eBenefits and MilConnect - Access and Usage

eBenefits is a joint VA/ DAD Web Portal that provides resources and self-service capabilities to Service Members, Veterans, and their families to apply, research, access, and manage their VA and military benefits and personal information through a secure connection.  In order to apply for BDD, you will have to use your eBenefits account.

Services Provided

• Apply for benefits
• Apply for and View disability compensation claim status
• View your VA disability payment history
• Access official military personnel documents (DD Form 214, certificate of release or discharge from active duty)
• View Post-9/11 GI Bill usage and availability (this is actually done through MilConnect, but you can get linked from eBenefits)
• Transfer entitlement of Post-9/11 GI Bill to eligible dependents
• Obtain a VA-guaranteed home loan certificate of eligibility
• Register for and update direct deposit information

Access to eBenefits

Active duty can use their CAC card and Veterans can use their DS Logon

Usage

Veterans must be listed in Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS)

MilConnect gives beneficiaries 24/7 access to personnel information; the ability to update information related to health, education and other benefits; and email notifications about changes in benefits.  It was previously known as the mydodbenefits website.

Services Provided

Transfer Entitlement of Post-9/11 GI Bill to eligible dependents

View details of medical/ dental/ pharmacy coverage

View summary of medical claims

View summary of other dependent health insurance used

View and print medical/dental enrollment cards

View and print DD214

View DODTap forms (DD2648)

View Print immunizations 

Update DEERS contact information

Find nearest DOD ID facility

Access to eBenefits

Active duty can use their CAC card and Veterans can use their DS Logon

Usage

Veterans must be listed in Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS)

Life Insurance - SGLI, VGLI, and choices

Life Insurance.  If you never thought about it while you were in the service, I don't blame you.  It was there to protect your family in case something happened to you, $8.50 came out every month for $400,000 of insurance, and you never had to worry about it,   But now that you are leaving the service, you do need to think about it, because you have some decisions to make.

While you were active duty, you and your family were protected by the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (commonly referred to as the SGLI).  120 days after your separation, that won't be available to you anymore.  So, what are your other options.

One option for separating service members is the Veteran's Group Life Insurance (VGLI)

The VGLI can cover you up to the amount the SGLI covered you when you separated, or less amounts down to $10,000.  The monthly cost depends on the age of the service member, and if the service member applies within 240 days after separation, there are no health questions.

The deadline to enroll in the VGLI is 1 year and 120 days after separation.

You can receive a discount if you make your payments annually, quarterly, or semi-annually (5% if you pay annually, less for quarterly and semi-annually).

Here are some other details of the VGLI:

1. Lifetime Coverage Once obtained, you can keep your coverage for your entire life regardless of changes to your health or job status, as long as premiums are paid.

2. No Proof of Good Health Required
Apply within 240 days of your date of separation and no health questions are asked. If you apply after 240 days from your date of separation, you will need to answer health questions.

3. Standard Premium Rates
Premium rates are based on age and coverage amount only. Rates are the same regardless of gender or tobacco use.

4. Coverage Increase Option
You can increase your coverage by $25,000 every five years up to the legislated maximum of $400,000, until age 60. No proof of good health is required.

5. Conversion Option
You have the option to convert your coverage to an individual insurance policy at any time.

6. Accelerated Benefits Option
You can receive up to 50% of your VGLI benefit while still living, if you have a written prognosis from a doctor of nine months or less to live. You can use these funds for any reason including paying off debt, travelling, or setting up an education fund.

7. Beneficiary Financial Counseling Service
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) makes financial planning available at no cost to your beneficiaries after they receive their benefit. This service can help them make the most of the funds they’ve received. They’ll also have access to an online will preparation service at no cost.

Other Insurance Companies

Ask your bank or search online for quotes.  Figure out how much you need or want for your family.  The SGLI covered you for $400,000, but depending on family needs, you might want more or less.  Also, the amount you want will also depend on whether your wife will receive the Survivor's Benefit Plan (SBP), which provides the spouse a monthly payment or annuity to replace the loss of your retirement paycheck upon the service member's death.

