john999

If you can find the records and they support your claim you can win. The VA has a duty to attempt to reconstruct lost records. I say "attempt" which means as little effort as possible by the VA. You know your records may not all be at St. Louis. Your medical records could still be at any hospital you were in during the military. You know many RVN Era vets did not even get discharge physicals. I did not get one. The Army invented one, however.

Situational awareness is best defense.

Extractions leading to dentures is the VA idea of dental health. The VA preaches about how important oral health is because oral infections can lead to systemic blood infections and organ infections. Yet, only select few even get dental care via the VA. I get dental care from the VA but it is so poor I get most of my work done from private dentists. This is just unacceptable and is based on rationing and putting costs before the welfare of patients. I get VFW and DAV magazines and every month some vets are raving about wonderful care they get at the VA. What planet do they live on? I think VA employees are directed to write these organizations with this crap. There is a conspiracy against a certain group of Americans by their own government and that would be us vets. I would not have spent 13,500 bucks for private dental if VA dental was worth a damn at my VA. With all this we vets sit back and accept this crap decade after decade. I know VSO's have vested interest in keeping the system the way it is now. Just about any dolt knows that if VA offered medicare-like card to vets the majority would get care from their own doctors and not take some foreign doctor who thinks vets are just gaming the system. This is the general attitude I have felt at the VA where I get my care such as it is. John

You know during and after Vietnam the Army discharged thousands of PTSD vets as personality disorders. No compensation for PD. My VARO disagreed and said schizophrenia and I got compensated at 10% level. Both DX'es were wrong. One included compensation and the other no compensation. I filed within one year of discharge. I think with your honorable discharge and CAB you should get PTSD claim, but all the mental conditions are rated the same. PTSD is actually one of the harder DX'es because of the list of symptoms on checklist.

Yeah, my VA said implants were like cosmetic surgery. What BS and malpractice from the heart of the VA Mafia. I had experience with an Army doctor who did an extraction. God, was a mess he made of my jaw in 1969. It bled for three days. I paid for private dental care due mostly to fact that the VA dentists I had at my local VA could not even do a filing right. The VA denied me cataract surgery which was probably for the best since I would probably be blind.

Berta, you are like the Seal Team Six of VA claims for all spouses and vets also. You do the impossible on a weekly basis. What grit! They say "Rangers lead the Way", but I think Berta does it. John

Not impossible that normal claims get shredded or thrown out as well. When you make claim for unauthorized expense it is a different world. I won it one time so why not try again. I suffered neglect, delays and horrible care so I am claiming money I had to spend to protect my health that VA rejected. So it goes. I think you should assume the VA is going either shred your claim, lose it or just bury it. John

My PCP has made a ambulatory pain clinic appointment for me that I did not ask for and is telling me in strong language I "need" to go to the appointment. First off I know what they are up to. Second it is at 8am which is too early for me. I guess the VA is going to roll me, or try to roll me. If they cut me off the opiates after 8 years I am going to look around for someway to sue them for malpractice. I am dependent because I followed their "medical' advice at the time. I know I can live without the opiates but it does make things easier. John

I was referred out to a private dentist after months. I got an exam from this dentist three weeks ago and they had many recommended treatments. So I have heard nothing since then. I did figure out that I spent $13,500 on dental bills since 2007 because of the VA's poor care and delays in treatment and outright denial of treatment. I am thinking about getting some decent dental insurance through OPM. They have some decent plans with large annual maximums and no waiting period. The VA plans are &^%$ as I read them with yearly maximums of 1500 or 3000 bucks. That would not pay for a crown and root canal if you could even get the VA insurance to pay. I just have to see if the VA's referral dentist is going to be worth a damn. Sometimes these dentists look in your mouth for gold. They will replace every tooth in your head to make a buck as long as someone is paying. If you were to actually get real implants for your teeth instead of dentures it could cost you $40,000 in the USA. You can fly to Thailand and be put up in a good hotel and get every tooth in your head replaced for about $10,000 I have heard. The same for some S. American and Central American countries like Costa Rica. It is called a medical tourism. I would like to get a group from around St.Pete VARO and stage a protest one of these days. The same could be done at our local VA hospitals. As long as you obey the law they cannot arrest you. Vets tend to be passive and that is why they get it up the kazoo. I read the DAV magazine and they publish letters from vets who just love the VA healthcare system. One letter said he got better care via VA than with Medicare or Tricare. Would this guy be a plant or VA spy/agent? Maybe he is just dumb. I had cutting edge surgery for my sleep apnea, and my VA never even heard of it. Now they want their CPAP back! They are going to recycle my CPAP and give it to some other vet. It has mold growing in it. John

