan guarantee. "We have a vested interest in being good stewards of our taxpayer money," Coy said. "Last year, we helped over 72,000 vets retain their homes who may not have been able to retain them otherwise. That's a 10-percent increase over the year before."

He said the VA provides proactive support for veterans who might get into trouble with their mortgage. "We can be good agents for them, and in some cases intercede or help them with their banks and mortgage lenders to perhaps restructure [the loan] or take a look at the nuances of that particular mortgage," Coy explained. "We want to make sure our veterans stay in their homes, and we do everything to help them do just that," he added.

Eligibility for a VA home loan includes being a veteran or service member, having good credit and the ability to pay the mortgage, Coy said, noting no money down is required, unlike private lenders. "We are very scrupulous to make sure veterans don't get in over their heads on their mortgages," he said. 

The VA also offers Specially Adapted Housing Grants for disabled veterans and wounded warriors, with grants up to $64,000 in homeowner assistance used to configure veterans' homes for their particular disability, Coy said.

Information on the grant is available on the VA Web site, along with toll-free numbers, a list of 57 regional offices across the country, and some 800 vocation and rehabilitation programs. "The VA always has been the institution that takes a look at our veterans, not only [from] today, but veterans of the past, and provides those services and benefits that Congress has so generously provided," Coy said. "Our job is to ensure veterans know of and get the benefits they so richly deserve."

VA ON MALARIA

FROM:  VETERANS AFFAIRS
Infectious Diseases » Malaria
Military members may be at risk for malaria during deployment or personal travel to tropical and subtropical areas where the mosquito-borne disease is prevalent.
If you have returned from a malaria-affected country and develop a fever or flu-like symptoms, immediately seek medical care from your health care provider. Malaria is a serious and sometimes fatal disease, but it is curable if diagnosed and treated promptly.

Malaria during military service
Veterans who meet the criteria below do not have to prove a connection between their malaria and military service to be eligible to receive VA disability compensation:
Veterans must have served in the Southwest Asia theater of military operationsduring the first Gulf War starting August 2, 1990, through the conflict in Iraq OR on or after September 19, 2001, in Afghanistan.
Malaria must be at least 10 percent disabling within one year from the date of military separation OR at a standard time that would indicate the incubation period began during a qualifying period of military service.

Malaria symptoms
Malaria symptoms occur in cycles. Symptoms include fever, chills, drenching sweats, sudden coldness, flu-like illness, headache, nausea, and vomiting. The time period between the infection and development of malaria symptoms generally varies from 7 to 30 days. One strain has an incubation period of 8 to 10 months. With infection from some malaria species,relapses can occur months to years later.
To learn more about malaria, go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or to Medline Plus.
Malaria prevention
Drug prevention measures are not totally protective and must be combined with the use insect repellent, insecticide-treated bed netting, and protective clothing.
Doxycycline is now the drug of choice to prevent malaria in the deployed U.S. military.Mefloquine (Lariam®) is not recommended as a primary choice, but can be used by those who cannot take either doxycycline or atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone®).

How Veterans may get infected
Malaria is an infectious disease transmitted to human hosts by infected mosquitoes. Veterans may have contracted malaria while deployed to certain parts of Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.
Clinicians should consider the diagnosis of malaria for Veterans who have served in Korea, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan/Horn of Africa and surrounding countries), Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation New Dawn, training and development missions in sub-Sahara Africa, or any other malaria-affected areas.
Malaria may also be transmitted through a blood transfusion from an infected person or by use of a contaminated needle or syringe.

Health concerns
If you are concerned about malaria, talk to your health care provider or local VA Environmental Health Coordinator. If you are not enrolled in the VA health care system, find out if you qualify for VA health care.
VA benefits
Veterans may be eligible for VA health care benefits and disability compensation for malaria related to military service.

VA SECRETARY SHINSEKI ASSURES VETS PROMISES WILL BE KEPT

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

Shinseki Vows to Support Military Members, Vets

By Donna Miles

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2012 - Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki offered assurances that VA will make good on its promises to veterans and those currently serving in uniform, despite growth in demand for its services and benefits and federal belt-tightening initiatives.

