Transgender Troops Update 06

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  www.shopmyexchange.com for Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES);
  
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  www.mynavyexchange.com for Navy exchanges;
  
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  www.mymcx.com for Marine Corps stores; and
  
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  www.shopcgx.com for Coast Guard exchanges.
  

Cornelius said his email invitation was timely. He had lost his sunglasses and the replacement pair of Ray-Bans, priced at a local retail outlet near his Texas home, would cost $180. Using AAFES online to comparison shop, he found a special sale, $20 off any pair of sunglasses costing $100 or more. “So I got that discount,” he said, “plus it was 10 to 15 percent cheaper than retail, plus tax-free, plus free shipping. I wound up paying about $120 total, saving me quite a bit.” His wife then used his benefit, shopping for undergarments that were on sale with a major retailer, but out of stock in the sizes and colors she wanted. AAFES had them, and she saved money too, he said. Soon they were buying sportswear for their son. Every item was timely shipped, he said, and arrived three days later. “It was great. It was super easy. And the vetverify.org process took five minutes. I entered my full name, the last four of my social [security number], and it said 'You've been verified.' ”

“We have a duty to make certain our service members’ health is protected both in and out of service, and providing access to classified military records that may prove exposure to toxic substances is critical to veterans applying for VA benefits and service-connection,” Moran said in a statement. [Source: Mbltchey DC Bureau | Anshu Siripurapu | July 12, 2017 ++]

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  El Hoss Engineering & Transport for $57.3 million.
  
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  IAP Worldwide Services for $30.3 million.
  
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  KGL Transportation Company for $105.6 million.
  
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  PAE Government Services for $14 million.
  

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  In one Florida case, a defendant was accused of falsely representing himself to be a “retired lieutenant commander of the U.S. Navy Submarine Service,” according to a Justice Department news release. He allegedly made this false claim to gain the trust and personal information from Tricare beneficiaries, many of whom were military members and retirees, for use in a fraudulent billing scheme.
  
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  In another case investigated by the Southern Louisiana Strike Force, a pharmacist was charged with submitting and causing the submission of $192 million in false and fraudulent claims to Tricare and other health care benefit programs for dispensing compounded medications that were not medically necessary, and were often based on prescriptions originating from illegal kickback schemes. Information was not immediately available about how much of that $192 million involved Tricare.
  

“Our enforcement actions underscore the commitment of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and our partners to vigorously investigate fraud perpetrated against the DoD’s Tricare program,” said Kelly P. Mayo, deputy DCIS director, in the announcement. “We will continue to relentlessly investigate health care fraud, ensure the taxpayers’ health care dollars are properly spent, and endeavor to guarantee our service members, military retirees, and their dependents receive the high standard of care they deserve.” The Medicare Fraud Strike Force is a partnership between the Justice Department’s criminal division, U.S. attorney’s offices, the FBI and the HHS Office of Inspector General. In 2016, the task force charged 301 people in a nationwide sweep, alleging $900 million in fraud. [Source: MilitaryTimes | Karen Jowers | July 13, 2017 ++]

== Mail: Public Affairs Office, 2300 Defense Pentagon, Washington, D.C. 20301-2300, Attn: External Affairs

== Call: Phone: (703) 699-1420

== Message: Fill out form on http://www.dpaa.mil/Contact/ContactUs.aspx

-- Army Sgt. James W. Sharp, 24, of Mannington, W.Va., was buried June 29 in Grafton, W.Va. Sharp was a member of Battery B, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 31st Regimental Combat Team,7th Infantry Division. In late November 1950, his unit was assembled with South Korean soldiers in the 31st Regimental Combat Team on the east side of the Chosin River, North Korea, when his unit was attacked by Chinese forces. Sharp was among more than 1,000 members of the RCT killed or captured in enemy territory and was declared missing on Dec. 6,

-- Marine Sgt. James J. Hubert, 22, of Duluth, Minn., will be buried July 15 in his hometown. Hubert was assigned to Company H, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. Hubert’s unit landed on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll on Nov. 20, 1943, against stiff Japanese resistance. Hubert was killed 21 November 1943. To read more about Sgt Hubert go to http://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/Article/1239847/marine-killed-during-world-war-ii-accounted-for-hubert.

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  Most caregivers are female and more than three fourths are spouses; many are concerned aging will limit their abilities to perform care giving duties.
  
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  Over 80 percent of caregivers believe their role has limited their financial stability, friendships, family life, physical and mental health, and career.
  
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  About 75 percent indicate that without their assistance their loved one would be institutionalized now or in the future.
  
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  Nearly 90 percent of respondents indicate they have no access to respite care, home health aides, educational tools for care giving, stipends, or medical training-but most indicate such services would be helpful to them in better managing the care of their loved one.
  

To access the America's Unsung Heroes: Challenges and Inequities Facing Veteran Caregivers report and for more background on the inequity of federal support provided to veterans injured prior to 9/11, go to www.unsungheroesinitiative.org. As part of this initiative, 43 veterans, military and other nonprofit organizations joined DAV in writing Congress a letter urging passage of the bipartisan Military and Veteran Caregiver Services Improvement Act. To support this critical legislation (H.R. 1472/S. 591) and send a message to your representatives refer to www.dav.org/can/?vvsrc=%2fcampaigns%2f52515%2frespond. [Source: Military.com | Richard Sisk | June 16, 2017 ++]

GAO said the VA’s claims staffers often rely on the agency’s medical examiners to assess a veteran’s disability before a decision is made on a claim. But VA medical examiners told investigators that “conducting Gulf War general medical exams is challenging because of the range of symptoms that could qualify as GWI.” VA has developed elective GWI training for its medical examiners, but only 10 percent of examiners had taken the training as of February, GAO said. The VA said all its pension and compensation examiners will complete a mandatory 90-minute course on GWI by November, and it will make necessary changes in the notification process by August.

But during the same timeframe, hospice use had been growing among the general population, too. Miller and her colleagues therefore structured the study specifically to determine whether the CELC initiative drove growth beyond any trend in the general Medicare population. That wasn't a simple task given that older veterans are eligible for Medicare as well as V.A. benefits. "Some veterans receive care in their last year of life reimbursed by the V.A. or Medicare or both," Miller said. "So our evaluation compared differences in changes in hospice use for groups of veterans with differing combinations of health care use."

"Additionally, we did a sub-analysis including only veterans and nonveterans with any hospitalization in the last year of life because we believed that if indeed the CELC initiative drove the observed two percentage point population-level differences, we would see even greater effects for veterans with exposure to V.A. medical centers since most of the CELC investments occurred in these settings," Miller said. "The validity of our findings was supported as we found that veterans who used only V.A. health care and had V.A. hospital exposure, compared to similar Medicare beneficiaries, had a greater increase in hospice use of four percentage points."

Despite their relatively large increases in hospice use, the small V.A.-only population of veterans not enrolled in Medicare (about 1 percent of the study population) remained the least likely users of hospice care by a gap of about 10 percentage points throughout the study period. Miller said the data may in part reflect a socioeconomic disparity but may also result from the study's inability to determine if hospice was received through another payer such as Medicaid.