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Also, I have had at least one child on tricare for the last 28 years and never once have they set foot on base to be seen. Their father and I were both AD, we always had them on Tricare standard (now select) and after I was out and we divorced he was court ordered to keep them on standard because they had always been on it so they could see any provider and never need a referral. I love Tricare standard/select and it has been fantastic has a great catastrophic cap. our other 2 children have champva and our older children transition to champva at age 21 ........trust me, it is a cluster F%^ck to do. But it isn't a choice for us. They cannot be on both and if they are tricare eligible they cannot have champva, older children (from my first marriage) lose their tricare eligibility at age 21 and have been picked up by champva which they then lose at age 23.

I am 100% PT and also receive SSDI My children do not receive any sort of medical other than Champva and they do receive some part of SS that is awarded to them until they are 18. I believe he is saying his children are over 26??? Chapter 35 stops at age 26. Some states do have education benefits for those children of disabled veterans rated over a certain percentage, some of them have to be wounded in combat, have a purple heart, have served post 9/11 etc. Every state has different criteria or has no benefits at all. Each state is different and it is up to the individual to do their homework. Kinda shocked that someone would assume that after being awarded 100% that the free fairy would swoop in and pay for everything. NOPE if you are a family of 5 and have no other income which it seems like this person does seeing that their spouse is being medically retired they aren't in the poor house at all. Research is your best friend, sorry you didn't do your due diligence and actually read the regulations on chapter 35 before announcing to your children what the benefits would be. If they are over 26 then they should be out on their own unless they are disabled anyway in reality but hey all families are different. My older kids didn't have chapter 35 and they were just fine without it for the first few years in college, they worked and we helped them as best we could. It is what families do. Best of luck.

I use have my meds mailed as well but once in awhile they have to be picked up, like if it is something urgent or if I had a procedure done or if I went to a non va care appointment. Often, I will go in and go see the clinical pharmacist to get the approval but it still takes them a gosh dang 3-4 hours to fill that prescription so both my husband and my 19 year old are in the system as my (NON PAID) caregivers because cough cough pre 9.11 so they allow them to pick up my meds with zero issues.

I have a service dog he is from an ADI accredited organization and I urge you to do a TON of homework, there are so many horrible organizations out there. I did research for over 4 years, had my primary fill out the paperwork for the organization and referrals etc. and he is covered for his veterinary care through the VA. YES, many organizations are only for post 9/11 veterans and you will find that A LOT just like tons of other things.....OH you want to participate in this adaptive sports program that the VA gave us a grant for?? sorry, we only cater to post 9/11 veterans!! WHAT? you take VA funds but only cater to one era of veterans...don't get me started! Anyway. Go to Assistance Dogs International and start searching. The organization I used is Florida specific but Wounded Canine Connection is in the Northeast and last I checked they were taking applications, expect to wait 1-2 years. Do not pay for a Service Dog. There are reputable organizations that will help veterans of all eras, you will have to pay for transportation and lodging often but not for your service dog.

My husband picks up mine at local pharmacies and at the VA if they aren't mailed with no issues even without my ID. He just needs his and my info.

If you are 100%PT you can still work........technically, I am also 100%PT I was IU before that, no way I can work. I also have SMCs I have far too many phsycial and mh issues to work, you should also file for SSDI.

Your kids don't have to use chapter 35 within 10 years of you receiving your rating, only your spouse........my 6 year old will get to use her chapter 35 when she is old enough to go to college. It is YOUR SPOUSE that has to use it within a certain time frame, children are only held to an age requirement, they cut them off at I think it is 24 or 26.....pretty sure it is 26. I have a child who became very ill in college (extremely ill and had to withdraw 3 semesters in a row due to hospitalizations in what was supposed to be her senior year) she only had to show medical proof that she was ill to extent her eligibility. Chapter 35 does not pay for your child's school for free, it gives them a stipend which has been cut back from 48 months to 36 which happened last year. This did increase the amount they receive each month to $1200 per month. Champva does stop at age 18 unless they are a full time student and stops at age 23 no matter what, even if they are in college. THAT is exactly what happened to my daughter, she became sick the month after her 23rd birthday IN college without insurance. Gotta love being a disabled veteran!!!

If I had other health insurance I would gladly pay copays and not use the Va for much of my care, the fight just simply isn't worth it. I am currently waiting on 4 community care authorizations to get through the system and they were put in on October 22 or 24th, still haven't received them, takes them forever to process anything. Of course when I do receive them the dates of authorization will be October 24-whatever months of care they give me even though it takes them 4-6 months to process them........insane.

John999, they have me driving 6 hours round trip from outside of Tallahassee all the way to GAINESVILLE for appointments!! It is absolutely ludicrous. I need to go to gait and balance which is weekly but it is in Gainesville, no way can I do that with all my disabilities. Tallahassee is 30 miles from my house, that is bad enough but at least I understand that, there isn't much in my county really but there is an urgent care that I use for things because if I get sick I know if I go to the crappy little clinic in Tallahassee I will be sitting there all day long and half the time they don't even figure out what is wrong. Last time, the doctor looked at me and asked me if I need to be on all this medication. I looked at her and said, "Have you looked at my diagnostic page?" "The Va has prescribed them to me, you tell me?" Cripes shake my head absurd!! Yeah, 6 hours round trip for OT as well!! Neurologist and so many other things. Thankfully my neuro is a great doctor and he does a lot over secure messaging and on the phone, he only makes me go down once a year because he knows it is a serious hardship for me.

