The Vocal Veteran: ‘Claims shark’ controversy hits home for Nevada veterans

By Chuck N. Baker

Veterans nationwide, and statewide in Nevada from Virginia City to Boulder City, honestly receive benefits from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA). But under headlines that read, “The Unregulated Industry That Coaches Veterans To Pile On Benefits” and, “These Veterans Are Defrauding The VA’s ‘Honor System,’” the venerable Washington Post newspaper has been publishing a series of articles that attack the VA system that is charged with providing benefits to veterans in the U.S. military.

The VA system is an extension of the American military establishment and works to hold itself to the highest standards of honesty and decency. Thousands of honest veterans receive medical and financial benefits annually. The VA and Veterans of Foreign Wars in particular (along with some help from the Disabled American Veterans), has been fighting back recent negative comments in Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Post newspaper. Many veterans who are eligible to receive benefits sometimes beg off saying they don’t actually want any such compensation and the government should use the funds for those who “really deserve it.” But the VA honestly counters that argument by explaining that such benefits are truly earned by the service the veteran gave. That argument is then sometimes twisted by unregulated companies to back up their businesses telling veterans they “earned” and deserve large benefits, and for a fee they’ll tell them how to get them.

Like many other ex-military entrepreneurs in the claims industry, the Post reports an individual named “Combat Craig” boasts that he can help virtually any veteran obtain a 100 percent disability rating from the VA. Influencers hype the 100 percent threshold as “the holy grail” because it pays thousands of dollars a year, tax-free, and comes with no-cost health care and a host of other perks.

Military service is often dangerous, and VA officials say many veterans hold 100 percent ratings because of disfiguring injuries or severe illnesses they suffered while serving the nation. The toll from two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, they say, is responsible for much of the trend toward higher awards. But a Post investigation found that many for-profit consultants are compounding the spike in ratings with manipulative tactics. Many urge veterans to stretch the truth about their ailments and claim hard-to-disprove conditions that VA is unlikely to challenge. While many of the businesses provide legitimate services, some who have worked in the industry say it is steeped in hucksterism and fraud. “I had to convince the vets they had PTSD,” said a former soldier who worked as an intake specialist for a disability claims company. “The vets would tell me, ‘I don’t have that symptom.’ I had to tell them, ‘To get your rating higher you have to have these symptoms.’”

On an episode of a VFW Podcast, National Veterans Service Director Mike Figlioli from the VFW Washington Office discussed the Post’s coverage. He said, “What better time for the Post to accuse veterans of questionable claims. They lumped in the VFW with the claim shark industry and unpacked some of what is happening on-line where people are coaching things about veterans benefits. DAV was also accused of being on military bases and telling vets to claim more benefits.”

The country’s most prominent legacy veterans service organizations — nonprofit groups such as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans — provide free step-by-step guidance to hundreds of thousands of clients on how to maximize their rating by claiming disabilities. The accredited organizations and the unaccredited industry view each other as adversaries. Yet they take a similar approach when helping veterans file disability claims by touting the earning potential of minor or everyday ailments.

The Post presented VA officials with a detailed summary of its article and a list of questions, most of which they declined to answer. In an email, Pete Kasperowicz, the VA press secretary, assailed “the radical liberal Washington Post’” for its “shoddy brand of liberal-activist journalism.” “When VA sees signs of fraud or suspicious behavior, it works with the appropriate law enforcement authorities to protect taxpayers, veterans, families, caregivers and survivors,” Kasperowicz said. “But we also want to make sure veterans have choices, particularly if they aren’t happy with whatever options might be available to them for free.”