broncovet

30 days for everyone else = 8 months for VA It took me 8 months for me to get my records, and I suspect its longer now.

This is par for the course at the VA. Most likely, there was shredded evidence, or not considered evidence. I would like you to tell your story to Southern Belle..she is making a youtube/cnn video to help other Veterans, and this outrage should bring home the point the extremes the VA goes to to deny Veterans claims. Some people on hadit are very articulate and good writers, so maybe one of them would even help tell your story. I already like it.

I was prescribed this and I took it for a while. My VA Psych doc said it was mood stabelizer, but I didnt think the drug did all that much for me, so I discontinued it. My wife takes it now, and she gets headaches all the time. I took this with Wellbutrin 150 mg. For me, the possible side effects, coupled with the low/no results was the deciding factor for me to discontinue this med.

Ok..the VA Life Insurance department runs way more efficiently than C and P, probably because the life insurance division is profitable, and is run more like a private company. What you are referring to is called "Waiver of Premiums". Waiver of Premiums means, that if you become "fully disabled", while the policy is in force, the VA will pay your life insurance premiums for as long as you are disabled. Remember, if you met the guidelines, you had a recent VARO decision granting you disability, and that you probably are eligible for waiver of premiums. I have found it relatively fast and easy to get this waiver of premiums, tho they wont consider this until you life insurance is IN FORCE, that is, you apply for life insurance, it is "underwritten" and they determine if you meet the guidelines. If you do, they then "issue" you a policy. If you do not meet underwriting guidelines, your life insurance is declined. It took me only a couple weeks to get my waiver of premiums after the policy was issued..and, they waived them from day one. The C and P could learn a lot from VA Life Insurance..if it was ran like that department, there would be very few Veteran complaints, and probably no need for appeals. VA Life Insurance is approved (or declined) in less than 2 months, and more likely, about 2-3 weeks. Life Insurance can look at your medical records online, and render a decision in minutes, while C&P takes months or years to do the same thing with paper records. It is quick and painless..medical evidence does not get lost. If you dont put your social security number on your application, it will be "bounced back" as incomplete. Once they get your SSN, they can look at your complete medical record and easily determine if you meet the underwriting requirements or not, including, whether or not you qualify for Waiver of Premiums. Just be patient, and you will get a waiver probably within 2 or 3 weeks, and you can cancel your life insurance if VA wont pay for it. In Ohio, insurance applicants get a "30 day free look" at their life insurance policy. That is, you can apply for life insurance, get a policy that is in force, read it and return in in 29 days and pay nothing. If you died within that 29 day "free look" period, your beneficiaries would still be paid the full amount of the life insurance except in the case of suicide. All insurance policies have a 2 year exclusion on suicide. That is, you cant run out and get a million dollar policy, then off yourself so your family has money. You have to wait until the policy is in force 2 years. If you offed yourself in the first 2 years, your family would get virtually nothing..probably a return of premiums paid.

luvhim With all due respect at our RO in Cleveland the only thing that takes a week is for the employees to visit the water cooler. Everything else is measured in months or years. I agree it should take a week to revoke the POA, however, since I have been struggling to get dependents benefits for 7 years, and it is still not right, I am thinking it will take a year or so for them to straighten out the POA. It took me about 8 months just to get a copy of my Cfile..there should be no "decision" in this..it should simply be an $10 per hour Government worker capable of operating a copy machine. Oops, that would require an employee who can read, which means a minimum of $60,000 per year, and, of course, they would need to form a committee to determine if Veteran X deserved his C file copied..what he would do if they didn't do it, and what Veteran X could do with his C file when he gets it. Then, they would calculate how many times they can "loose" his FOI form before he gets mad enough to call his senators office, and if his senator would do anything. They would then "test" the committee on whether or not Veteran Jones deserved his C file copied, by first "loosing" his request. After it was resubmitted 2 or 3 times, the committee would make a recommendation to the board that the Veteran is serious about getting his or her C file. After an appropriate wait time, the committe would then render a final decision on whether or not the Veteran was "worthy" of a C file, after carefully weighing their options. Then, without further ado, the committe would "loose" the request one last time, and wait for the Veterans complaints. If no complaints..whew..it was over. If the Veteran complained "Where is my Cfile" one more time, then the Veterans C file would be sent..to his old discarded address, of course. Assuming the post office would return it in a few weeks, they would then direct a $10 employee to reforward the Veterans C file to his current address: The minimum time for this "process" would be 8 months, and could run into indefinately. They would then all get bonuses for good Veterans Service, and write this procedure into the manual so it could be repeated next year, for other Veterans.

