Navyguy2013

How long does it take for VA disability Back pay to be deposited into my bank?
It should be around 80k. They also have to adjust my retirement pay as I was at 10%, now 90%, so they have been reducing my retirement pay by $133 per month for about a year. I received my 90% decision letter a week ago.

I just wanted to share. So far it seems my email to the VA secretary about my 4 year old NOD has produced no actual results. I emailed the VA secretary about my NOD over 2 months ago. I got a call from the RO office about a month after that. The guy on the phone was pleasant. He told me I was getting the call from him because of my email to the VA secretary and that my claim was pretty old. He had already assigned my claims to a female claims officer and they had most of my C&P exams. He also told me to expect results in about 30 days as this was a VA Secretary Inquiry case. After the phone call I faxed in all of my C&P exams.

Fast forward 40 days, I get another phone call from the same guy, going through a carbon copy of what he said the first time, almost word for word. I did not interrupt him as I wanted to see if this was another BS session.  He said they would assign a claims officer soon, and that they had gotten all of my C&P exams. Odd that they got all of my exams on the same day I had to send them to them. These exams are in the VA system, yet it seems they cannot get them all by themselves. I reminded him of our first conversation, and asked him what happened to the first claims officer that was assigned to my claims. He gave me no good answer. So, I am not very confident that my email to the VA secretary really did anything. I think the RO office is just going to call me every so often giving me a BS story, and my NOD will just languish as it would have without my email being sent. Well, at least the VA is consistent…

It is strange that it takes a longer period of time for the VA to process a NOD than it does to have a civilian go to a MEPS station, join the NAVY, go through boot camp, undergo background checks, go through NAVY SEAL training, and then complete a deployment in Afghanistan.
The military can take a civilian and make them a full up round in less time than it takes to make a NAVY SEAL.
Just saying....

I am working on a letter/email to send to the VA secretary about my 700+ day NOD via a "de novo" review by a Decision Review Officer (DRO). Below is a draft of what I would like to send to him. I was hoping this group could give me a sanity check to make sure this will achieve the desired effect.(Speed up the process and get my claims approved at the appropriate %). Oh, and if you can't tell, I suck at writing and the proper use of the English language.

NOTE: I plan on sending this via email and registered mail, include in the registered mail I plan on sending in data that is not appearing in my VA records. I have sent this data in to the VA in the past, but the nurse who did my last C&P looked at the data I brought with me to the exam, and said that data was not in my VA records, and she told me to ensure it got into my records. I also plan on sending copies of this letter (Not the other data) to the people cc’ed at the end of this letter.

Does the below letter look good, any suggestions?

Should I include my full SSN and date of birth?

Should I include copies of supplemental VA Claim evidence previously sent to VA.  300 pages of data.

NOTE: If this letter looks good, and that is a big if, maybe others could use this as a template for their letters to the VA secretary.
03/11/2017

Dear Secretary Shulkin,

I write you today to bring attention to and to ask for assistance in resolving several VA disability claims I have submitted that have not been resolved in over 4 years (1460+ days).  As far as I know, the Baltimore MD VA regional office is who is handling my disability claims. I normally like to keep issues such as this at their lowest level. But keeping things at their lowest level does not seem to be working in this case. This is why I am contacting you. I was hoping you could provide some assistance in having my VA disability claims resolved in a timely manner. I assume 4+ years for a VA disability claim, and 700+ days on a NOD via a "de novo" review by a Decision Review Officer (DRO) is longer than the average time. 

On 02/28/2013 I retired from the USN after 24 years of active duty.  I filed my VA disability claims on 03/01/2013. The VA denied all of my VA disability claims on 03/19/2014. The denial letter I received from the VA explained the primary reason for the denial of my VA disability claims was because I failed to report to my VA examinations. I was NEVER informed of any examinations, so I could not show up to these examinations.

For months I tried to figure out what to do about my disability claims being denied. On 03/01/2015, I finally figured it out and I filed a NOD via a "de novo" review by a Decision Review Officer (DRO). According to eBenefits, my NOD has sat unchanged and idle for over 700+ days (last update 03/17/2015). I have called the VA’s 1800#; they are unable to provide any status updates to my NOD’s. I did receive notice of several C&P exams concerning these disability claims, and these C&P exams were conducted in JAN2017. I did go to all of these exams. I assumed having C&P exams scheduled meant my claims were progressing, but I cannot get confirmation on this from anyone. 700+ days seems to be a long time for this process.

My C&P exams were performed by LHI, not by the VA. I brought a binder with me to the C&P exams. I gave this binder to the Nurse performing the C&P exam just in case she wanted paper copies or needed additional data on my claims. This binder had a timeline and overlay of my VA disability claims, copies of pertinent files from my Service Medical Record, and pertinent medical records from civilian sources. Previous to these C&P exams, I had sent all of this data to the VA, both by FAX and by mail, and by certified mail. The data I sent to the VA contained supporting data of my disabilities since I had retired from active duty.

