Last month I attended the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) Conference in Seattle. I enjoyed learning what is new in Medicaid, Supplemental Needs Trusts and Veteran’s Aid and Attendance.

I attended a session on Veteran’s Benefits. One of the things I learned was that a claim for Veteran’s Benefits can be filed where the claimant lives or where a responsible party lives. This will give us more flexibility in where we file. Part of the session was on responding to a Demand for Overpayment. A Veteran can send a Request for Forgiveness of Debt within 180 days of when a decision is made. This will work if there are not any assets and there was no fraud or misrepresentation. Another part of the session was on Veteran’s Disability Compensation. I learned that there are several presumptive conditions, where if you served during a particular time and have these conditions it is presumed that the Veteran has a service connected disability. ALS, MS and TB from any period of service are presumptive conditions. The list for Agent Orange is expanded every year. The instructor also told us it is worth filing a claim for an illness or disability that is not currently covered, because if it is ever covered in the future, then the Veteran will be covered back to the date of the original claim.

James, Brad and Matthew got to come up and we went on a mini-vacation after the conference. Seattle was a place I always wanted to go. I had seen pictures of how beautiful the area was and it surpassed my expectations. There was a beautiful waterfall on the side of the road in Canada. We hiked to it in the rain. We got to see resident and transient Orca whales on a whale watching tour out of Friday Harbor.