highoctane

they already conducted a study, which was favorable to veterans, congress commissioned a new one, and ended up with more favor for vets and then sh**canned the whole discovery process.  They do studies until something that is more palatable to them is found.

Congratulations highoctane!!!!
Blessings to you and your family!!!
I have reached out to Ms Hickey as well regarding my dads claim and she has done an impeccable job on getting the ball rolling on his going on 40 year battle for compensation. I only pray like yours he will finally receive the compensation that he and so many other veterans deserve!!! We must never ever give up or loose faith..... Bless u and congrats!!! It gives other veterans and their loved ones such as myself hope that Justice will prevail eventually!!!!
 

Thank you eagle1012004. Everyone one from the VBA who I actually got to speak to after Ms. Hickey got the ball rolling was extremely helpful, and I do not think it was entirely because they were scrambling to appease the Under Secretary...they seemed truly concerned. The problem to me seems to be with how we can communicate with the VA, there is a major disconnect with communication. Here is my personal opinion, the VA is over run right now, and has been over run for years...the Federal Govt focused all it's effort on sending troops to war and supporting operations abroad but failed to plan for the aftermath and has repeated this process since at least Vietnam...the VA leadership is expected to just make it work with what they are given, when what they are given isn't enough(to vets this should sound familiar).  They are drowning and we are paying for it, as are the VA employees who try to make the best of what they have to work with and know they are fighting a loosing battle. Maybe one of these years we will elect some leadership who will actually fix the problem at the root...but I am not going to hold my breath. In the mean time, it is on us to fight for what we are entitled to by law...
 

Thanks Broncovet

Thanks Buck. If anyone needs any help with getting in touch with people that can make things happen at the Winston-Salem RO let me know. There are people there that really want to help with those cases where the "system" has failed to work as it should. It's just a matter of getting to talk to those people.

Claim was completed and the rating commensurate with my C&P exam was granted! This now qualifies as a success story lol. That might be a record for moving from gathering evidence to complete...less than 24 hours?

What I would say is if you e-mail her put something compelling in the subject line and carefully think out your e-mail. Again, I am sure she does not have time to respond to all the emails she gets. I had actually emailed her months ago and didn't get any response. But that email was not well thought and composed..it was borne of frustration. I'm sure it read like many other rant e-mails she probably gets everyday, I was very frustrated. I was not belligerent, but I also wasn't articulate in that first e-mail. Be smart. Only contact Ms. Hickey when you feel that there is really an issue that you feel she should be aware of with how your claim was handled. Be able to articulate details with respect to how the claim was or is being mishandled. She and the upper level VBA management do really seem to care. Often though hands are tied by legalease and the federal government. Most if not ALL of the "roadblocks" that we as veterans face are put in place by powers higher than the VBA..the VBA employees are often just following orders and following procedures. As we all know S rolls down hill..nothing is different here..the VBA employees are taking the brunt of our frustrations but they are just doing so under orders, to shield real culprits..the politicians in our federal government. They do not like it any more than we do.

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this...my claim isn't complete just yet, so I don't really know if I was successful. BUT I thought I needed to share this, regardless of what the decision is, I got some relief from the frustration of dealing with the "system". I e-mailed Allison Hickey a couple of weeks ago about a claim that was denied for "no clinical diagnosis" when it was well documented in my military service treatment records. It was my main contention, and I was dumbfounded as to how it could be denied. She returned my E-mail and CC'd the RO (Winston Salem) director, Ms. Rawls. She said she would have the claim reviewed. Shortly thereafter Ms. Rawls e-mailed me and said one of here team members would be contacting me soon. That happened today, a Mr. Heliman from Winston-Salem RO contacted me and we spend a good amount of time going over my claim. He was very professional and patient and poured over all of the details, and let's just say things are now quickly moving in the right direction. My reconsideration claim went from gathering evidence to prep for notification in one day! It's a long story and I won't bore with those details, but let's just say that I have been very impressed with the attitudes of all the  personnel at the upper levels of the VBA that I've recently dealt with. It was a breath of fresh air. I'm imagine I just got lucky and Allison read my e-mail, i'm sure she gets far too many to actually read them all. If anyone has a real issue with a claim being dealt with by Winston-Salem that is frustrating them send me a message, Ms. Rawls has given me here blessing to share her contact info. Like Ms. Hickey, Ms. Rawls truly wants to help vets.

Congratulations!

Congratulations, highoctane, smart move emailing Allison Hickey, and best wishes for you and your family.

The VA problems will NEVER be completely fixed.  It suffers from all the myriad issues related to bureaucratic organizations, and has serious problems related to costs and funding. The situation starts with policy concerning war funding. and goes on from there.  As a nation, we no longer can afford many things that have been taken for granted in the past.
We no longer have an industrial base that basically won WWII. Our cities are falling apart. Our transportation systems are in dire straits. It's estimated that one percent or so of the world's population own about 50% of the wealth and resources. Our health care systems are much less than they should be , and at a higher ever increasing cost.
All we can hope for is that the most glaring problems are reduced, and hopefully in the near term..
 

Very happy for your win!
Good on ya for taking the initiative and not just accepting the status quo - you deserve better and your success is an encouragement to us all!

Claim was completed and the rating commensurate with my C&P exam was granted! This now qualifies as a success story lol. That might be a record for moving from gathering evidence to complete...less than 24 hours?

