Have You Heard Of This Before?

[navydoc2]

I called the 1 800 # yesterday to check on the status of dependency claim. I was told that they would not start on the dependency claim, until they had all the evidence from my sleep apnea claim; that I submitted on the same day. I have not heard of that before, I've never had to wait for dependency claim; which doesn't have to go to rater. I'm still working on the sleep apnea evidence and will probably not submit all that evidence for a few more weeks. The back pay for my new wife would sure come in handy for the holidays.

/doc

[Veldrina]

meh, they've tried. We have Virtual VA, & they now gave limited access to vets of the MAPD program, where you can see entries re your claim (ie "rec'd med. recs from so& so") They have been talking about going paperless for a long time now, but they can barely fix the issues we have with some of the programs, & the mass undertaking that scanning all the zillions of files we have into the system would be....we just dont have the manpower to spare.

We need robots!!!

All the more reason the VBA needs to get with the year 1998 and go digital with this stuff.....

[Chuck75]

I worked in and with a USAF major logistics facility for over 20 years. A major ongoing effort was to digitize the mountains of documents, drawings, Technical Orders, etc. It was amusing because there were different standards at different times, incompatible file formats, almost unreadable microfiche records and so forth that had to be dealt with. Some of the documentation went back to the post WWII era in the late 40's. The effort is still ongoing, and new documents have to be added on a daily basis. Fortunately, the majority are now delivered in digital format, and the equipment used is much better and more efficient than it was in past decades.

What scares the heck outta me is that an effort to digitize a veteran's VA records can easily suffer from the same problems, in that original pages that are old or barely legible to the eye may not digitize. The urge for speed usually ends up with a blank copy of such pages.

(There are several such pages in my file. fortunately, I have a copy of many, and others are redundant for the claims process.)

Next, records that are inaccurate, not even the veteran's, and so forth can end up being digitized. Once digitized, the opportunity to correct errors and the complexity of doing so is even worse than it is now.

As to the manpower - - -

The VA created an extremely inefficient and time eating bureaucratic system. Regardless of the reasons, it has resulted in totally unacceptable results, be it claims delays, not responding to veteran's needs, undeserved bonuses, poor condition of reusable medical items, or even the basic "it's easier to deny than award" mentality and system. While I can sympathize with a VA worker to some extent, I cannot but vehemently object to the VA "system" used in the claims process. I would have to say that the whole claims process needs to be turned over to something like SSA. (And I'm not a fan of the SSA claims process either.)

(And, I wont even get into a current "hot topic" that is the result of the VA's fiduciary program.)

As to the VA websites in general, they are among the worst I've had to deal with. Far to many links are broken, documents seem to migrate or even disappear, often seemingly without rhyme or reason. Web document references to other web references are seldom updated. A government organization that has nothing to hide has no reason to do such things.

To many documents reference other documents that are supposedly in (By Law) public domain, yet the copy is at VA internal use only web locations.

meh, they've tried. We have Virtual VA, & they now gave limited access to vets of the MAPD program, where you can see entries re your claim (ie "rec'd med. recs from so& so") They have been talking about going paperless for a long time now, but they can barely fix the issues we have with some of the programs, & the mass undertaking that scanning all the zillions of files we have into the system would be....we just dont have the manpower to spare.

We need robots!!!

Edited January 26, 2011 by Chuck75

[leftyf]

I called the 1 800 # yesterday to check on the status of dependency claim. I was told that they would not start on the dependency claim, until they had all the evidence from my sleep apnea claim; that I submitted on the same day. I have not heard of that before, I've never had to wait for dependency claim; which doesn't have to go to rater. I'm still working on the sleep apnea evidence and will probably not submit all that evidence for a few more weeks. The back pay for my new wife would sure come in handy for the holidays.

/doc

It would appear that they can only do one action at a time. Anytime you have action going, the submission of additional claims restarts the old clock. I was told this by a Regional Manager, when I asked why my claim took over 3 years this time. Based on my experiences withe VA, this seems to be true.

[eagle-eye]

I also received a letter from the VA with a similiar statement stating that my dependacy pay would not kick in until an opened claim I had for an increase was resolved.

BUT VA did end up adding my dependacy pay (& paying retro) 2-3 months before that opened claim was rated & closed. Time frame of when I was eligible for dependacy pay and to the actual time I started receiving it was 14 months. That's with me sending marriage and birth certificates right away after VA initially requested it.

I truly hope they do you better.