Shinseki sat with American Forces Press Service during the 26th annual National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic this week in Snowmass Village, Colo., to discuss VA's $140.3 billion budget request for fiscal 2013 and what it means for those who serve or have served in uniform.

With a 4.5 percent increase in discretionary funding over fiscal 2012 funding levels, Shinseki said it sends a clear message to the nation's 22 million living veterans. "The nation honors and appreciates their service," he said. "It has not forgotten and will not forget."

The funding increases will go primarily toward medical care, disability pay and pensions, jobs and educational and training programs. They also will help build momentum in three priority areas Shinseki has identified: increasing access to care, benefits and services; eliminating the disability claims backlog; and ending veterans' homelessness.

Shinseki said the budget request -- up from $99.9 billion when he arrived at VA in 2009 -- was an easy sell to President Barack Obama, who he said has been a staunch advocate of veterans.

"He gets it, both that sense of obligation, and a responsibility to ensure that these men and women we have sent off to do the nation's business have an opportunity to get back to some kind of normalcy in their lives, and that VA is responsible for carrying that load," Shinseki said of the President's support for veterans.

The VA's workload is anticipated to grow, Shinseki said, with an estimated 1 million service members expected to leave the military during the next five years. And based on the experience of 1.4 million veterans of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan who have left the military as of September, he said the newest veterans will be twice as likely as those from previous generations to take advantage of VA services and benefits.

Shinseki noted that 67 percent of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have come to VA for services or benefits ranging from health care to insurance, home mortgages and Post-9/11 G.I. Bill education. That's a far-higher percentage than for previous generations, he said, noting that roughly 8.8 million, or about one-third of all 22 million living U.S. veterans, are enrolled with the VA.

"So looking down the road, that percentage is going to be pretty significant," he said.

In some respects, VA has become a victim of its own successes and what Shinseki called a "very aggressive" outreach effort to encourage veterans to take advantage of VA programs. "In the last three years, we have pushed very hard to get the message out," he said. It's been a two-prong effort, he added, to educate new veterans, and to "reach out to those who may have tried us and been disappointed in the past to say, 'This is a new VA. Give us another try.'"

The message has clearly resonated, with about 800,000 new veterans enrolling with VA over the past three years and beginning to take advantage of its services.

"As a result, we have been able to present what I think is a good argument for why VA's budget needed to be reinforced, Shinseki said.

The VA budget request includes $52.7 billion for medical care, up 4.1 percent. VA officials estimate that 6.3 million veterans will use its health care services, including about 610,000 veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The request includes $6.2 billion for mental-health, up 5.3 percent from current levels. VA will use the additional funding to conduct more outreach and screenings, better address post-traumatic stress disorder and enhance programs that reduce the stigma of seeking mental-health care, officials said.

The budget also will fund expanded gender-specific care for women veterans and medical research focusing on traumatic brain injury, suicide prevention, PTSD and other needs, officials reported.

New funding in the 2013 budget request, officials said, will help veterans prepare for and secure jobs, building on a national program that includes tax credits for employers, corporate hiring pledges, job fairs and other initiatives.

The budget request will cover Post-9/11 GI Bill educational benefits for an estimated 606,000 service members, veterans and family members during fiscal 2013, officials said. A separate funding increase of $9 million would expand the "VetSuccess on Campus" program from 28 college campuses to 80 to provide outreach and supportive services for about 80,000 veterans transitioning from the military to college.

Meanwhile, VA's vocational rehabilitation and employment program will expand services to wounded, ill and injured service members to ease their transition to civilian life, officials said. Program participants are expected to increase from 108,000 in fiscal 2011 to 130,000 next fiscal year.

The budget request proposes $1 billion over five years for a Veterans Job Corp. This effort, projected to put 20,000 veterans to work, would leverage military-acquired skills for jobs protecting and rebuilding U.S. public lands.