The "benefit sought" is in dispute, largely due to shredded documents. Of course, The RO contends the Veteran sought "merely hearing loss", and hus a minimum of benefits. However, I have a letter sent with the application explaining that the hearing loss caused me to fail a physical, which resulted in termination of employment. I further stated, " The bottom line is that I have a hearing loss (from military service) and have not been able to get a job." The medical evidence shows that SC hearing loss led to depression and TDIU. My contention is that when a Veteran seeks benefits, he is seeking the maximum..not the minimum. That is, how many people when applying for a job, are seeking the lowest possible wage? Is it not true that people, when they are applying for something, are seeking the maximum benefit? JMHO

Very well, I will offer my two cents worth: 1. In the case you cited, the Veteran had a medical diagnosis of depression secondary to tinnitus. If your C and P doc also offers a similar opinion, then you should see a similar result. That being said, RO results are very inconsistent across the board. According to a recent AG report, The RO understates their error rate by 10%...rembering that these numbers consider only "decided" cases. If you also consider that the VA never decides a lot of cases..the Veteran either abandons his claim or dies..this error rate is considerably worse than even the AG reports, as shredded claims, unopened claims, secretly denied claims, abandoned claims, and deceased Veterans with pending claims would all increase the VARO error rates. Also, in at least one RO (New YOrk) the RO was faking dates..and had been doing so for years. So, if they faked dates to make their numbers look better, why would they not fake error rates as well? In a nutshell, theory suggests that if you have similar circumstances, you can expect a similar result. However, in actuallity, the RO error rate, considering all the above, is about 50% (my number..not the AG's). The bottom line is that you have about a fifty percent chance of your decision being wrong, even if you have a good diagnosis. However, before you have any chance of winning your claim, you first have to win the diagnosis. I am unaware of in the entire history of the world a Veteran ever being awarded benefits without a medical diagnosis. It would appear the error rate would go both ways..both in favor of the Veteran and not favoring the Veteran..however, it never works that way. The favor the Veteran rule is about like the "no sex before marriage rule"..it almost never happens nowadays.

The RO disobeyed the BVA judges order in my case, by "interpreting away" the judges order. The BVA judge awarded a "complete grant of benefit sought" which the RO "interpreted" to mean zero percent of one of the benefits sought, and to simply ignore all the other "benefits sought". When I filed a NOD, the RO "interpreted" my NOD as a claim for benefits. This is just one example of where the RO can "blow off" the BVA judge if they so desire. Another, more common way is by remands. The BVA judge remands the decision to the RO, the RO denies, the BVA remands again..the RO denies again..you can play that remand game for life. If the RO wants to deny you, there is nothing the BVA or anyone else can do. There is no accountability on the RO level, so they do what they please and dont worry about who it offends.

If you think you are confused now, you will be more confused once you apply for VA benefits. I applied back in 2002, and the VA tells us it is a six month wait. That would put us to 2003. This is 2009, six years after that, and I still have received only partial benefits in spite of a successfull appeal which awarded me "A complete grant of benefit sought". And if you think I am confused, you should go to the Cleveland Regional Office. I complained to the VA Office of Inspector General in December of last year because of shredded documents. The OIG sent me a letter to contact the VARO about my shredded documents. The RO says they dont know anything about the VAOIG notice...the RO in Cleveland only understands 3 things: 1. It is not the fault of the RO..it must be the VEterans fault. 2. If not possible to deny the claim right away, delay it until the Veteran gives up or dies. 3. IN all other circumstances, deny the claim quickly to keep your numbers under six months. 4. Cover up any thing else, and award bonuses for good service to Veterans. (Yea, I know I said three, that is why they are covering up the 4th one.)

