Disabled American veterans seeking benefits they are legally entitled to have found themselves facing another invoice, this time from private companies charging thousands for access to what is supposed to be free help. Washington is now scrambling to respond after fresh reporting exposed just how aggressively those firms have embedded themselves inside the claims system.
A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress this week would blockfor-profit benefits consultantsfrom using automated dialling technology to repeatedly call federal agencies, a tactic lawmakers say has allowed companies to track veterans' disability payments and issue demands for money the moment those payments rise.
Representative Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, one of the bill's sponsors, did not hide his frustration.
'It's crazy what these guys are trying to get away with,'he told NPR after the investigationdetailed how Florida-based Trajector Medical allegedly used robo-dialler software to access a Department of Veterans Affairs hotline intended for veterans themselves.
What has made this latest disclosure so politically toxic is not simply that veterans were charged. It is the method.
Former Trajector employees told investigators that the company's internal 'CallBot' system made tens of thousands of automated calls each month to a VA phone line that allows users to check claim status and monthly payment information. By enteringclients' Social Security numbersand birth dates, the software could detect when a disability rating had increased. That change then triggered a bill, often without any direct conversation with the veteran at that point.
Many of those bills were not minor administrative fees. Veterans reported invoices ranging from several hundred dollars to more than $20,000, depending on the increase in monthly compensation. Trajector's standard charge is a one-time fee equal to five times the monthly rise in VA benefits secured after a filing.
Federal law already bars companies from charging veterans for assistance with filing initial disability claims because the same service is available free through the VA and accredited veterans' organisations. Yet civil penalties were stripped from that law years ago, leaving a prohibition with far less bite than its wording suggests.
Trajector has insisted it operates lawfully and says clients are informed about its monitoring practices. It also told NPR that it supports the new bill and relies on veterans to self-report successful outcomes.
Forty lawmakers wrote to the VA, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission in December demanding action against what they called 'predatory practices' and 'disturbing tactics' used by unaccredited claims representatives. According to Pappas, that letter has still not produced a meaningful federal crackdown.
Source: International Business Times UK