I am sending a claim to the Fee Base Office at the VA for $13,500 bucks for dental care they denied me over the last five years. I know they will deny it at first. Last time I claimed something like this they threw the claim in the trash and did not even officially reject it. I got the money, or part of what I claimed at least. It took six months. I was referred out for dental care because of them not providing me care on timely basis. They also rejected my request for dental implants saying these were" just cosmetic and elective." "What I needed was some good dentures, but in any case I would not miss those teeth that were pulled anyway." They actually told me that at the VA dental clinic. I should have raised a stink then, but I just went ahead and had the work done by a real dentist. The truth was that there was no one there who could do an implant. The VA admits this! I would not trust the creeps I have come into contact to do an implant at the VA dental clinic anyway. They should have referred me to someone who could do them since they are not cosmetic or elective. Dental implants are standard care for teeth that have to removed, but where the bone is good. Some get bridges and in some cases implants are best. If you get them done right it is an ordeal. John

This is why I have back-up doctors outside the VA that will come through for me. I have a psychiatrist and psychologist on the payroll via Worker's Compensation. I get no money from WC, but I do get medical care for life. This is why I pay big bucks for my employee/retiree insurance as triple backup. I try to have back up plans for anything to do with the VA. If they cut off my drugs I can handle that. If they cut off my money I even have emergency fund for that. Month to month I depend on my VA check, but this only makes me hate the VA worse. You could live in Norway and get better medical care for free than what we pay for big bucks. I asked these **&&^^%%$ for some help with making bathroom safer and they want more evidence than Perry Mason could provide. All this talk about poor vets and how they need and deserve help. What BS. The VA is there to deny help and find reasons to deny assistance. If I stop going to VA after being P&T for 13 years would that be red flag for a C&P exam? I want to get to 20 years with permanent total rating, so they can't touch me. John

I did sign an agreement for the opiates because I knew I was going to use them as prescribed, so I was not worried. Now I am just angry that they are shopping me around to the DEA and have branded me as having a problem .... "opiate dependence". I originally asked the VA for Vioxx or Celebrex and the pain clinic said I needed to be on morphine sulfate. It was due to the cost of Celebrex and Vioxx at the time 2003. Morphine is cheap as is methadone, percoset and most opiates. I think Oxycontin is expensive, so that's out. So the VA started me on the road to opiate dependence and now they blame me and say it is one of my problems. This is just one of the reasons I hate their guts. They have threatened to take me off the opiates I get now, but I backed them down. I have chronic pain and there is just no answer to it. They won't even give me PT to help me with the pain. They gave me Cymbalta and that helped a little, but as well all know it makes a male impotent as do all SSRI's. About the only thing the VA is good for is a check and pills. I would not let them operate on my ingrown toenail. They gave me steroid shots in both heels and before I got home I could not walk. I told them about my foot pain and I got triple pain as a result. John

I see many things to fight about. Why are only post 9/11 caregivers compensated. Are we Vietnam Era vets and First Gulf War vets crap on the VA's shoe? All vets should have choice about where they get care. I am sick to death of driving 25 miles to see some yoyo about PT. I only get to see my shrink once every ten weeks. I get no actual therapy just drugs. This is not psychiatric care on any acceptable level. Both dental and vision care I only got once every two years, so I was outsourced for at least the dental. I got an exam, but that is it so far. Soon I will have to drive to the VA 4 times a year just to get pain meds. I met some idiot old guy who had brain surgery at the VA. Who in their right mind would have brain surgery at the VA? This guy had insurance, and since he did not want to pay anything he let those ghouls operate on his tiny brain. The VA should do a study on the sex lives of vets since they have been &^%$##$ them for decades. John

