Major back surgery made the drive from Searcy to Little Rock tough for James Stracener, but each month he drove an hour to the only place in the state equipped to handle his veteran benefits.
On Monday, Stracener, 59, of Searcy drove five minutes from his home to a clinic where he conducted the same business over a video call. The former Army combat engineer was one of the first people to use the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs telebenefits program in Arkansas.
"It was such a good thing," Stracener said. "There's veterans a lot worse off than me, so it's important that the VA is reaching out to help us."
The VA Regional Office in North Little Rock, which handles veterans' benefit claims, started the telebenefits program last week in cooperation with Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System and its Searcy clinic.
The program puts veterans like Stracener face-to-face with a VA representative in Little Rock through a secure, high-definition video conference system. These conversations are most often used to sort out service-connected compensation, pensions, survivor benefits, burial benefits, VA home loans, special housing, vocational rehabilitation and education benefits.
For now, telebenefits are only available at the Searcy clinic, but Lisa Breun, director at the VA Regional Office in North Little Rock, hopes to expand the program to the other 14 community-based outpatient clinics in the state.
The goal is to reach veterans living outside of Little Rock -- specifically those in rural areas. About 250,000 veterans live in Arkansas, and about 45,000 of those receive a combined $67 million per month in VA disability benefits. Of the 250,000, the VA estimates that about half (122,500) live in rural areas.
"I think our rural veterans have felt excluded, and we want to make sure that they get all the knowledge they need about what's out there," Breun said, adding that the VA's telebenefits program may attract more enrollees.
"We think there are probably other deserving veterans out there who aren't receiving benefits. We want to make sure we're out there in their community so that if they're missing out on a benefit they're eligible for we can help them get that. We don't want the fact that they don't want to drive or don't have the ability to drive to Little Rock to keep them from those."
The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, which operates separately from the federal VA, expanded the footprint of its veteran service office network last year, locating officers in six regions across the state. Before, the officers were only in North Little Rock. The state agency plans to have officers in each of its nine regions by the end of summer 2017.
The agency also is busy accrediting service officers at the county level.
Veterans service officers act as advocates for veterans with the VA. They help file disability claims and ensure veterans maximize their benefits.
Prior to the telebenefits program, Stracener's service officer in White County couldn't accompany him to his benefits meetings in North Little Rock. However, the service officer can now sit in on the video calls and assist when needed.
"That's going to be a big help," Stracener said.
Tony Gordon, a VA legal administrative specialist who spoke with veterans remotely last week, meets with veterans regularly to discuss their benefits. The face-to-face format fosters a more personal environment than a phone, and it has the added benefit of allowing Gordon to share whatever is on his computer screen with the veteran.
"I know from talking to veterans that they want to see somebody," Gordon said. "They don't want to be on the phone when they're discussing the aspects of their claim. They want to see a person so they feel more connected to what's going on. They want to see someone."
The health care side of the local VA has also used technology to improve its outreach to veterans in rural areas. It uses video-chat technology to deliver specialty services such as dermatology, mental health and retinal imaging.
Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System also dispatches an outreach team throughout the state to educate doctors and community members about the services available to veterans.
Veterans interested in the telebenefits program should call the VA's Searcy Clinic for an appointment. Eventually, Breun hopes the telebenefits program will accept walk-ins as well. In the future she wants veterans to be able to access telebenefits from their homes.
"We want to get to where we have for the veterans a variety of access tools, and they can choose the one that suits them best," Breun said.
Metro on 09/04/2016