Billing problems still at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans.

Michigan has a legal obligation from the US Constitution to take care of its wounded veterans. I think It is doing a dismal job of it. It was bad enough over the last 2 decades, at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans and thanks to the efforts of many people who put in hundreds of hours of their time, and several Veteran organizations such as the VFW, Am Legion, AmVets, DAV and others who showed that they cared about our veterans we finally got the legislature involved and some much needed changes took place. Not all of them worked out, but many did, and it put us on what many hope is the right path for the future care of our Veterans.

But now once again another skeleton has popped up out of the dark closet where it was hidden for many years. This is one of many problems that have to be properly dealt with, if we are to improve the States dismal performance of caring for our veterans. I am told that Michigan once again is ranked 53 out of 53 veteran zones. The US Territories Guam and Puerto Rico apparently take better care of their veterans than Michigan does. And we have over 600 thousand in Michigan.

In past articles on our blogspot.com page, I have talked about the cost of care for veterans and how much it cost each veteran depending on what unit they were in. I also talked about the hidden costs that many of us were not informed of, and which many residents and past residents are STILL NOT aware of.

As the Home moves towards Medicare/Medicaid compliancy, we have to look at this subject again as billing is going to change. Medicare does not pay on a 30 day basis like residents are currently being charged. Medicare pays on a daily basis.

So how is a veteran going to be charged for cost of care? Will the home charge the VA, then try to get Medicare/Medicaid to pay the remaining balance? How exactly is this going to work?

Currently veterans are charged a set fee for their cost of care. This cost of care does not necessarily reflect the actual cost that the veteran claims it costs to have a veteran living there. A veteran is responsible for all of that amount minus $100 per month. A veteran with no income is allowed to stay at the home and receives five dollars a week for personal use. What is not told to the veterans is that the amount of their cost of care is being kept on financial statements and a lean on all their future earnings and or property has been placed on it by the state of Michigan, so I have been told in the past.

For example when I lived in the domiciliary unit, we were told that the cost of care was $2100 a month, yet the home claimed (at a board of mangers meeting that I attended) that it cost nearly $5000 a month for us to be there. So if we could only pay $300 a month toward their cost of care, the amount of $4700 was added to an account state that we would be liable for if we ever had any assets that the state could take.

Now for some veterans their source of revenue was either VA disability or social security disability or in some cases private business insurance, like a pension or something like that. I know for a fact that at that time, Social Security only paid about 1100 a month and the VA pensions were about 875 a month. Well below poverty line. Currently SS pays about 1300 a month, still well below the 2000 a month poverty line for Kent County for a single person with no dependents. 

As the home switches over to Medicare compliance, how are they going to handle this billing? I know that when I am sent to the local hospital and the local hospital bills Medicare, I end up with a co-pay that I have to pay out of my pocket. Will the veterans at the veterans home, have to pay co-pays if Medicare is billed for their cost of care and where will the money come from? Will it come out of the veterans pockets? And will they still have to pay until they only have $100 of their revenue per month? Or will they be allowed to keep their revenue? And what if the VA is billed, how will that work?

Will the veterans under the new billing system, be left with unpaid bills for amounts that they have not been made aware of, as they have in the past?

In past years I witnessed how the Grand Rapids Veterans home stripped a veteran of every asset that the veteran had. Even at the cost of taking the family home and throwing the wife of the veteran to the street. In past generations where the man ran the home and provided everything for the family, and where the wife was a housewife and raised the children and never worked outside of the home, the wife had no paper work with her name on it such as on the family home mortgage. This generation typically left the home to the surviving spouse. But what a veteran was involved in the state imposed a guardian or a conservator on the veteran, for whatever reason, in many cases the conservator would end up liquidating all the assets of the veteran to pay for the veterans cost of care at GRH4V. The spouse the veteran having never worked, did not qualify for Social Security benefits until after her spouse passed away. This means if a conservator liquidated the family assets, the spouse could end up homeless and penniless with nowhere to go and nowhere to live. I saw this happen several times to veterans who were placed at GRH4V. 

I cannot help but wonder as the home transitions to the Medicare Medicaid compliancy will that practice continue?

As I stated before Michigan has an obligation to take care of its wounded warriors per the US Constitution. I believe this means they should do so without cost to the veteran. What is clear to me that over the last few years the home use the veterans as a source of revenue for the State of Michigan.

I am offended by the fact that the home claimed that it cost over $5000 a month in Domiciliary unit to house one veteran in a four man rooms where he had an 8’ x 10' living area for a bed and chest of drawers, and a small table, then had to share all the other areas with other veterans. For $5000 a month I could've lived like a King in the outside. And I was told that the other units at the veterans facility costs anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000 a month, depending on how much nursing care the veteran needed. This makes me wonder how much they're going to charge a veterans to live at the new home once it gets built.

The new home is supposed to be a nursing home with a few beds reserved for the domiciliary unit. Now I am told this too has changed, and there will be no Domiciliary beds in the new unit, but instead the Domiciliary unit will be kept going in the McKlesh building (main building) at the home. I have no idea if it will still be available for homeless and penniless (no income) veterans, as it once was.

Recently just before Thanksgiving, a series of 3 “town hall meetings” took place, and residents were informed of the new billing procedures. 

I am concerned about the fact that people who have an income, but not enough to pay off their cost of care, are expected to use part of their 100 a month stipend to repay the past amount due, or face eviction from the home. 100 a month is nothing, if one is paying for a cell phone, or car insurance and upkeep or have other expenses. 

And keep in mind 100 bucks hardly pays for a good pair of shoes, or a pair of jeans if you are a larger sized guy. Clothing is expensive, if you want to buy your own, so the home depends on hand me downs, donations to a clothing room were residents can get clothing. They should not have to do that. I think it is shameful that our veterans have to beg for such donations.

100 a month is about 3 dollars a day. If you have no other expenses, and you want to use that money for a snack or munchies out of the vending machines at the home, at 2 dollars a 20 ounce soda pop, you won’t even be able to get a pop and a bag of chips which cost 1.25 in the machine, that you can get for 50 cents at Walmart or Meijers 

And keep in mind that the State is required to care for our veterans, so why is it costing them anything if they are combat wounded? AKA service connected? A lot is not being said about this new billing system. 

New system will allow the home to take money from the VA, from Medicare, from Social security, and from private pensions leaving the people left with 100 a month to live on.

Seems to me that the new home is being set up as a for profit institution, just like the current one is, instead of our state meeting its Constitutional obligation to care for our veterans. 

They say they want to model the new homes after the ones in Tennessee, well, if you do, then make them NON PROFIT!!

Also, one of those handouts at the town hall meeting says that if a repayment agreement is not kept, they can discharge the resident, yet another one clearly shows the debt is NON ENFORCEABLE.. So how can they kick the veteran out? They say one thing then say the exact opposite.  No wonder people are confused.

This is sounding like the same ole crap from years ago, just different people running it. Nothing has changed but the names.