OLYMPIA -- With Veterans Day in the wings, a federal contractor looking for good examples of state programs visited Olympia to get briefed on a DSHS project that locates aging veterans and their families and lets them know about additional benefits they have earned.

The federal team spent a day in mid-October conferring with DSHS employees Bill Allman and Tim Dahlin, who head up the veterans project in the Payment Review Program (PRP) of the Health and Recovery Services Administration.

PRP Manager Paige Wall said the review with Allman and Dahlin focused on how Washington State is using the Public Assistance Reporting Information System (PARIS) to help veterans.

"Our project tries to locate veterans and their families in Washington State who may be eligible for additional federal benefits based on their military service," Wall said. "We can be especially helpful for veterans struggling with the costs of long-term care. In some cases, this may also save the state money – but the best part is that it can beef up the benefits available to the vet."

The state’s system was primarily devised by Allman several years ago. Allman – himself a Vietnam veteran – realized that PARIS was a powerful tool that could help locate veterans in need. DSHS and the Washington State Department of Veteran’s Affairs have since established a cross agency governance structure, increasing the number of veterans benefiting from the program as well as increased savings of state resources. With the support of the Governor, both agencies received funding this biennium to move this from a project activity and to a proven program.

PARIS is a computer data matching and information exchange system administered by the Administration of Children and Families (ACF) to provide states with a tool to improve program integrity in the administration of public and medical assistance programs. PARIS data includes information from the Veteran’s Administration, Department of Defense, and information from other participating states.

The federal evaluation team included Loren Bell, the Health System Research Project Director, and Rebecca Ledsky, the project evaluation lead. Health Systems is working under a contract by the federal ACF to evaluate PARIS and see how states can use it more effectively.

"Washington State’s Veteran Benefit Enhancement Project was chosen to be a sample state in the evaluation process because of the way we utilize state veteran records and federal data," Allman said.

The program can save money for the state by finding military or veteran medical coverage and connecting clients with new VA income, which reduces state payments for long-term care. That also can save money for veterans' families because Medicaid under law must try to recover its costs from clients' estates, which may require selling a family home. VA programs have no strings attached, since they were earned by a veteran's military service.

Allman noted that he believes the evaluation will point out two specific areas that have the greatest potential for other states:

• Verifying income. The PARIS match provides States with information on client income from Federal databases and through payments to veterans made by the VA.
  
  In addition to verifying current income, Washington State uses this data to determine whether veterans and family members are maximizing the amount of benefits for which they’re entitled.
•  
• Coordination of benefits between Medicaid and other Federal insurance coverage. Washington also uses the PARIS data to ensure that the proper agency is covering the cost of a client’s health insurance benefits. If the data determines that Medicaid clients are eligible for health insurance coverage provided through the VA or through the Federal military retirement system (TRICARE), Medicaid ensures the clients are enrolled in the proper health insurance.
  
  This coordination results in savings to state Medicaid programs, particularly in cases where high-cost benefits such as long-term care are involved. Veterans Benefit Enhancement project: Washington State veterans and their families struggling to find medical or long-term care, can contact the project by 360-725-1020 or e-mailing allmaWA@dshs.wa.gov.

For More Information and Background: Jim Stevenson, Communications Director, HRSA, DSHS, 360-902-7604 (Pager: 360-971-4067).