Collins keeps up focus on seniors, vets
Amid the fractious presidential campaign and ongoing gridlock in Washington D.C., U.S. Senator Susan Collins told members of the Presque Isle Rotary and Kiwanis clubs that she is still keeping watch on key issues.
Seniors and veterans are two groups of constituents Collins is focusing her advocacy own, by raising awareness, working with government agencies and considering legislative changes, Collins said in a lunch-time talk with the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs on March 22.
“Issues affecting older Americans were not getting sufficient attention given the changing demographics not only of our state but also of our nation,” said Collins. As chair of the Senate Aging Committee, she has been aiming to make progress in several areas, including financial security in retirement, biomedical research, family caregivers, and financial exploitation.
Late last year, Collins and other aging advocates were successful is expanding funding for National Institutes of Health research into Alzheimer’s disease, and this year, the aging committee has taken aim at fraud, with a guide on how to avoid scams.
The Government Accountability Office estimates that American seniors are defrauded of some $2.9 billion each year. The most common kind of fraud involves an IRS impersonation scam seeking “back taxes” — which Collins’ own Mom has received, she said.
“The fact is that the IRS will never call a taxpayer prior to sending a detailed letter outlining the taxes owed and providing an opportunity for appeal or dispute, and the agency will never threaten to have the person arrested if money is not sent immediately,” Collins noted. “Those are red flags that this is a scam.” (These scams may involve caller identifications that list the Department of Treasury or the IRS, disguises that let fraudsters bypass the “Do Not Call Registry,” Collins added.)
“Unfortunately, it is typically extremely difficult to recover money once it has been sent to the scammer,” Collins said. In a few instances, her office and local police departments have been able to intervene and cancel money orders after victims have realized that they were scammed, as happened in Lewiston where police helped a senior citizen save $11,000 that she sent to a scammer.
Collins has also been working to solve problems for veterans, particularly around making health benefits more flexible for vets.
Collins and Senator Angus King recently sponsored legislation that would extend the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Access Received Closer to Home program, a five-year-old pilot project that allows some vets who live more than a certain distance from VA facilities to receive non-VA care at local providers. Northern Maine is one of five regions where the ARCH program has been piloted, and about 1,600 vets in Aroostook County have used Cary Medical Center under the program — which is set to expire soon.
“Unfortunately, the VA is fighting our bill,” Collins said. “They want to fold the program into the broader CHOICE program,” the more recent program for vets to access non-VA care at local providers that arose in 2014 after the VA wait list scandal.
The CHOICE program’s coverage is available for those who live more than 40 miles from a VA facility, have waited 30 days for VA care or meet other conditions. The ARCH pilot program, meanwhile, lets vets use non-VA providers if they live more than 60 minutes from the nearest VA primary care clinic or live more than 120 minutes from the nearest VA acute care hospital.
“Frankly, it should be the other way around,” Collins said, referring to the VA’s idea of folding the ARCH program into the CHOICE program.
“We’ve had excellent experience with the ARCH program at all five sites. The rate of satisfaction of the care is over 90 percent. By contrast, the CHOICE program has run into a lot of problems. In Maine, only 46 percent of the veterans who have requested local appointments through the CHOICE program have been able to get them in a timely fashion,” Collins said. “Maine veterans are overwhelmingly satisfied with the ARCH program, and it is cost effective.”
