Success !

[alphahec]

Congrats!!! I always learn something on this forum without a doubt!!!

[VetsLady]

Thanks all, was such a surprise to us to find out about this benefit would go back to the earlier effective date. I still have 5 years worth of doctors bills to send in. This will be a bigger challenge

as ChampVA wan'ts the EOB's with the statements, (they need all the pertinent stuff on there like diagnosis, etc.) so......will split the EOB's into the years and add the statements from each

doctor and send in smaller increments. If I start getting too close to the deadline, (180 days from date I was notified of eligibility, so it's about August) then I'll send it whatever I have and let

ChampVA send me a notice "you missed this, you missed that, we need this, etc." --- that was the clock starts again and I'll have another year to get it all in.

Thank you once again for all of you good wishes. It was a long and winding road to get to this point.

[Chuck75]

That's an area that I need to look into, since a recent Nehmer award went back more than a couple of years.

Any info you have in this area would be appreciated.

You know you the vet can get reimbursed for dental as well that happened while he was waiting for Total disability.

[deltaj]

Back in December 2010, my husband received 100% and P&T with an EED of 5 years prior. With that came Chapter 35 for me and ChampVA. Imagine my SHOCK when I called ChampVA in January to find out what I needed to do to set up my benefits....and, they also told me I was eligible to receive ChampVA reimbursements back to the day my husband was award P&T --- which was 5 years prior (after an almost 8 year battle with the VA). My jaw dropped and my bottom lip fell to the floor .... I had no idea. I had insurance for that time frame but we also incurred alot of out of pocket expenses for medical a medical condition I had and a surgical procedure. I gathered up all of the RX claims from the pharmacy and submitted them about 6 weeks ago. Yesterday, numerous checks arrived ......... all for reimbursements of RX expenses. I haven't yet gathered all of the medical bills we paid, but have most of them together and will submit in smaller batches. ChampVA suggested that as the claims will be processed quicker.

I knew I would be eligible for ChampVA if we prevailed in his claim (and I had no doubt we would eventually, but there were several dark and dreary days and nights, and many times, many of you threw me a lifeline or ladder to climb out of that dark and dreary place) BUT, I had no idea we would be able to recoop all of the expenses we paid out of pocket on my behalf and back to the date he was awarded P&T.

Yes, Friday the 13th was a good day.

I married my hero more than 20 years ago ..... and I'm a proud, proud wife of a Vietnam Veteran who spent 22 months there.

Congratulations on your victory. Don't forget that CHAMPVA's initial notification letters give you one year from the date of the letter to submit medical bills. What they are going to want from your medical providers are bills that include a procedure code and diagnosis code. Also make sure you provide copies of your explanation of benefit forms from your other health insurance showing what they paid on each claim. These need to be attached to individual claim forms. I have been through a similar process but I think our children and I got the wrong effective date for CHAMPVA because V.A. failed to consider an earlier exam where my husband's claim folder was unavailable for review during a V.A. exam.

Edited May 26, 2011 by deltaj

[VetsLady]

Congratulations on your victory. Don't forget that CHAMPVA's initial notification letters give you one year from the date of the letter to submit medical bills. What they are going to want from your medical providers are bills that include a procedure code and diagnosis code. Also make sure you provide copies of your explanation of benefit forms from your other health insurance showing what they paid on each claim. These need to be attached to individual claim forms. I have been through a similar process but I think our children and I got the wrong effective date for CHAMPVA because V.A. failed to consider an earlier exam where my husband's claim folder was unavailable for review during a V.A. exam.

DeltaJ ---

Thank you for your response !

You should see my office ! I have 5 years worth of EOB's in one stack, and 5 years worth of (almost) every provider I saw - I'm still missing a few statements from a few providers. First, ChampVA said to me yes, we like your idea of separating out the years as that will speed up the claims process. Then, I thought "I can't do that, they want all of the statements AND EOB's associated with them together......, there is no way I can do that as I was missing about 1 1/2 years worth of EOB's from my prior health coverage so the prior health plan provided me with a "print out" of all the claims ... they had to pull them from purged. I'll send in the 5 years all in the same package. It will take the claims person longer to review the claims this way but seriously, 5 years worth. No reasonable person even keeps their EOB's ...... I did ONLY because I did medical billing and accounts receivable for a medical practice so I was just used to doing it this way. (Lucky me!)

ChampVA has been sooooo dang nice and super wonderful working with me, hope everyone else who utilizes them has the same experience. I called them this week and they said send it all in however you can but do so before August ----you have 180 days from the date the Beneficiary was granted benefits. ChampVA said then ..... if there are any missing claims or pieces of claims that you have submitted and we deny, you then have 1 year from the denial date to get it corrected.

When I called ChampVA initially, I was only inquiring about my new benefit ...... The ChampVA rep told me about this prior benefit and what I needed to submit......I had no idea we could be reimbursed for our out of pocket on me for those 5 years ..... She said, it's as if your husband was 100% 5 years ago, but he was only notified of the benefit recently, which was indeed the case.

For us as for many folks, it's been a rough few years. At least now we have Peace and relative security in our lives. I wish the same for all of our Veterans.....

Edited May 27, 2011 by VetsLady

[captain soggy]

Wow I am glad you posted this tread I just received my wife champva acceptance card effective starting date 2 august 2011. I don't know why it is that long of a time to be activated, I got my notice of acceptance last week. Over 2 months seems like a long time to wait. So on 2 august when the card becomes active we have 180 days to file for back reimbursement to my EED of 2 august 2010 if I read your statement correctly and have 1 year to appeal any denials.