I think Berta said there was some kind of advantage for even vets who are P&T for 10 years to get death SC'ed. I think it involves accrued benefits. I am not even sure what that is exactly. I got LTC insurance for my wife and myself before I retired back in 2000. Because I had three relatives in nursing homes I got it. Now I can't even get life insurance due to my disabilities that are recognized. Have you checked every option regarding the LTC insurance? I was turned down by the federal LTC program, but got it via MetLife in a private policy. Just as good if not better than the group plan OPM was selling. You are 100% vet so the VA must provide LTC for you. If your spouse is healthy then she can get it. It is expensive the older you get. Mine costs us about $3000 a year for the both of us . I was about 50 when I got it. Mine is for five years and so is my wife's. I know you want to protect your spouse in case you end up in LTC. You must protect yourself as well because Uncle wants you to go out of the world the way you came into it.....naked and broke. I assume my wife will out live me but who knows. She refuses to see doctors or dentists. She is a hard headed Yankee from Maine. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" she says. Yeah, just wait. I will be feeding her mush in a home in as sorry shape as I am in now. Thanks goodness we do have insurance. When my aunt and grandmother ended up in nursing homes I hired Elder Care lawyer to help with the medicade thing. There is a three to five year look-back period to see if you have transferred assets to get medicade and avoid paying for nursing home care in Florida. My aunt had the ability to pay for her care, and she also got help from the VA because she got DIC. My grandmother got medicade after every dime she had went to pay the nursing home. My mother died waiting for A&A because she was in a nursing home, but she could also pay. She had about 300,00 sitting in the bank, but her house was in a life estate for my brother so they could not force her to sell it. She only lived about five months in the home due to their negligence. I sued them for half a million bucks and got about 60% of that after the lawyer took his cut. I did my best but they were all stubborn and my aunt and mother had dementia so that was no help. I had all the POA's etc. but it still got screwed up by evil sister (lawyer) who wanted estate funds before taxes were paid. I ended up in court over my mother's living will and my greedy sister's wanting all her money, my money, and my aunts money as well. You know that beneficiary statements are stronger than wills, so all your accounts and assets that have beneficiary rights need to be updated. I am sure you know all this, so I will shut up now.

VA now has a relationship with Florida drug enforcement and checks on prescriptions. I read my VA medical record recently, and it said the VA had checked to see if Florida, where I live, had documentation of me getting drugs from out of state, or from other pain doctors in Florida. I never gave them permission to shop me around to the Florida DEA or anyone else. I foolishly thought my medical records at the VA were private. I asked for a HISA grant and/or specially adaptation to my bathroom and I see where the VA wants to check with neighbors, employers, hospitals, doctors, worker's compensation, medicare, SSA and a host of others to see if I am a drug addict or some kind of criminal. I limited their access to the VA, SSA and my wife. Now I am probably screwed, but I am not allowing those bastards to go on a fishing expedition just for me to get some adaptation to my bath tub so I don't break a hip. This reminds me of that quality of life program where the "counselor" wanted me to prove medically that providing me with some music lessons would significantly improve my mental health. I told them to just shove it. I am building up significant hate for the VA and government in general. They got me addicted or at least dependent on opiates and on benzo's and now I am a drug dependent problem child. I will show them what a problem child can do with a pen, and paper, and email.

Regarding these matters my wife has a way of avoiding making any plans. If she has a plan for dinner that is a big deal. I worry, and she is "Don't worry, be happy". I have life insurance she has none. I have pension, she has none. I dragged her to the lawyer to make a will and do POA, living will etc. She never would have done it on her own. I bought a sophisticated security system and she does not use it unless I am there. When I am gone I make her swear to turn on alarm!!! I wanted her to learn how to use a pistol just in case, but she is afraid. It gripes my ass when I try and help her and she rejects the help. If I could die, and then come back and do all the stuff for her that would be great. I did get her to buy an annuity that will pay her a sum for life instead of blowing the money in her IRA which is not large. We just think differently about security now and beyond. John

What is the advantage to proving a vet died of SC causes as opposed to a vet who has ten years as 100% SC? I have 13 years TDIU P&T. I still think an autopsy would be useful because I am pretty sure I will die from SC cause. How would this benefit my widow?