My bank is USAA, and after discussing the issue of life insurance with them, this is what I came up with: a total of $400,000 for 20 years, and then $100,000 for the rest of my life after that.  They quoted me $96 a month for 20 years (be then I'll be 70 years old) for $300,000 of coverage term life insurance.  I combined that with $162 a month for $100,000 of whole life insurance.  This would be a grand total of $258 a month.

When I compare this to the VGLI, for $400,000 I would pay $144 a month until age 55, and then I would have to pay $268 for the next five years, $432 for the next five, and finally $600 for the last five years until I reached 70 years old.  And then if I started paying for $100,000 after 70 years old they would charge me $230 until age 75 and then $460 after that.

Given all that, the USAA proposal is a lot better deal, I would just pay $114 more the first five years, then I'm saving a heck of a lot money afterward.

Decisions

The VGLI has its place, don't get me wrong.  You can get covered with health insurance without a health exam, and that's a good thing if you have been injured or have severe medical problems due to your time in the military.  Also, the VGLI doesn't consider your tobacco use in their coverage.

However, if you are healthy it might pay to shop around.

In future posts, I'll discuss my final decisions for life insurance after the military and also about the SBP.

Thanks,

RR


Resources
VGLI Video
Apply for VGLI
VGLI Premiums

TRICARE After Retirement

TRICARE Program for Retirees

Soldiers who are retired have the option to continue with TRICARE if they wish.  Other options are healthcare through their new employer or using the options from the Affordable Care Act.  For the purposes of this post, I will only discuss TRICARE here.

TRICARE after retirement can be divided into TRICARE in the United States and Overseas.  This post will only discuss the TRICARE costs i the United States.  I will put the information for the TRICARE Overseas Program (TOP) in a future post.

TRICARE in the United States after Retirement

To enroll, you must contact the correct region: either TRICARE East or TRICARE West (or TRICARE Overseas, but that will be discussed in another post).

Then, you will have two choices for TRICARE when you retire in the United States, TRICARE Prime or TRICARE Select.

The payments are divided into Group A and Group B which are defined as:
Group A: if you or your uniformed services sponsor's initial enlistment or appointment began before 01Jan2018
Group B: if you or your uniformed services sponsor's initial enlistment or appointment began on or after 01Jan2018


TRICARE Prime for Retirees and their Families

Annual Enrollment Fees
Group A: $289.08 per individual/ $578.16 per family - per year
Group B: $350 per individual/ $700 per family - per year

Annual Deductible
None

Costs for Covered Services:                    Group A           Group B
Preventive Care Visit                              $0                     $0
Primary Care Outpatient Visit                $20                   $20
Specialty Care Outpatient Visit              $30                   $30
Urgent Care Center Visit                        $30                   $30
Emergency Room visit                           $60                   $60
Inpatient Admission (Hospitalization)   $150                 $150   per admission

When you see a TRICARE-authorized provider other than your primary care manager for any non-emergency services without a referral, you pay:

• A yearly deductible before TRICARE cost-sharing begins: $300 per individual/ $600 per family
• For services beyond this deductible, you pay 50% of the TRICARE-allowable charge
• These costs do not apply to the catastrophic cap

TRICARE Select for Retirees and their Families

Annual Enrollment Fees
Group A: $0 - per year
Group B: $450 per individual/ $900 per family - per year


Annual Deductible - must meet deductible before TRICARE cost-sharing begins:
Group A: $150 per individual/ $300 per Family per year
Group B in network: $150 per individual/ $300 per Family per year
Group B Out-of- network: $300 per individual/ $600 per Family per year
Network means a provider in the TRICARE network.  Out-of-network means a TRICARE-authorized provider not in the TRICARE network.

