VA Expands Virtual Services to Support Veterans During COVID-19 Pandemic

The Department of Veterans Affairs has increased virtual services available to Veterans online as it closes offices and curtails in-person services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Veterans who have not needed services recently may have missed the closing of all 56 regional Veterans Benefits Administration offices to the public on March 19. The VA also discontinued Transition Assistance Program benefits briefings and services on military installations for transitioning service members and their families as of March 30.

However, the VA says in a news release that many in-person services are available via the phone or online through virtual options such as VA Video Connect.

The VA is promising:

• Uninterrupted GI Bill payments so students continue to receive their benefits unaffected by any change from in-person to online learning.
• Educational counseling online and via the telephone to support students.
• Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Services for Veterans through teleconferencing; case management and general counseling through VA Video Connect.
• Informal conference hearings by telephone or video conferencing when needed.
• Collection of information by telephone to process fiduciary claims. When necessary, other accommodations will be arranged.
• Gathering of information via phone or teleconference when possible to process grant requests for special adaptive housing.
• Examinations for disability benefits using tele-compensation and pension (“tele-C&P”) exams. If an in-person exam is required, Veterans will be notified for scheduling.
• Virtual briefings and individualized counseling for transitioning service members where possible. Service members who have not received these briefings, as required by TAP, may access the Joint Knowledge Online (JKO) platform and register for “TGPS-US006: VA Benefits and Services.”

Virtual VA Healthcare Services for Veterans During COVID-19

A report in Healthcare IT News reviews the VA’s plan to provide most outpatient care for veterans through telehealth services in response to COVID-19. The plan identifies telehealth services as a preferred delivery system when possible.

“Telehealth” is the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration. Technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications.

VA clinics are to attempt to shift to a telehealth mode with phone, video, and/or electronic communication to meet the immediate needs of ambulatory patients, with the exception of some urgent care (including primary and mental health), the VA COVID-19 response plan says.

Veterans with mild COVID-19 symptoms who can stay home will be managed through telehealth and the potential use of mobile services, such as the Annie App – a VA service that sends automated text messages to Veterans to help them stay focused on their self-care and assist with follow-up.

“With approximately 80 percent of persons with COVID-19 having asymptomatic disease or mild symptoms, limited inpatient resources should be reserved for those with severe disease or significant contraindications to at-home quarantine or isolation,” the VA concluded.

The plan says the VA will:

• Implement telehealth programs to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases entering medical facilities.
• Support Veterans in voluntary home isolation through telehealth.
• Use telehealth technology to monitor and track patients under care in home quarantine.
• Conduct mental health, medical, and surgical specialty consultation using non-face-to-face methods when possible.
• Train and equip readjustment counselors to provide virtual services via VA Video Connect.
• Ensure VA chaplains are trained in telehealth to provide spiritual care for Veterans via VA Video Connect.

Healthcare IT News says the VA “has been prioritizing telehealth in a big way since long before the pandemic and has been seeing record engagement numbers.” Previously, the VA reported that it delivered more than 2.6 million episodes of telehealth care in FY 2019 to more than 900,000 Veterans.

Assisting Veterans Before, During, After COVID-19

Our veterans’ disability lawyers at Joye Law Firm in South Carolina honor the service of our veterans. We fight to ensure that the men and women who served our nation in the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard receive the full benefits that they have been promised through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Our attorneys offer free consultations to veterans who are disabled as a result of military service and have been denied appropriate disability benefits from the VA. Our experienced veterans’ disability attorneys can navigate the VA bureaucracy, work through the appeals process and help you seek the financial compensation and medical benefits available to disabled veterans.

We welcome veterans from all branches of service. We work to help veterans obtain benefits, whether your disability is related to combat wounds, training injuries, PTSD, chemical exposure, or any service-connected loss.

Whether you need to appeal a VA decision on a denied claim, get your disability rating increased or seek additional VA benefits you now qualify for, Joye Law Firm is ready to stand with you.

We don’t accept payment unless we recover benefits for you. For a free consultation and review of your claim for VA disability benefits, please call Joye Law Firm at 877-936-9707 or use our online contact form. Our aggressive and experienced VA disability attorneys will fight for you.

