For Your Benefit
For and about Hawaii's military
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Scammer tries to get personal data
Question: I heard about a possible attempt to gain access to a veteran's credit-card information to pay for Department of Veterans Affairs pharmacy co-payments. Is this legal?
Answer: There have been reports on the mainland where VA patients have been called by a man indicating he was from the VA pharmacy and asked the veteran or his wife to provide the veteran's Social Security number and list of medicines/dosages under the guise of new co-pay regulations. He said the new regulations meant the vet owed $800 and asked for credit-card information to pay the bill. VA pharmacy co-payment regulations have not changed and VA employees do not call veterans requesting Social Security numbers or credit-card information.
Q: How does VA determine the level of compensation payable?
A: Disability compensation is a monthly benefit paid to veterans because of injuries or diseases that happened while on active duty, or were made worse by active military service. VA must obtain evidence to establish that the disability claimed is the result of the veteran's military service. VA then evaluates the medical evidence and assigns a disability rating percentage. VA evaluates each service-related condition in 10 percent increments. For some conditions, the maximum level of compensation is 100 percent. Once the medical evidence is evaluated and a percentage rating assigned, VA pays the amount of compensation provided by law for that rating. For information on VA disability compensation, contact the VA at 1-800-827-1000.
If you have questions about your benefits as a veteran, call Fred Ballard at the Veterans Affairs at 433-0049 or visit the VA Web site at
www.va.gov/hawaii or the Star-Bulletin at 529-4747.