Costs for Covered Services:                    Group A In      A Out         Group B                B Out
Preventive Care Visit                              $0                     $0               $0                          $0
Primary Care Outpatient Visit                $28                   25%            $25                        25%
Specialty Care Outpatient Visit              $41                   25%            $40                        25%
Urgent Care Center Visit                        $28                   25%            $40                        25%
Emergency Room visit                           $109                 25%            $80                        25%
Inpatient Admission (Hospitalization)   $250/day          $901/day     $175/admission    25%
Hospitalization for Group A, daily rate is paid or 20% of hospital bill, whichever is less; plus 20% of separately billed services for in network and 25% of separately billed services for out-of-network.


TRICARE Prime and TRICARE Select Calendar Year 2018 Catastrophic Cap:
Group A: $3000 per family
Group B: $3500 per family

Pharmacy Program Costs

Pharmacy Types                                        Generic        Brand-Name       Non-formulary
Military Pharmacy                                    $0                $0                         Not Available
TRICARE Pharmacy Home Delivery      $7                $24                       $53
TRICARE Retail Network Pharmacy      $11              $28                       $53
Overseas                                                  25% cost-share after the yearly deductible is met; reimbursed

Summary

You will have up to 30 days to decide if you want to enroll in one of the TRICARE programs.  During that 30 days, you will be reimbursed by TRICARE once you sign up and send them the receipts.

Each family will have a unique situation to consider.  Whether they are located near a military facility or not.  Whether they will primarily live overseas or not.  The health care you ultimately select shouldn't be a decision you make at the last minute.  Take and estimate of your retirement living situation and make a plan.

TRICARE house open seasons available to enroll.  If you miss this open enrollment time period, you may apply to enroll if you have a life changing situation such as a move to another area of coverage or if you retire during a time when no open enrollment is taking place.  In that case, you will have to contact TRICARE and explain your situation.

I will discuss the TRICARE Overseas Program and the available Dental and Vision programs in future posts.

Good luck!!

RR


Resources
TRICARE Online
TRICARE-West
TRICARE-East/ Humana Military
Express Scripts - TRICARE Pharmacy Services
MILCONNECT - Update DEERS Information

How I Came Up With the Ideas for my Novel The Soldier's Journal

The Soldier's Journal

My original plan for writing a novel was to capture the events from my combat deployments in order to make sure they weren't lost over time.  These were events of courage that I felt if I didn't write them down, no one would remember the brave men that died or risked their lives.  With this as a goal, before I had learned about writing, I intended on writing a true story, maybe a memoir.  But I heard others tell stories that I wanted to capture as well, and these stories weren't mine to tell so I discarded the memoir idea in favor of a book of short stories.

When I began writing this book, I realized I didn't know a lot of the information, the details, to make it an engaging book, especially for the events that I heard third hand, and I didn't always have access to those that had witnessed the events.  It was about this time that I read Tim O'Brien's books and realized that I could write the stories as fiction by using the facts that I knew and the other details that I knew from my experiences to fill in the blanks, which ultimately wouldn't be true stories but probably better told stories.

My original manuscript was called The Soldier's Notebook.  My intention with this book was to present the Afghan War from multiple perspectives, American and Afghan.  This proved too difficult given my work schedule and access to individuals with the experience I needed to know about in order to write the book the way I wanted.  I still might write this book, but at the time it didn't seem possible.

At about this time, the U.S. Congress approved women for service in combat arms and special operations.  Simultaneously, I was reading a book on writing that suggested if you wanted to give your plot a face lift, then change the sexes of your protagonist or major characters.  The Soldier's Notebook had primarily been told from a male point of view, the only view I knew, and at the time the war was primarily fought with men as women weren't permitted in combat roles.

All of this combined into an idea that would tell a story from the point of view of the first female Green Beret to serve in Afghanistan.  I combined this with her father's journal that described the war in 2006 as opposed to her version of the war in 2019, which gave to stark comparisons of how the war had changed and yet how many of the elements had remained the same.

I divided up my true war stories between the female protagonist and her father and I also inserted scenes where she faces sexism from soldiers and officers.  I interviewed a number of women about their experiences in the Army and in elite positions in order to get a flavor for the type of situation she would face.

