washingtonscene
a73 For those eligible to retire on or 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central Standard Time.
before Aug. 1, 2009, no additional service But that’s not the only problem here.
is required. Current law still requires DoD to re-
a73 For those eligible for retirement after coup the fi nal month’s military retired pay
Aug. 1, 2009, and before July 1, 2010, one from military widows and then reissue
year of additional service is required. them only a pro-rata check for the number
a73 For those eligible for retirement after of days the retiree was alive.
Aug. 1, 2010, and before July 1, 2011, two MOAA says what’s good for the VA is
years of additional service is required. good for DoD. We’ve been working with
a73 For those eligible for retirement after Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) to change the
Aug. 1, 2011 and before July 1, 2012, three law to let military widows keep the fi nal
years of additional service is required. month of retired pay, and we’re pushing
that hard this year.
VA Underpaid
New military widows are traumatized
enough without the added, insensitive
Widows
shock of having the Pentagon reach into
their bank accounts to recoup retired pay
11,000 survivors repaid so far.
that often times already has been spent on
housing, car payments, or other bills.
or the past 12 years, the VA
Sen. Daniel wrongfully has been recouping fi nal DoD, VA Plan
Akaka
Fdisability and pension payments
(D-Hawaii)
from widows of deceased veterans. Data Exchange
Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), chair of
Joint health record system
the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee,
learned of the practice, which has been
due by September.
illegal for more than a decade, and con-
fronted VA offi cials in December 2008.
In 1996, Congress passed a law stipulat-
ing that disability and VA pension checks S
ometimes it takes a little nudg-
ing to get government bureaucra-
cies moving in the right direction
issued for the month of a veteran’s death at a pace faster than slow. For DoD and
Rep. Walter
shall be payable to the surviving spouse. the VA, that not-so-subtle nudge came as
Jones
Previously, the law called for recouping the the FY 2008 Defense Authorization Act,
(R-N.C.) fi nal month’s pay and refunding only the requiring a fully interoperable electronic
pro-rata portion for the number of days of health record system by Sept. 30, 2009,
that month in which the veteran was alive. and establishing a joint interagency of-
Astonishingly, the VA never updated fi ce to oversee implementation.
the change to the pay system. The two departments have been shar-
In the wake of this revelation, former ing some data since 2001, but it took the
VA Secretary James Peake established new law to get serious leadership atten-
a special task force to identify the cases tion and action.
involved and issue checks to the affected Currently, data transfer exists in several
survivors by January. forms, with only some of it on a real-time
Surviving spouses who think they should basis. For instance, readable electronic
be eligible but haven’t received a refund can health information for wounded warriors
contact the Survivors’ Call Center at (800) includes x-rays, MRIs, allergies, and phar-
749-8387, Monday through Friday, from maceutical history, and other viewable
3 6 M I L I T A R Y O F F I C E R M A R C H 2 0 0 9
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