Are you a Houston area vet?

[Keli]

My name is Keli and I'm an investigative reporter in Houston, looking to talk with veterans about their experience with the disability claims process. Whether you've had difficulty navigating the system to get the proper percentage or you felt it was easy, let me know. Also, if you're eligible to apply for benefits but have chosen not to, I'm interested in talking with you too. I'm especially looking for Houston-area vets, but anyone in Texas that can help would be great.

Hope you can help me learn more about the system and the ways it needs to be improved. Please email me at krabon@khou.com or respond to this thread.

Thanks!

Keli

[toddt]

Keli, yes the VBA (Veterans Benefit Administartion) is the division responsible.  You may want to peruse this:  http://benefits.va.gov/benefits/factsheets.asp

[ardodd]

@Keli 

I am positive that you will find plenty of veterans to interview in Houston and the surrounding areas. Best of Luck with your endeavor.

I am from Louisiana and have to go to Shreveport, Louisiana VA Hospital "Overton Brooks" if you ever need someone from my area.

Just a few questions if I could ask them:

1) What specifically is it that you are aiming for?

   a) C/P Exams in general

   b) C/P Exams by Nurse's not by Doctors

   c) C/P Exams where they do not use evidence to support claim, but rather only use what evidence they feel is needed for just that one exam.

2) How the VA does or will not send you to the proper Certified Medical Examiner?

   a) How the VA uses Nurses to examine Veterans for a specific condition and not that of a certified medical doctor.

   b) How the VA manipulates who is seen in orthopedics and when.

   c) How C/P Nurses can falsely fill out a DBQ ( Disability Benefits Questionnaire ) that affects the outcome for Benefits and Retro-active pay.

3) How DRO or RO ( Decision Review Officer or Review Officer ) will send the Veteran for a Examination with a Nurse.

   a) C/P Exams are done by nurse's now and does not have to be certified by a doctor.

   b) C/P Examiners ( Nurses ) only have to pass the exam the VA gives on how to fill out the paperwork.

   c) C/P Nurse Examiners are not Board Certified Medical Doctors

 

But in all instances the VA has decided to use the Nurses in place of Doctors and the outcome has shown that their lack of medical knowledge and experience affects the outcome of the veterans claim.

I am one of those who has been examined by Nurse's and on all three instances they did not have the medical background or experience to be giving Medical Opinions.

Here is a analogy that may help you understand the difference in Quality Care and Quanity Care.

Analogy:

Would you go to a eye doctor for a colon scope?

Would you go to a podiatrist for a heart by-pass?  

Imagine your health care benefits for minute....

When you have problem with your back you go to a Orthopedic Doctor. They will run a MRI - Cat-Scan - X-rays to find the source of the problem and see if affects your legs with numbness or pain that radiates down your leg.

For most veterans they send us to x-ray and have the technician read the results. Not a Radiologist.

When it comes to your health Do you Trust a nurse playing Doctor or Do you Not trust their unknowledgeable and unexperienced Opinion? 

Doing stories or news reports about veterans not being treated fairly is not the Top Headline Stories needed to turn the VA around. What is needed is to make the firing of wrong doers stick. And in my little opinion even knowing that VA supervisors can just go to court and the courts turn around and say that they can not be fired.

Well in all honesty if we Impeach the President and other Officials. We should in our own rights be able to Impeach any federal employee that has or repeatedly harmed my fellow american veterans and taken some of lifes with their dirty little tricks.  

[MikeHunt]

3 hours ago, ardodd said:

Doing stories or news reports about veterans not being treated fairly is not the Top Headline Stories needed to turn the VA around. What is needed is to make the firing of wrong doers stick. And in my little opinion even knowing that VA supervisors can just go to court and the courts turn around and say that they can not be fired.

^ Merit protection board, whatever that is.

for leaders, a 'poison pill' is purposely written into discipline so it fails on inspection, or discipline paperwork is simply 'lost'.

 

 

I've seen bothers/sisters get this at Houston:

-Claims ignored

-Information they already, unquestionably, have, requested again so the VA employee doesn't have to work on the claim- a quick letter to get rid of something hard.

-told outright something had been actioned even when it clearly hadn't

-People denied for failing to submit evidence, when there's no question, and I mean no question, evidence was submitted and is in the online VA document record you can see at the Legion office

-Request for audit ignored.

the favorite tactic is asking for redundant / partial / nonsense information. My understanding is it then goes to another employee, or, even another office with the new ' National Work thingy' pending response, so they've 'washed their hands' of the hard claim. There's no interest for leadership to review, so the employee can't get in too much trouble. It's only when there's a disposition it's formally looked at.

The cynic's bywords for the VBA are 'deny, deny- wait 'til i die'. I become more the cynic everyday ...

my suggestion, Kelli, is to interview your Congressional representatives, after you've gotten a good idea of issues so you can ask specific questions. They never want to be on the wrong side of Veteran's issues, so you might actually get them to force change if you have enough evidence. Texas has one member in HVAC.

Many concerns are spelled out by HVAC:

https://veterans.house.gov/

you'll certainly get an idea of what you're up against.

[Vync]

Mike Hunt,
That is good info, but getting the truth out through the media helps to stir up additional interest from the people. Get them interested and involved could mean a much greater response to the Congressional reps.

 

Keli,
This might not be Houston specific, but might be helpful about C&P exams for claims.

When a veteran has a C&P exam for a claim where range of motion (ROM) is involved, the C&P examiner is required to use a goinometer (like a protractor) to measure the movement. Like many other veterans, I have had exams where they simply failed to use this device. If you ask the examiner, "Say, aren't you supposed to be using a goinometer?" many examiners might take it as an insult and say "I have been doing this long enough and do not need to use one". They proceed to 'eyeball' it. I actually had a C&P exam here in Birmingham from a neurologist. He refused to use the goinometer, performed the exam with one hand while eating a submarine sandwich in the other.

Why is this important? Because a 1 degree difference in the ROM measurement could mean the difference between being evaluated accurately vs. receiving a low-ball rating.

Additionally, there are painful motion/functional loss factors, which are equally important. Let's say you can bend all the way (max ROM), but pain kicks in at a certain point (limited ROM). Some examiners will wrongly use the max ROM, but should instead be using the limited ROM. Another instance where the veteran may be given an inaccurate low-ball rating.

 

 

In addition, nexus statements are a major source of heartburn for veterans. A nexus statement is required for service connection in most cases, except presumptives. The VA tries to limit these to being performed only be C&P examiners because they claim they require special training and have access to things like the claims file. This means that a veteran might have everything they need to win a SC claim, but are put through VA red tape to get that one critical element. In some situations, this may be best, but it is possible for other VA doctors to do this. For example, if the veteran is already SC for something and it causes secondary disabilities.

 

[1txhawg]

On Wednesday, August 24, 2016 at 0:37 PM, Keli said:

My name is Keli and I'm an investigative reporter in Houston, looking to talk with veterans about their experience with the disability claims process. Whether you've had difficulty navigating the system to get the proper percentage or you felt it was easy, let me know. Also, if you're eligible to apply for benefits but have chosen not to, I'm interested in talking with you too. I'm especially looking for Houston-area vets, but anyone in Texas that can help would be great.

Hope you can help me learn more about the system and the ways it needs to be improved. Please email me at krabon@khou.com or respond to this thread.

Thanks!

Keli

Keli,

My name is Amador D. Hinojosa and I would like to be a part of your article. You can email me at 1txhawg1019@gmail.com I look forward to hearing from you because I have been fighting the V.A since 1990.

Respectfully Submitted,

Amador