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TOGUS VA BILLING GLITCH IRRITATES VETERANS --
"It was
their computer problem, and now they want
$336."
Background on the VA's billing error here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/
nf07/nfJUN07/nf060207-5.htm
Story here...
http://morningsentinel.
mainetoday.com/news/local/4036927.html
Story below:
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Togus billing glitch irritates veterans
By GARY REMAL
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel
AUGUSTA -- A Veterans' Affairs computer billing failure has forced
disabled veteran Lloyd Cunningham to pay back $336 for co-payments on
his medications.
He is not alone. About 3,000 veterans found themselves in the same boat
recently after receiving letters from Togus Veterans' Affairs Medical
Center Director John Sims Jr. stating that federal law required the
veterans to pay the money back.
Center spokesman Jim Doherty said a computer software problem stopped
charging co-payments to veterans. The glitch occurred only at Togus, he
said, and U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs officials failed to
notice co-payments had not been paid out of Togus between February 2006
and March 2007.
The glitch was made harder to identify because many veterans receiving
health care and medications are not required to pay co-payments if they
demonstrate service-related injuries or meet low-income standards.
When the billings stopped, Cunningham, a Chelsea resident who suffered
from tuberculosis after being drafted into the Army in 1957, assumed his
co-payment had been waived because of his disability, he said.
"Wrong," Cunningham wrote in a letter to the Kennebec Journal. "It was
their computer problem, and now they want $336."
Cunningham, 72, who cares for his wife since she suffered a stroke 15
years ago, said he is paying the money back as fast as he can, making
payments of $100 a month. The letter from Sims offered veterans facing
hardship with repayment "any reasonable monthly repayment offer."
But more than the money, Cunningham said he is not happy with the way
Togus officials have dealt with him.
"I figure it's as much their problem as mine," he said Monday. "I'm
going to pay it. But I don't think it's right. It's their computer error
and they're saying I have to fill in six pages of financial
information."
Doherty apologized and said the financial inquiries are to see if any
change in a veteran's circumstance might warrant a waiver of their
having to repay the co-payments.
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Larry Scott --