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Covid-19 Reveals Vulnerabilities in Nursing Homes of South Carolina

Outbreaks of Coronavirus in nursing homes in South Carolina and other states have shown that nursing home residents are particularly vulnerable to the deadly respiratory disease.

A King County, Washington, nursing home was the nation’s first “hot spot” for coronavirus cases in late February and early March. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19 infected 81 residents, 34 staff members and 14 visitors. Twenty-three people have died.

Multiple cases of COVID-19 have been traced to a Lexington Medical Care Extended Living Facility in Lexington County, South Carolina. An older male resident of the facility who died in March was the state’s first COVID-19 fatality, The State newspaper reported.

On March 30, ABC News reported coronavirus outbreaks “infecting hundreds of residents … and killing at least five people” at four nursing homes in four states over the previous weekend – Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee.

South Carolina is home to nearly 200 nursing homes and thousands of nursing home residents, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Despite many South Carolina nursing homes closing their doors to visitors since late March, as recently as April 7, an Anderson, S.C., nursing home reported a resident testing positive for COVID-19.

There are many questions to be raised and answered in the coming months about how nursing homes have dealt with the COVID-19 coronavirus and protections for vulnerable residents. Family members of nursing home residents who have been hospitalized and/or died from the virus will inquire as to whether the nursing home facility took reasonable steps to protect residents and prevent the spread of the virus.

What Should Nursing Homes Do to Protect Residents from COVID-19?

The COVID-19 coronavirus is a respiratory disease spread mainly through person-to-person contact. The elderly and people with underlying health problems are particularly vulnerable to the potentially fatal virus. Researchers suggest that the elevated risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19 among the elderly is due to frailty of the immune system among people age 70 and older and those who have preexisting conditions.

Unfortunately, elderly people with debilitating medical conditions who live in close proximity to each other describes nursing homes. Bring in visitors or staff who may have coronavirus but are not exhibiting any symptoms, and you have the perfect storm of COVID-19 contagion.

Following outbreaks at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities across the country, the CDC issued general strategies for preventing the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). They are the same strategies these facilities use every day to detect and prevent the spread of other respiratory viruses like influenza, the federal agency said.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which funds most nursing homes and other LTCFs, has issued its own guidance for infection control to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at a variety of inpatient and outpatient healthcare facilities and for healthcare providers, based on CDC guidelines.

CMS’s five guidelines for nursing homes and other LTCFs to prevent the spread of COVID-19 include:

• Nursing homes should immediately ensure that they are complying with all CMS and CDC guidance related to infection control.
• State and local health departments should work with long-term care facilities in their communities to determine and help address long-term care facility needs for personal protection equipment (PPE) and/or COVID-19 tests.
• Long-term care facilities should immediately begin screening every individual who enters a long-term care facility including residents, staff, visitors, outside healthcare workers and vendors for symptoms of COVID-19. Everyone should be asked about COVID-19 symptoms and have their temperature checked.
• Nursing homes should ensure all staff are using appropriate protective masks and garments when they are interacting with long-term care patients, to the extent that the equipment is available. For the duration of the state of emergency, all long-term care facility personnel should wear a facemask while they are in the facility.
• To avoid transmission within long-term care facilities, facilities should use separate staffing teams for COVID-19-positive residents to the best of their ability, and work with state and local leaders to designate separate facilities or units within a facility to separate COVID-19 negative residents from COVID-19 positive residents and individuals with unknown COVID-19 status.

The CDC’s guidance for nursing homes is much more comprehensive. Its most recently posted updates to infection control guidance is that nursing homes should assume that COVID-19 could already be in their community and to recommend that nursing homes:

• Restrict all visitation except for certain compassionate care situations, such as end of life situations
• Restrict all volunteers and non-essential healthcare personnel such as hair stylists and barbers
• Cancel all group activities and communal dining
• Implement active screening of residents and nursing home staff for fever and respiratory symptoms

Among its recommendations of steps that facilities should take now, the CDC says:

• Educate residents, healthcare personnel, and visitors. Educate residents and families including:
• Information about COVID-19
• Actions the facility is taking to protect them and their loved ones, including visitor restrictions
• Actions residents and families can take to protect themselves in the facility

Provide supplies for recommended infection prevention and control practices

• Hand hygiene supplies
• Personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Environmental cleaning and disinfection.

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