etcm Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Just to give you a frame of reference for your stats, I applied to Indy RO on 04-14-2009 for PTSD, TBI, TDIU, residuals, hand fracture, tinnitus, and bilateral hearing loss and my claim was awarded on 8-5-2010. By my math that's 16 months. With regards to your dependency claim, I filed for dependency at the Manila RO in May of this year and it was awarded this past Monday, 10-17-2011- for 5 months total. Yes, Your claim was adjudicated BEFORE all of the AO presumptives and the Nehmer claims started to be adjudicated. Thanks for the input. It indicates a significantly longer time than their laughable average processing claim times indicate. They keep processing enough of the recent (prioritized and others) claims to keep the average lower and still keep a significant majority waiting around. Interestingly, today I read that one of the past funding initiatives was to be able to charge interest when the VA overpays vets....but there is certainly no reciprocity when the VA owes us for years and finally pays Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etcm Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Made a trip to the VARO today and it was an eye-opener! Per the customer service rep: Regular claims for Indianapolis are still backed up to 2009 submissions! He commented that they are backed up so many ways and that they are just working through as best as they can. In an attempt to modernize the VA claim process, the Indy VARO has changed to a team concept that has teams for NEW claims (FastTrack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etcm Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 Wanted to note that I opened eBenefits today and was deflated a little bit. Expecting to see red and no progress, my claim, at day 566, is moved to the decision phase and they updated the standard entry that says I have ACTION due and to submit data any medical information to closed (the eBenefits step, not my claim) . So now a different clock is ticking...tick tock. Mine is a "regular" claim and this is how long it has taken to arrive at the documentation phase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etcm Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 (edited) I was thinking about a silly post saying that it was now in the 16-28 day period (for Decision phase) so I wondered if I should be waiting Notification...and then, between last night and early this morning, eBenefits moved into the Notification Phase (day 592). I'm waiting word from my American Legion VSO to see if he has had a "preview" chance. I am not "worried' anymore but my claim involves a retro decision that is over 15 years old and retro >$25K from both the VA and DFAS. The eBenefits update included an entry that my VA hospital treatment records were received only 11 days ago so it is curious that they could have jumped through all of the VACO approval and 2-signature approval hoops over a Thanksgiving week and THAT seems awful fast... I'm hoping the next post will be in the success forum. My CUE does not involve a difference of opinion or misinterpreted/missing medical records, it involves not applying changes in law that occurred before my original adjudication. Edited November 30, 2011 by etcm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berta Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 I just got this report from the VA Inspector General's office: http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-11-03134-32.pdf "Inspection of the VA Regional Office, Indianapolis, Indiana 11/28/2011 07:00 PM EST Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faofficer Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Wow! They are really trying to set the bar high heh. I have a claim that is now 365 days and have not received the first contact letter. All of the items claimed are either already SC or presumptives that have already been diagnosed by the VHA. It is dissappointing because I know that the majority of the VA administrative staff are SC veterans and new job openings have been posted as to only be filled by veterans or tenured civil service employees. You would think things would improve, but they seem to be getting worse. I hear they have terrible turnover so maybe they just have to keep training new staff. Still....Wow! I just got this report from the VA Inspector General's office: http://www.va.gov/oi...11-03134-32.pdf "Inspection of the VA Regional Office, Indianapolis, Indiana 11/28/2011 07:00 PM EST We evaluated how well the Indianapolis VARO accomplishes its mission. The staff timely processed homeless veterans' claims and effectively provided outreach efforts to homeless shelters and service providers. Inaccuracies in temporary 100 percent disability evaluations resulted from not scheduling medical reexaminations. Also, an incorrect interpretation of VA policy resulted in inadequate medical exams for processing traumatic brain injury claims. Also, the quality assurance program did not identify errors in herbicide exposure-related disability claims. Overall, the VARO did not correctly process 41 percent of disability claims reviewed. Better management oversight would ensure errors identified by internal reviews were corrected, improve mail processing, and increase accuracy when addressing entitlement issues pertaining to the mental health treatment for Gulf War veterans." 41% of the claims were done wrong!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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