Veterans Care Today: Brett Buchanan Of Allsup On How The US Has Improved Its Care For Veterans Over The Past Five Years
An Interview With Eric Pines
Trust your instincts and ask questions if something does not feel right.
The daily headlines remind us of how countries around the world care or do not care for their military service members. How does the United States hold up with regard to how it cares for its veterans? We know in the past questions have been raised about the VA system, but it seems that a corner has been turned and veterans’ care has improved. How exactly has the VA system been improved? How does the US care for veterans compared to other comparable countries? What exciting new technological or methodological innovations are being used to improve veterans’ health outcomes? To address these questions, we are talking to successful physicians, healthcare workers, veterans, or other VA employees and officials who can share stories and insights from their experience about the state of veterans’ care today and how the US has improved its care for veterans over the last five years.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure to interview Brett Buchanan.
Brett Buchanan, a veteran of the U.S. Army, is a VA-accredited claims agent at Allsup and guides veterans through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ disability appeals process.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into our interview, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
My career began right out of college. I attended Truman State University and participated in the Army ROTC program. After graduating, I was commissioned into the U.S. Army as a field artillery officer and stationed in Germany.
While in Germany, we were deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, where I participated in the initial invasion into Iraq and earned a Bronze Star for combat operations. After the major fighting subsided, my unit supervised the security of the U.S. Department of Defense officials visiting Baghdad and Iraq. After the Army, I attended law school and started representing veterans at the VA Regional Office and the Board of Veterans’ Appeal after I passed the bar.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One of my favorite quotes is, “Do the hard right instead of the easy wrong.” I first heard that quote when I was in the military, and it has stuck with me ever since. When you are faced with something difficult, it’s easy to take the easy way out, even though it might not be the right thing to do.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
One exciting new development is the new PACT Act bill, which will ensure that veterans can receive health care screenings and services related to toxic exposures. This new bill will expand access to VA healthcare services for veterans who were exposed, which gives us an opportunity to help more veterans access the care they need.
How would you define an “excellent healthcare provider”?
An excellent healthcare provider is essential, especially when filing for veteran disability appeals and claims. An excellent healthcare provider is empathetic, passionate, and communicative. And most importantly, they keep thorough documentation of medical records, which will be useful when appealing a VA disability claim.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. Based on your experience can you please share three recent improvements to veterans care that you are really pleased about?
The VA has made positive changes throughout the years. One significant improvement is that VA claims now run on a paperless system. Disability claims are now being processed electronically, which helps with the disability claims backlog. Regarding improving care, the VA has implemented new technology and systems that allow seamless communication with providers.
Another major improvement the VA has made is that it recently added nine rare respiratory cancers to the presumptive list of services-connected disabilities. This addition recognizes the serious diseases veterans are developing due to exposure to airborne hazards, and it is an important development for those veterans who were denied when they previously filed claims.
In contrast, can you highlight three areas of veterans care that still need improvement? What would you suggest needs to be done to address those challenges?
While the VA has made notable improvements in paperless systems and disability classifications, it still has a significant backlog of disability claims. An appeal could take 4–12 months to get approved; however, due to the VA’s backlog, most appeals take anywhere from 24 months or longer. For veterans that require a personal hearing or multiple appeals, the turnaround for approval is about 36–48 months. To help with the backlog, the VA can hire and train new employees to assist in claims processing.
From your perspective how does the US care for veterans compared to other comparable countries?
Veteran care is important in every country. Each country has different programs for supporting its veterans, but what they all have in common is they prioritize healthcare and rehabilitation. It’s important to take care of veterans’ health no matter what country they reside in.
What exciting new technological or methodological innovations are being used to improve veterans’ health outcomes?
There have been new technological innovations to improve veterans’ health in the last couple of years, but the one that’s most exciting to me is the new technology that processes disability claims faster. Early this year, the Department of Veteran Affairs launched an automation pilot to accelerate the processing of its backlog of disability claims. On average, it can take longer than two months to process a claim, but this technology has reduced the wait time and allowed veterans to receive their benefits as soon as possible. Although there’s still a significant backlog of claims, technology like this can help improve veterans’ health outcomes.
This is our signature question that we ask in many of our interviews. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started My Career”?
The five things I wish someone told me when I first started my career are:
- Executing an 80% plan is better than never delivering a 100% plan.
- Failure happens- it’s what you do afterward that matters.
- Have your supervisor, colleagues, and subordinates check your work as you go.
- Trust your instincts and ask questions if something does not feel right.
- It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If you can’t get out of it, get into it! Often we have to do things in life that are necessary, but not exciting or glamorous. With a good attitude, not only does the time go by faster, but I believe positivity is contagious. You will elevate those around you.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allsup-llc/ or Twitter: https://twitter.com/Allsup. To learn more about Veterans Disability Appeals, readers can call (888) 372–1190
Thank you so much for these insights! This was very inspirational and we wish you continued success in your great work.
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.
Veterans Care Today: Brett Buchanan Of Allsup On How The US Has Improved Its Care For Veterans Over… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.