I do have some good specialists at the VA and had some great ones that left. I will say that I had no complaints for years, almost a decade and the last 5-7 years have been a complete fight for some of my care. MH is awful where I live as is my primary care. It is sad that one provider leaving can have such a huge impact on your care and when you live where there is a small clinic you really have no choice who you see.

I agree completely, I just waited 4 months for the VA community care people to process paperwork for me to see an outside provider for ONE of my issues that the VA cannot take care of.......it took them that long just to process. During that 4 months I paid out of pocket 4 times to be seen at an urgent care for steroid shots, prescriptions, etc. because my VA clinic wasn't even open and I was covered from head to toe in hives. The only reason it was finally pushed through was because I kept calling and complaining as did my husband, after I received the paperwork I was seen by the specialist in the same city my local VA is within a week. All the things the VA had been doing were absolutely the worst things and the meds were not even recommended for what was going on with me at all. Choice isn't even involved anymore here, it is all handled at the regional hospital and it is a huge mess! I still have 4 requests for non va care that were put in by my primary in October that haven't been processed. Unacceptable is an understatement imo, I hope that this means the providers I want to continue seeing I can and the ones I don't want to or there aren't any I can go anywhere I choose, my dependents have better choices than I do. I would prefer to have Tricare standard (now select) and actually pay copays than the crap choices I have now honestly. Six hours round trip drive for a pap smear??? No one can convince me that paying me travel, the fact that I am unable to drive and unable to take the DAV van so my unpaid caregiver has to take off work to take me isn't an undue burden on him. Complete crap. I live in a decent size city, there are two major hospitals, plenty of specialists in every field. It is absurd that a veteran has to travel 6 hours just because there is a crappy little clinic locally that provides "some" care and I do put that care in quotes for a reason.

My ex is AD and I am 100% PT, our kids stayed on tricare until they reached the age of 21 and then went on my champva until they were 23 (as they no longer met the requirements to be on his tricare as he provided zero support) they did meet the requirements to be on my champva because they were in college, the youngest of those 3 children is about to turn 20 and he will be the last that we go through this HUGE hassle. It is a huge pain in the as$ because I have to get it sorted out with DEERS as he does not cooperate. The last child it took a congressional inquiry to his command to force him to go down and take him off his DEERS. It was a mess. The good thing is that this is you and your current spouse so much easier to deal with, personally I would choose tricare because at least then you can choose to cover them past the age of 23. Champva you get you choice after 23, my daughter became very ill the month after she turned 23 while in college and had no way to get health insurance. IT was a disaster.

I wouldn't have even filed if I had even the slightest risk of being reduced, I was past the 10 year mark for every single one of my ratings and all of them were documented as getting worse not better by every single provider. Still didn't stop them from trying to pull a fast one.

They did with me......it was idiotic honestly, I had been PT for many years. I was like, OH, well they are gonna play THAT game? FINE I will play along and filed for every freaking thing I never filed for before and ended up adding 3 new additional sc items, 2 at 20% and one at 60%. MY RO is the WORST.

It isn't unusual for them to send you for a CP exam for every single thing you are rated for when filing for aid and attendance........so don't be surprised if they do so.

My previous employer never filled that form out when I was awarded IU, they wouldn't have if they had been around and they had changed names anyway, I don't think the VA even ever asked. I just put no longer in existence or they won't fill it out. They never asked.

My experience with the VA and vestibular disorders is that they don't even begin to know what they are doing. I did have a resident from Shands (UF) that saw me and he knew what he was doing, then I went in the next visit and an idiotic NP asked me why I was there and told me to go to Neuro, for a vestibular disorder, okay??? yeah. Pathetic at best. I too had symptoms in service and they are documented with the symptoms and were diagnosed as eustachian tube dysfunction lol.

I have had the rater call me and it was for something in my favor.

I know I am not the original poster but I was 70% IU PT and then was awarded additional service connections one of them was for a single 60% for a bladder condition, they did not give me SMC S. At the end of all my added service connected issues I ended up being schedular 100% PT but they didn't give me the SMC S. I had thought it would be an automatic as well.

I have community based primary care and there is a VA CBOC within 25 miles of my house, and they are accepting patients..........I have that because my primary care doctor was a jerk. I didn't even have to ask for outside care, apparently this is a thing now? Choice is gone and they are combining all the outside care into one big bundle. I would go straight to your nearest patient advocate and ask for non va care for primary care ASAP. It is an undue burden to ask you to travel so far for primary care, ridiculous honestly. I wouldn't put up with it even IF the doctor were decent. I have begun refusing to travel the 6 hour round trip crap to the regional hospital because it does place an undue burden upon me. I cannot ride the DAV van or shuttles, I cannot drive myself and my husband cannot take off work repeatedly losing pay to do so, he already has to take off way too much work to care for me as it is. So, they send me locally to non va care. I will only travel for my neuro because he only requires it once a year and the others he does by phone and via secure messaging so I don't have to travel too much. He is great. I have telehealth at home for some things as well. It is basically just video conferencing your doctor over your phone, super easy. No equipment needed. Why they don't do that for most things that don't involve them needing to touch you, because let's face it they rarely do. I have no idea.