Shinseki said VA and the Defense Department are collaborating better than ever before to ensure a smoother transition from the military to VA-assisted ranks.

A task force that blends both departments' expertise is exploring ways to improve transition assistance programs and weave health care, employment, education and entrepreneurship offerings into them. The idea, Shinseki explained, is to put transitioning service members "on a vector to that next phase of their lives, as opposed to the uniform coming off and then having them ask the question, 'What am I going to do now?'"

The goal, he said, is to gear transition assistance programs toward providing veterans "a clear set of choices," that both departments can help support.

Shinseki noted other areas where the close DOD-VA partnership already is helping service members and their families and veterans. VA is the insurer for everyone in the military carrying Servicemembers Group Life Insurance. VA administers Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits for service members and their families as well as veterans. VA hospitals already provide specialized care to many active-duty patients.

"So the connection is there," Shinseki said. "And I want all service members and their families to understand that we are there for them, and that is our only mission."
 

VETERANS HOME IN ALABAMA GETS $350,000

The following excerpt is from the Veterans Affairs website:

“VA Awards Nearly $350,000 to Alabama Veterans Home
February 27, 2012
Alexander City Facility Targeted for Federal Grant
WASHINGTON – To ensure the Alabama Veterans home in Alexander City remains a comfortable and safe residence for Veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs is awarding nearly $350,000 for improvements to the kitchen at the state-run facility.

“Our federal-state partnership helps provide comfortable and safe housing in a caring community for Alabama Veterans who have served their country,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki.

VA’s grant will cover 65 percent of the project’s cost, which carries a $535,000 price tag.
Last year, VA spent nearly $2.5 billion in Alabama to serve the state’s 406,000 Veterans.  VA operates major medical centers in Birmingham, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa and Tuskegee, with outpatient clinics and Vet Centers across the state, plus three national cemeteries.
For more information about the Alabama Veterans homes in Alexander City, Huntsville and Bay Minette, and related state services for Veterans, visitwww.va.state.al.us/homes.htm.”

NEW LAW INCREASES LIFE INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR VETERANS

The following excerpt is from The Department of Veterans Affairs website:

“WASHINGTON – Some Veterans covered under the Veterans Group Life Insurance program (VGLI) now have the opportunity to increase their coverage to the current maximum coverage under the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) program.
“Currently, 70 percent of the Veterans covered under VGLI are under age 60, have less than $400,000 of coverage, and will greatly benefit from this law change,” said Allison A. Hickey, Department of Veterans Affairs under secretary for benefits.  

Under the Veterans’ Benefits Act of 2010, enacted on Oct. 13, 2010, Veterans can increase their coverage by $25,000 at each five-year anniversary date of their policy to the current legislated maximum SGLI coverage, presently, $400,000.
To date, approximately 21 percent of eligible Veterans have taken advantage of this opportunity, resulting in nearly $113 million of new coverage being issued.
The VGLI program allows newly discharged Veterans to convert their SGLI coverage they had while in the service to a civilian program.  Before enactment of this law, Veterans could not have more VGLI than the amount of SGLI they had at the time of separation from service.

For example, those who got out of the service prior to Sept. 1, 2005, when the maximum SGLI coverage was $250,000, were limited to $250,000 in VGLI coverage.
Now on their first five-year anniversary, these Veterans can elect to increase their coverage to $275,000.  On their next five-year anniversary, they can increase the coverage to $300,000, and so forth.

The additional coverage can be issued regardless of the Veteran’s health.  To be eligible to purchase this additional coverage, the Veteran must:
          * Have active VGLI coverage,
          * Have less than the current legislated maximum coverage of $400,000,
          * Request the additional coverage during the 120-day period prior to each five-year anniversary date, and
          * Be less than 60 years of age on the five-year anniversary date of his or her coverage.
Eligible Veterans are notified of this opportunity a week before the start of the 120-day period prior to their anniversary date, and twice more before the actual anniversary date.
For more information about VA’s Insurance Program or other VA benefits, go to www.va.gov or call 1-800-827-1000.”