What Is Your Number One Complaint About The Va?

[Slowlane]

If you had a chance to "air" your number one complaint about the VA what would it be?

1. Medical care?

2. Claim backlog wait time?

3. Total communication breakdown (no way to make your point)?

4. C&P lies?

5. Hamster wheel tactics and deny deny until they die? (my favorite)

CNN has opened the nations eyes over the medical scheduling crimes. Jeff Miller has said that "this is just the tip of the iceberg". CNN has a "Contact Us" link on their website.

This might be our big chance of get some national attention on some of the above items if this (Hadit) website could unite together and go forth in numbers.

However, sadly, this thread will die in less than three days. No messages will go forward to CNN. An opportunity to get some attention before the latest scandal blows over will be lost.

Slowlane

[Slowlane]

This thread is slowly taking shape. We are getting many complaints about lies, C&P's, lies, appeals, lies, and wasted efforts in mileage and time.

I was hoping that we could band together and come up with one complaint that we all shared and was a glaring problem that we could present to CNN or some news media that could cause the VARO's to experience some of the same pain that they issue to us.

So far, I like C&P lies, fabrications and how they ignore the purely obvious.

[hmcquade]

1. back log of claims,

2. VA lack of personnel to do the job.

3. Denials. It took me 2 years to get my SC for Tinnitus, I had to fight the VA every step, I proved they made a CUE, I WON.

4. fast C&P, my statements changed or altered, even left out.

5. RO putting more weight to what the C&P Dr. wrote than my private Drs who have treated me for many years.

Hugh

[Slowlane]

1. back log of claims,.........Automatic denial gets claims off the backlog and moves them to the appeals hamster wheel.

2. VA lack of personnel to do the job. They probably have more people than Social Security and higher paid.

3. Denials. It took me 2 years to get my SC for Tinnitus, I had to fight the VA every step, I proved they made a CUE, I WON.

Why do we have to go through this kind of torment?

4. fast C&P, my statements changed or altered, even left out. And you never get a chance to argue your point.

5. RO putting more weight to what the C&P Dr. wrote than my private Drs who have treated me for many years.

This is my main complaint.

Hugh

Nice work Hugh. I added on in red.

[Berta]

I don't see one complaint of us all banding together will work....

I have filed many complaints between last week and this week.And am preparing more.

As Notorious Kelly said here, we need to tell our individual stories.

Or just email /snail mail the entities like H VAC, AL, CNN, Fox etc and tell them to come here to hadit and read what veterans and survivors really go through with VA.

I have been here for about 16 years I guess and the true picture of the claims process ,not in every case, but for too many of us, has been frustrating and needlessly lengthy.

If you have probative evidence, you have a valid claim and the VA cannot ignore that evidence but they will.

The very fact that most of us succeed years after the initial filing of our claims, and after often more then one denial, proves that our VAROs are not following basic VA 101.

I often say it is illiteracy and laziness but the truth is that management.of these ROs either don't have a clue about what their VSMs and raters do or they have made their own ways of dealing with appearing to reduce the backlog, at each RO, to get bonuses.

Same as the director of Phoenix.did regarding the vet deaths there.

Maybe others will agree with your idea.And that will be great.

How do you intend to prepare one complaint.on behalf of so many ?

How would we even identify who we are...many here have handles.

Who would get the complaint?

Maybe some class action lawyer will read all this Slowlane and they can join us at hadit and provide a solution.

Dont take what I said personally---I definitely strongly commend you for looking to take action.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Berta

[Vync]

I showed up to the VAMC primary care clinic as a walk-in reporting chest pains and asked to be referred to cardiology. The triage nurse said my doc was on vacation and I would need to make an appointment to be seen. I told the nurse I was going to the emergency room and they said the ER would just send me back there. I left to go to talk with the patent representative. While waiting, the nurse found me and said I could be seen by another doc. After waiting an hour, the doc spent 5 min with me and sent me for an ultrasound. A week later I get a letter saying my cardiology appointment was scheduled 6 weeks later.

[Slowlane]

I don't really have any. My medical care is good and my longest claim was 8 months.

I guess your job at the VA is safe.