Yep, same here I have no other choice either and it stinks!! I only do something if it is causing me a big issue, like what you are experiencing. It isn't worth your quality of life to be living in pain. I would simply be on a trip to a farther away larger facility and happen to go in for a pain visit at the dental clinic and tell them you just can't stand it anymore, etc. No harm no foul, you aren't ratting her out, you are just some dumb veteran who is in pain and doesn't know why..........good grief, sad you have to even think about doing that.

This is why I hate the VA, you can have a great provider or a horrible one like this, my dentist is amazing, one of my best "specialty" clinic doctors............but I have other that are horrible and you are right, it is our word against theirs and when we complain they act as if we are clearly just complaining for no reason?? yeah, okay. Meanwhile, in the "real" world we would have just gone to another dentist and not had to say a word to anyone as to why, this is why I hate that we have to justify switching providers, at least at the VA I use. I would try to see if you can go to another VA dental close to you and hopefully that dentist is more competent and definitely treats you better, not like someone who is "getting something for free" ???? What is that all about, that would really tick me off. Definitely go to a bigger dental clinic maybe at the regional hospital and have them look at your partial, there is no reason for any veteran to be suffering.........why make something at all if you aren't going to do it right in the first place? Best of luck!!

I have had both VES and QTC, both of my QTC examiners were complete crap, the VES one was far better and actually came to the city nearby so I didn't have to travel so far. One of the QTC examiners I had was so bad he could hardly speak English, didn't know how to log into the system and spent less than 5 minutes with me for 3 conditions (I was only sent for exams because I had applied for A & A).

WOW, that is ridiculous I don't put up with the VA's crap. I always use secure messaging and as bat crap crazy as I can be at times.........not literally but when I get frustrated and mad, I cry and ramble, and even with a Mensa level IQ it is incredibly difficult to talk to those jerks when they aren't treating you with common decency. SO, I use secure messaging so that there is a record. There is a rule that requires them to get back to you within so many business days, I believe it is 3. I use that against them if/when they are behaving inappropriately. They do it to us every single day so damn straight I will use it against them. I am within 25 miles of a VA facility but I have community based care for both my primary and multiple other things. I do not see a psychiatrist at my local VA because they got caught NOT providing me care and had and IG as well as Congressional Inquiry that they got busted, so I have telehealth but still with a VA provider for psychology and the last almost year a non va community based care psychiatrist. His office has now closed and they are trying to get me to go back to that clinic and I refuse, the head of that Psychiatry department called me Thursday because he has had the request for a new provider for community based care or telehealth approval waiting on HIM since October which he hasn't signed (electronically of course) and I know that it keeps popping up in his daily "not take care of crap" and he just ignores it. SO, I called on him Monday or Tuesday last week and low and behold........I get a phone call, WOW shocking!! He insists there is no telehealth in the entire country for psychiatry?? BS He did renew all my meds, including my benzos and someone called from that clinic and was trying to schedule and appointment for me yesterday and I refused. I said there is a reason I was given outside care and/or telehealth. I am not setting foot in that clinic. Of course they are all freaking out about me not having care NOW..........but the head of psychiatry wasn't concerned for the 2 MONTHS plus that the sign off was sitting in his in box waiting on him. I don't play their games. I may have a ton of mh issues as well as physical ones but I am not dealing with incompetent providers nor ones that dismiss me and treat me like crap. The woman was asking me, "so you don't want to use the VA at all?" I told her, "not at all, I have some really great providers at the VA and I named the many great specialists that I do have........and said it is the mental health clinic HERE that I have an issue with since my psychiatrist that I had for over 8 years left in 2015!" I am not playing their game in that clinic because I know playing silly games, you will win silly prizes and I have had enough of those for a lifetime with crap care, once I let them be my provider again I will NEVER get outside care again that the VA pays for, I am no fool. I hope you find better care. I know there are great providers out there, my psycholigist is amazing via telehealth. They stopped utilizing here at my local VA, even though there are so many veterans waiting on individual therapy and now she is seeing me via telemed at HOME. That is how the VA should work!

I have been on benzos for over a decade, the VA has always prescribed them and often has increased them. I have PTSD as well as panic disorder with agoraphobia, general anxiety disorder and bipolar II........pretty sure honestly all the crap between the PTSD and bipolar is PTSD but well you know the VA, they don't like to diagnose PTSD and it took them only 11 years to put that as a diagnosis in my records LOL gotta love em...I am actually weening myself off of them, I do not like the side effects, they don't actually work that great (I have gone from xanax to ativan to klonpin and back and forth) currently they actually prescribe them for not only anxiety but SLEEP??? NOT KIDDING. So, pretty sure there is no such thing as the VA saying no more benzos, I have experienced and witnessed the exact opposite.