Press Release: 2019-11-12

On Veterans Day, AG Healey Announces New Veterans Affairs Coordinator and Highlights Efforts to Expand Services

On Veterans Day, AG Healey Announces New Veterans Affairs Coordinator and Highlights Efforts to Expand Services


11/11/2019
Office of Attorney General Maura Healey

BOSTON — In commemoration of Veterans Day, Attorney General Maura Healey today announced she has appointed Steven Pfister Jr., a veteran of the Iraq War, to serve as her office’s Veterans Affairs Coordinator. AG Healey also highlighted her office’s ongoing efforts to provide veterans, service members and their families with the services they need.

As the Veterans Affairs Coordinator for the AG’s Office, Pfister – a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and a Senior Healthcare Fraud Investigator in AG Healey’s Medicaid Fraud Division – will be the office’s point of contact for veterans’ issues and initiatives, and will focus on connecting Veterans Service Officers and others in the community with office staff and developing new collaborative partnerships that enhance the assistance the AG’s Office provides to those in need.

“Our veterans and service members have dedicated their lives to keeping us safe, and we will do everything we can to honor and support them,” AG Healey said. “Steve bravely served this country and his experience will help this office ensure that our veterans, service members and military families have access to the benefits and protections they deserve.”

Pfister has been an investigator in the AG’s Office since 2013 and has worked in both the AG’s Medicaid Fraud and Insurance and Unemployment Fraud Divisions. In his current role as Senior Healthcare Fraud Investigator, Pfister conducts investigations into healthcare providers who defraud the state’s Medicaid program.

Prior to joining the AG’s Office, Pfister was enlisted in the Marines for four years and served as the lead machine gunner of the Personal Security Detachment for the Commanding Officer of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. He completed two combat deployments to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In addition to the Veterans Affairs Coordinator, AG Healey’s Consumer Advocacy and Response Division (CARD) provides direct assistance to veterans to help them resolve disputes with businesses and overcome barriers accessing the benefits they’ve earned. In 2019, CARD helped veterans avoid foreclosure, obtain relief from predatory auto loans, resolve disputes with home improvement contractors, and avoid a wide range of scams. CARD also works closely with the state’s Department of Veterans Services and with the Massachusetts Veterans Services Officer Association to support the organizations in their efforts to assist veterans who have concerns around their economic stability.

AG Healey’s Office provides assistance in a number of other ways to support the veteran community, including:

Student loans: The AG’s Office secured a $270,000 settlement with an online for-profit school that targeted veterans and servicemembers over allegations the school illegally failed to make important employment and graduation rate disclosures to prospective students in advance of enrollment.

Going after fraud: The AG’s Office reached a settlement with a Connecticut-based charity that falsely purported to serve veterans. The charity paid $60,000, which the AG’s Office transferred to legitimate veterans charities.

Ensuring Inclusion: In July and October 2018, AG Healey led coalitions of attorneys general in filing amicus briefs supporting injunctions blocking the Trump Administration’s discriminatory ban on transgender military service.

Grant funding: The AG’s Office awarded $350,000 in grant funding to four organizations – Community Legal Aid, Inc, The Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, Veterans Legal Services and Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center – to provide legal assistance to hundreds of veterans in need.

Veterans Courts: AG Healey sent a letter to Congress advocating for the establishment of a Veteran Treatment Court Program that would provide grants, training and technical assistance to state, local and tribal courts that have veteran’s treatment courts.

Community Engagement: AG Healey’s Community Engagement Division has expanded its outreach efforts to the veterans community to educate veterans, service members and their families about the services the Office provides and how to protect themselves against scams targeted at their community.

Veterans looking for more information or assistance with their student loans should visit the AG’s Student Lending Assistance page or call the Student Loan Assistance Unit Hotline at 1-888-830-6277. Veterans with other questions or concerns can call the Attorney General’s consumer hotline at 617-727-8400 or file a complaint with the office.