It took me a year and a half to finish my first draft, which I used as my thesis for my MFA in Creative Writing.  I've spent the last six months editing and redrafting and submitting to agents.  No luck so far.

In future posts, I'll outline my new strategies for getting my book published and tell you what is working and not working.  If I can't find an agent to represent me, I'll self-publish.  that means I'll have to figure out how to market my novel, I'll probably use Kindle Publishing, and I'll have to find a cover.  More to follow.  Wish me luck.

RR

Resources:

Five Reasons How and Why Veterans Should Write a Book

Final Pay - Your Last Active Duty Check and other Retirement Pay Considerations

Final Pay Check

I have to tell you the truth, I was a little confused when I came out of the Finance Office about my separation pay.  DFAS says the following on its web-page with reference to your final paycheck in the military:

Regular pay is suspended during the month of separation to ensure that no overpayment exists. On the member's Date of Separation (DOS), the servicing finance office will have a payment sent to the member's bank account using the EFT process. From DOS through the next 20 days, the member's pay account will be monitored and additional pay action will be made for the final pay computation as required. Post separation pay audits are conducted regularly and may identify residual payments that are due to the member. If this occurs, DFAS (or in limited instances, the member's servicing finance officer) will pay the residual payments via paper check to the address that the service member provided during separation processing.


Below is the information that was given to me three months before my separation date, which is supposed to be 30Nov18:

Final Pay Check
1.  Your account will be suspended 10 days prior to your separation date.  If you separate on the 15th or 30th/31st of the month you will not receive your mid-month or EOM paycheck, you will receive a final pay from the Finance Office a week after date of separation
(This sounds confusing to me.  At first I thought that if I separated on 30Nov18, then I wouldn't get my mid-month pay.  Right now that is my separation date, and I checked on the MYPAY web-site and I'm scheduled to receive my mid-month pay, so maybe that was my misinterpretation of the document.  But I asked the lady who gave the brief and she seemed sure that I wouldn't receive my mid-month pay either.)

2.  Finance Office will pay 80% of the final pay on the Date of Separation which will show up in your current bank a week after Date of Separation.
(To me this means I not receive any money on 30Nov18, but on/about 10Dec18, which kind of sucks because I have mortgages to pay.  We'll see.)

3. The remaining 20% is held in case of any outstanding debts, and will be paid 30 to 45 days after Date of Separation.

Accrued Leave
My Finance Office told me that I can sell any unused accrued leave up to 60 days if character of discharge is 'Honorable' or 'General'.  For each day or leave accrued, the Soldier will receive one day's basic pay minus the standard 25% for federal tax and any applicable state tax.  Also, I was told that this 'sold leave' money would be available in my final pay, 80% of which will be available on 10Dec18.  Again, we'll see.

Terminal Leave and PTDY
I was told that while on terminal leave/ PTDY I will continue to receive my pay and I will receive BAH for the location where I am going on leave starting the first day of leave.

Retirement Pay
After speaking with my peers, every one of them who retired starting receiving their retirement pay beginning at the end of the next month.  It's important to note that Retirement pay only comes once a month at the end of the month, there is no mid-month retirement pay.

Veterans Disability Compensation Benefit
As I discussed in my post on the Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) program, most people who take advantage of the BDD program begin getting their payment benefit as soon as 1-3 months.  However, if you file after you separate, then you can expect it to take 1-3 months after your last appointment.

Summary
In summary, I hope to separate in about 15 days and I'll let you know in future posts how the final pay is actually working for me.

Good Luck!!

RR

How I wrote my Query Letter

Of course, after you write your novel, most of you know that if you want to pursue traditional publishing you need to find an agent to represent you and the first step to doing that is to write a Query Letter.

When I drafted my first query letter, I googled query letter and read around twenty articles on how to write successful query letters.  I then drafted mine in accordance with their varied instructions.

Query Shark

I then found the web-page Query Shark.  I followed her instructions (one of which is to read every entry to her blog), I learned a lot, and I revised my query letter.  I did submit my query letter to Query Shark, but she admits that because of the large amount of submissions, if she accepted the query letter to post on her site, it might take 3-6 months.