What I would say is if you e-mail her put something compelling in the subject line and carefully think out your e-mail. Again, I am sure she does not have time to respond to all the emails she gets. I had actually emailed her months ago and didn't get any response. But that email was not well thought and composed..it was borne of frustration. I'm sure it read like many other rant e-mails she probably gets everyday, I was very frustrated. I was not belligerent, but I also wasn't articulate in that first e-mail. Be smart. Only contact Ms. Hickey when you feel that there is really an issue that you feel she should be aware of with how your claim was handled. Be able to articulate details with respect to how the claim was or is being mishandled. She and the upper level VBA management do really seem to care. Often though hands are tied by legalease and the federal government. Most if not ALL of the "roadblocks" that we as veterans face are put in place by powers higher than the VBA..the VBA employees are often just following orders and following procedures. As we all know S rolls down hill..nothing is different here..the VBA employees are taking the brunt of our frustrations but they are just doing so under orders, to shield real culprits..the politicians in our federal government. They do not like it any more than we do.

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this...my claim isn't complete just yet, so I don't really know if I was successful. BUT I thought I needed to share this, regardless of what the decision is, I got some relief from the frustration of dealing with the "system". I e-mailed Allison Hickey a couple of weeks ago about a claim that was denied for "no clinical diagnosis" when it was well documented in my military service treatment records. It was my main contention, and I was dumbfounded as to how it could be denied. She returned my E-mail and CC'd the RO (Winston Salem) director, Ms. Rawls. She said she would have the claim reviewed. Shortly thereafter Ms. Rawls e-mailed me and said one of here team members would be contacting me soon. That happened today, a Mr. Heliman from Winston-Salem RO contacted me and we spend a good amount of time going over my claim. He was very professional and patient and poured over all of the details, and let's just say things are now quickly moving in the right direction. My reconsideration claim went from gathering evidence to prep for notification in one day! It's a long story and I won't bore with those details, but let's just say that I have been very impressed with the attitudes of all the  personnel at the upper levels of the VBA that I've recently dealt with. It was a breath of fresh air. I'm imagine I just got lucky and Allison read my e-mail, i'm sure she gets far too many to actually read them all. If anyone has a real issue with a claim being dealt with by Winston-Salem that is frustrating them send me a message, Ms. Rawls has given me here blessing to share her contact info. Like Ms. Hickey, Ms. Rawls truly wants to help vets.

Thank you eagle1012004. Everyone one from the VBA who I actually got to speak to after Ms. Hickey got the ball rolling was extremely helpful, and I do not think it was entirely because they were scrambling to appease the Under Secretary...they seemed truly concerned. The problem to me seems to be with how we can communicate with the VA, there is a major disconnect with communication. Here is my personal opinion, the VA is over run right now, and has been over run for years...the Federal Govt focused all it's effort on sending troops to war and supporting operations abroad but failed to plan for the aftermath and has repeated this process since at least Vietnam...the VA leadership is expected to just make it work with what they are given, when what they are given isn't enough(to vets this should sound familiar).  They are drowning and we are paying for it, as are the VA employees who try to make the best of what they have to work with and know they are fighting a loosing battle. Maybe one of these years we will elect some leadership who will actually fix the problem at the root...but I am not going to hold my breath. In the mean time, it is on us to fight for what we are entitled to by law...
 

Claim was completed and the rating commensurate with my C&P exam was granted! This now qualifies as a success story lol. That might be a record for moving from gathering evidence to complete...less than 24 hours?

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this...my claim isn't complete just yet, so I don't really know if I was successful. BUT I thought I needed to share this, regardless of what the decision is, I got some relief from the frustration of dealing with the "system". I e-mailed Allison Hickey a couple of weeks ago about a claim that was denied for "no clinical diagnosis" when it was well documented in my military service treatment records. It was my main contention, and I was dumbfounded as to how it could be denied. She returned my E-mail and CC'd the RO (Winston Salem) director, Ms. Rawls. She said she would have the claim reviewed. Shortly thereafter Ms. Rawls e-mailed me and said one of here team members would be contacting me soon. That happened today, a Mr. Heliman from Winston-Salem RO contacted me and we spend a good amount of time going over my claim. He was very professional and patient and poured over all of the details, and let's just say things are now quickly moving in the right direction. My reconsideration claim went from gathering evidence to prep for notification in one day! It's a long story and I won't bore with those details, but let's just say that I have been very impressed with the attitudes of all the  personnel at the upper levels of the VBA that I've recently dealt with. It was a breath of fresh air. I'm imagine I just got lucky and Allison read my e-mail, i'm sure she gets far too many to actually read them all. If anyone has a real issue with a claim being dealt with by Winston-Salem that is frustrating them send me a message, Ms. Rawls has given me here blessing to share her contact info. Like Ms. Hickey, Ms. Rawls truly wants to help vets.

Congratulations on your win!!
I too, have contacted Ms. Hickey and my claim completed in 3 days!! I agree with you, if you send a thoughtful email to Ms. Hickey or even to Sec. Mcdonald they seem willing to get things going.
Again....congratulations on your win!!
All the best to you and your family.!!

Yes it is a great success!...Congratulations Buddy.
 
..............Buck

Congratulations

high octane,
Good to hear you had a positive experience.  Undersecretary Hickey has a good record of responding to requests for assistance from veterans in a timely manner, including several Hadit members.  Her efforts have frequently resulted in positive outcomes for the veterans.  I hope the same holds true in your case.
Semper Fi,
GP