You can drop $10,000 just for average funeral if you let the undertakers sell you all that guilt and bronze coffin etc. I say skip the ceremony, and all the rest of it. Just have the body put on ice and then arrange the burial and anybody wants to come they can come. Just the funeral viewing, and ceremony and embalming etc. can cost 7000 bucks. I want a pine box and a burial at National graveyard. Let my wife keep the money. Like I say in Florida you go into a metal container anyway. You don't even have to have a coffin. You can shop around and buy a coffin online. Store in the garage and jump out on Halloween to scare kids. People are just shells after the embalming is done full of chemicals and half your organs removed. The business of death is big business. John

Thing is the VA might change the form between now and when I croak. It would be worth it to get it all filled out in advance. My wife still breaks down when one of her brother's friends from Vietnam emails her to show pictures of her brother before he was killed. If I want a decent burial I will also need to do that in advance. This is somewhat morbid but it comes to all of us and most are unprepared. Is there any organization where you can get facts about laws for burials in our home states. I know that embalming is not required. What about those who are organ donors? You do get free autopsy which might help with cause of death if it is SC. The service at funeral home and all the other BS can cost a fortune and no one is coming that I care about. I say just bury me or burn me as cheaply as possible. I like the idea of a pine box, but in Florida you must have a metal container which the VA pays for at least. You know embalming is not ecologically friendly. You are putting a corpse that is filled with toxic chemicals into the ground where they will probably leach out into groundwater. The death industry is full of crooks that take advantage of those left behind. I did pre-planned funerals for all my relatives. The undertakers were not happy that I chose most inexpensive coffins. If it were up to me they would just go into pine boxes and then into the earth. Bury them deep and they go back to the earth and fertilize the ecosystem. From ashes to ashes and dust to dust. So cremation is probably the cheapest, but it is not all that unmessy. Crematoriums are factories where ashes get blown around onto industrial workers etc. At least my dental implants would not be melted away. Dental implants survive.

In new and improved VA you should be able to be seen in non-VA setting if you have to wait more than 30 days for medical care at VA. Got your Choice Card yet? Best solution for VA is army of bulldozers and giant backhoes. As long as VA hospital system exists VA medical will be an awful joke.

Ok, Phil, This I will tell my wife. She just needs to bring documents and be sure they don't keep the originals. Probably the same is true for the Post Office. They need to do some of the form anyway. John

Ha, Ha, yes, I mean 8300 bucks a year. My typing is poor and my head works faster than my hands. I still don't understand why a DIC spouse has to provide financial information. I can see some dumb VSO or VA type telling the DIC claimant "Oh, you make too much money, or you have too many assets" The surviving spouse really needs to understand the DIC benefit.

I got VA Form 21-534. You need a death certificate, marriage certificate, DD214 (best practice), and the spouse must give information about all other marriages. The VA has combined DIC with the Death Pension and Accrued Benefits by a surviving spouse or child, including death compensation is applicable. They also include a claim form for SSA survivor benefits but you don't have to do that if you don't want. Since they combined DIC with Death Pension they ask for a multitude of questions about your income and assets. If you are claiming DIC do you have to fill out the financial info? They ask many questions about the vets children if he/she has them. The form actually looks pretty easy except for financial information and I don't see why a spouse just asking for DIC should have to mess with that. To get the war widow's pension the spouse can't make more than about 8300 bucks a month as of 2013. Who would qualify for such a pension? You would have to be starving. John

OK, that is a good idea since my wife is intimidated by these forms I know. I can barely understand them I would have many questions myself. I am trying to put into her head that she is entitled to DIC based on fact we have been married 13 years and I have been P&T 13 years. She does not have to prove anything like a claim for disability compensation. The civil service survivor form requires even more BS even though I am paying 10% of my pension every month to see that she has a survivor benefit. How in the world would a truly elderly person ever be able to fill out these forms and collect some of the information required amazes me. When you become eligible for SSA you just go down and claim it. It takes a few minutes. VA and FERS take a dictionary and lawyer. John

When can a surviving ex-spouse of totally disabled vet claim DIC, or can she? My wife was married to a vet who became totally disabled after their divorce. I don't think he ever remarried. Can my wife claim anything. He was getting something for AO diseases when they split up back in 1999. His death would be the only good thing he ever did if she were entitled to something. He died just recently according to the lawyer who called our house about his kids and a will. How does it work with DIC and remarried ex-wives anyway? She was 42 when they divorced. John