This Query Shark revised Query Letter is what I sent to the first 9 agents to seek representation.  On a side not, most agents require 30 pages or 2-3 chapters with the query letter, and most require that you send all of this in the body of an email, which requires you to copy and paste and reformat everything, so be aware.

From these original 9 agents I emailed 2 months ago, I have received 2 negative replies.  Most of the agent web-pages stated that if I received no contact after six weeks, then I should assume that they do not want to represent me.

Rachael Herron

Moving on, I paid a professional to look at my query letter and suggest improvements.  I paid $100 to Rachael Herron, self-proclaimed query letter whisperer.  I heard about her service on her podcast, How Do You Write?, and received her suggestions within 48 hours.  I rewrote my query letter and plan on sending them out as soon as I receive my manuscript back from the structure editor that I hired.





Here are reprints of my 1st draft, the draft after I read Query Shark, and the draft after I had Rachael Herron look at it:
Query Letter - 1st Draft
Query Letter - After Query Shark
Query Letter - After Rachael Herron

In future blog entries, I'll let you know about my success with my new query letter and let you know if I change them any more and why.

RR

Resources

Specific Web-pages for Query Letter assistance:
Query Shark Web-Page
Rachael Herron Web-Page

Query Letter Articles:
https://nybookeditors.com/2015/12/how-to-write-a-darn-good-query-letter/
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-to-write-the-perfect-query-letter
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/successful-queries

The Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) Program

The Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) program allows service members to file for veterans disability compensation benefits prior to separation.  This can only be accomplished if the service member files the claim between 90 and 180 days prior to separation, which allows the Veteran’s Administration (VA) to schedule medical exams, review medical records, and evaluate the claim before separation.  The VA fact sheet on BDD claims that most service members can begin to receive their veteran’s disability compensation benefits the day of separation.

Medical Records

The first step is to get a copy of your medical records, either a paper copy or a digital copy, and go through the whole thing identifying your problem lists.  I personally went through my records with a trained member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), of which I am a member, and also the Veterans Benefits Advisers who also have this training.

Next, you need to set up your Ebenefits account if you haven’t already and upload your medical records and a laundry list of other documents listed there such as: marriage certificate, birth certificates for all children, divorce decrees for all divorces.  The veteran benefits advisers at your base should be able to help you with all of this, that is their job.



When I spoke with the VFW adviser, he recommended faxing or mailing all the paperwork, but the base veterans benefits advisers told me that the Ebenefits portal is the new and accepted and faster way.  I chose the Ebenefits portal route, and once I submitted I started to receive emails about my medical and exam appointments.  I also received emails identifying documents that I still needed to upload.

Uploading medical records to the Ebenefits platform is somewhat problematic as they only accept 10mb files or smaller, and my records were 800 pages long.  There is a work around that I tried to use, but ultimately I had to break down the 800 page PDF file that I received on a CD from my clinic into 10mb pieces.

Just be warned, you won’t actually be able to see what your disability rating is until you are finally separated from the military.  After which, if you are not happy with the rating, you can resubmit with supporting documents and try and get a better rating which should be backdated to your date of separation.

So far, since I am still active duty, the only part of this process I have experienced is uploading my documents onto Ebenefits, submitting my claim, and getting the VA exams done.  Now, I am waiting for my separation to see when I get my first payment and what I will have to do next.

From other veterans who have already separated, I have heard the veterans disability compensation benefit taking up to six months to begin, though the pay is backdated to your separation date.  From those veterans who have separated in the last year and used the BDD program, the time to being paid has significantly decreased to within a few months of separation.

In future posts, I will discuss the VA exams for getting your disability rating and how/ when I finally got paid my veteran disability compensation benefit.

RR

Resources:

BDD information: https://www.benefits.va.gov/predischarge/index.asp
Ebenefits: https://www.ebenefits.va.gov
BDD Factsheet: https://benefits.va.gov/BENEFITS/factsheets/general/BDDFactSheet.pdf