During the C&P exams, the LHI nurse asked me several times if all of the data in this binder had been sent to the VA. I told her yes. She told me that much of the data in my binder was not in the VA files and to ensure I re-send all of this data to the VA. She stressed it to me several times, it was important that all of the data in my binder was needed in my VA file for my disability claims. Again, much of the supplemental medical data I had sent to the VA over the years was NOT in the VA system.

The fact the Nurse told me much of the data I had sent to the VA, and the fact I cannot verify what the VA has in my data file worries me on how successful my disability claims will be. Apparently the VA does not have all of my supporting data, and my disability claims may be rejected without this supporting data being available in the claims decision process. I have sent this data in to the VA several times, but I have never been able to obtain verification if all of this data was received by the VA, or if this data ever made it into my C-file. And as my claims are in a NOD status, I cannot upload any data into these claims via eBenefits. 

Over the years, I have sent in several requests to obtain copies of my C-file. So far, I have received no reply of any kind on my requests for a copy of my C-file. End result, I cannot see what is, and what is not in my VA record concerning my disability claims. And my disability claims may be rejected, or degraded because the VA cannot see this data.

I also cannot seem to get a copy of my C&P exams performed by LHI. My C&P exams were completed on 01/06/2017 and 01/11/2017. I called the VA’s 1800# to verify the C&P exams were in the VA system, they said they were in the system. I sent several requests to the VA (VA Intake center, and Baltimore VA office) and to LHI requesting copies of these C&P exams on 01/17/2017. I received a reply from the VA on this request on 03/08/2017. The reply from the VA said to expect copies of my C&P exams anywhere from 09/28/2018 to 11/27/2019. I find it difficult to believe; that data that is currently in the VA system, but yet the estimated length of time for this data to be sent to me is 1.5 to 2.7 years from the date of request.

I appreciate any and all assistance you can provide with resolving my VA disability claims.

Sincerely,

NAME

SSN

ADDRESS

PHONE NUMBER

EMAIL


Enclosure: Copies of supplemental VA Claim evidence previously sent to VA.

 
cc:
david.j.shulkin@va.gov

President Donald J. Trump

House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Chairman Phil Roe

Acting Under Secretary for Benefits, Thomas J. Murphy

For identification reasons, should my letter to the VA Secretary contain my full social security number?

I hate sending so many people my Personal Identifiable Information (PII).

I plan on sending this letter via email, and certified snail mail.


 
Should I also send letters to the below people?


---------------------------------------------------------------------- House Committee on Veterans' Affairs

 335 Cannon House Office Building

 Washington, D.C. 20515

Chairman Phil Roe


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Acting Under Secretary for Benefits

Thomas J. Murphy


 ------------------------------------------------------------------
President Donald J. Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500


 ------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a start to the letter/s


 
The Honorable Dr. David J . Shulkin 

Secretary Department of Veterans Affairs

Veterans Administration Central Office

810 Vermont Avenue,  NW

Washington DC  20420

Dear Secretary Shulkin,


 
I write you today to bring attention to and to ask for assistance in resolving several of my VA disability claims that have not been resolved in over 4 years (1460+ days).

Thank you to everyone for all of your help on this site.
I don't want to re-invent the wheel. Does anyone have an example of a successful letter or email that was sent to the VA Secretary? I want my correspondence to be effective, not too short, or to contain too much data.

Thank you to everyone for all of your help on this site.
I don't want to re-invent the wheel. Does anyone have an example of a successful letter or email that was sent to the VA Secretary? I want my correspondence to be effective, not too short, or to contain too much data.

My NOD was filed March of 2014, still no movement or changes in Ebenefits on it.  That's over 700 days, and counting.

Gastone,

Thanks for the feedback.
I filed my claim FEB2013. (Yep, 24+ years in USN) This Claim was denied in 2014. The VA denied my claim for failure to show up for my C&P. But they never contacted me about my C&P, go figure. So I submitted my NOD. Then 30DEC2016 the VA contacted me about a new C&P.

I did get a complete copy of my SMR. I did get a brief about VA benefits and how to go about some of the VA processes.

This Sleep apnea is just one of my medical issues in my VA Claim. I am just trying to get my ducks in a row as confidence in the VA’s ability is low. So I figure its best to try and help them out…

I have a NOD pending with the VA. (My claim was denied for not showing up for my C&P exam, I was never notified of my exam). One of the disabilities in this NOD is for Sleep Apnea. While still on active duty, I had a sleep study and was diagnosed with having apneas and hypopneas with heavy snoring. But I was not diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea; I did not quite meet the AHI threshold for OSA. The test was only 4 hours long, as the sleep lab had a power outage and they stopped the test 4 hours into my sleep study. After I retired, I had another sleep study and 1 year and 1 month after I had retired, I was diagnosed with mild obstructive sleep apnea and I had a CPAP machine prescribed to me, (No power outage this time). Should I try and contact past shipmates to write a “buddy letter” stating they heard me snoring and appearing to stop breathing? My service record medical file shows where I complain of not sleeping well, feeling tired in the day, memory in a fog, and my wife complaining of my heavy snoring. Should this amount of data be enough to be granted service connection and have my claim approved?