VA announces mileage-only travel claims through VA mobile app
BY MAUREEN N. MARATITA
Journal Staff
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced on Aug. 12 CHamoru Standard Time that the department will allow eligible veterans to submit and track mileage-only travel claims directly through the VA Health and Benefits mobile app.
The new feature will potentially reduce the number of paper claim submissions, which can take longer for VA to process, according to the release.
In theory, for veterans in the islands, the VA covers the cost of travel to the nearest VA facility that can provide the necessary care, whether that is in Guam, Hawaii or the U.S. mainland.
However, a May 2024 report said regarding veterans in the Freely Associated States that “legislation enacted in March 2024 explicitly authorized VA subject to certain agreements to reimburse them for travel related to eligible health care services, but VA has not yet implemented this legislation. Additionally, the enabling law that authorized VA to reimburse certain veterans’ travel also authorized VA to make payments to any person not explicitly covered in the law.”
Naval Hospital Guam. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Clien Lester Guico, U.S. Navy
Anthony Taijeron, president of HMI Guam, told the Journal in March 2024, “We guide our veterans through every step of the process, from creating a VA account, filing the claim, collecting the evidence, partnering with doctors in the community who are veterans to assist with the medical portion, and even after the VA sends a decision, if they need help with an appeal, we coach them through that as well," he said.
Taijeron said other issues include the situations of veterans in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Philippines are unique and benefits are limited. Those veterans could be assisted through a VA hospital in Guam, he said. In the meantime, such veterans often have to pay out of pocket, he said.
In 1996, responding to a congressional mandate, the U.S. Navy studied the possibility of establishing a VA inpatient facility within the U.S. Naval Hospital on Guam, but said the data did not support that.
The VA said in the accompanying Government Accountability Office * report to Congress about 9,400 veterans in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands were receiving benefits. About 700 veterans received VA health care in 1997.
Estimates on the number of veterans in Guam, the NMI and the islands of Palau, the Marshalls and the FSM have varied through the years. Current estimates put the number of Guam veterans between 24,000 to 28,000, and the number of NMI veterans between 1,200 and 1,500, according to Journal files. Figures from 2014 put the number of active and retired Marshallese military at 700, and in the FSM from 400 to 1,500 in 2022. mbj
*The GAO was called the General Accounting Office at the time.
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