I would like to add that just because the Va does build a hospital there, does not guarntee that Vets will been seen by a physician in a timely manner. Example: I live in Ohio, and needed the medical services of an orthopedist. I was told the wait is a minimum of a year, and that I have to be put on a waiting list to be called to try to get an appointmenent in a year. Bottom LIne: The VA wont offer enough compensation to attract top quality physician specialists, such as ortho. Veterans suffer, the VA wins. A couple years ago the VA was supposed to schedule an appointment for the Veteran within 30 days. First of all, if you are contemplating suicide, you could be dead in 30 days..its far, far too long. Secondly, the VA does NOT hold to this policy, it is second to the money issue. They would rather the Veteran wait a year for an appointment than to pay the doctor ten dollars an hour more, so they can recruit more doctors.

NaNa Unfortunately, there is no accountability for the VA..they can do anything they want, to as many Veterans as they want, for as long as they want and still award themselves bonuses, and that is why they do exactly that..because they can. If your decision awarding you 40% was within the past 12 months, you can file a Notice of Disagreement, based on the fact you feel entilted to an Earlier Effective DAte. That is, you can ask them for "back pay" through all this time. If you have not already filed a NOD, then make sure you do it before the one year expires, because, after that, you have to meet a higher standard, Clear Unmistakable Error. It is in your best interest to file a NOD within the one year time frame. You will also want to weigh wether a lawyer, VSO, or neither would be in your best interest.

For my two cents worth, I want to see the VA lawyers get paid AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE as quickly as possible, because more lawyers will enter VA cases and force the VA to do what they should already be doing. It is a shame we have to have lawyers, but there is a whole industry of Social Security lawyers, which is massively larger than lawyers who represent Veterans. If there is money in it, the lawyers will come. I spoke with a lawyer about 3 months ago who told me he used to represent Veterans but quit because it just took too long to get his money. As far as I know there are dozens and dozens of Social Security lawyers in my local area in Ohio, but I know of only ONE who practices VA law here.

I feel very comfortable recommending any Vet who thinks they may have Hep C or B, go to the website below. I have spoken with this Veteran..he is an expert on HeP C VA claims, and he will help you till the cows come home to win your claim. I suggest you go to the webisite, ask a question and take his advice: http://hcvets.com/AskNOD/index.html

My son lives in "the Valley"..south Texas. It is a very unique place. Its proximity to Mexico is important. My son told me he ordered a meal and the clerk did not speak English..which was no problem for him, since he is bilingual. If you do go to "the Valley" dont be real suprised to find that English is a second language. It is one of the fastest growing areas of the country..it has very heavy migration from Mexico, and it is still very warm, like Mexico. It could well be that a VA hospital is justified in "the VAlley" because it has had huge population (including Veteran) growth over the past two years and the VA "survey" is way out of date. If there were 45,000 Vets there two years ago, there could be 60,000 or more now. I would guess the VA is all about money. So, if it costs them more to pay the transportation costs, then they will likely build a VA hospital there. Otherwise, "the Valley" Veterans will have to do like all other Veterans: Choose between locating near a VA hospital, or driving. That is what we all have to do. I havent seen the VA advertise, "If they build it, they will come".

I have had a VSO make calls to the RO for me..he has phone numbers I cant get..that are NOT the call center. I have also heard of Vets, who have an excellent VSO, say to the effect that they first found out they were denied or approved by the VSO. I am certain, however, that is not always the case. I think this would be a good question to ask a potential VSO, and would suggest you "shop around". One critical issue is how successful they are at representing you at the BVA. Berta can even tell you how to look up that information. Some guys think they know more than what they do. I see this very frequently with computers and/ or the game of chess. And they mess both of them up. Really smart, successfull people realize they dont know it all and surround themselves with people knowledgeable on issues they are weak on. Frankly, since you are not sure, I vote that you get a VSO. If you are really, really confident that you know more than 4 or 5 of your VSO's, like, say, Berta, then you are ready to go it alone. Otherwise, maybe you should just sit in the co pilots seat, and take over the controls only if the pilot blows it.

CVSP The line between DAV and VSO can get murky. For example, my VSO is an employee of the county government. The VSO operates with the VFW or DAV. There are also VSO's who represent, and are paid for by the DAV National, for example. If you are in doubt, ASK your VSO. IMHO, the issue of whether a DAV representative will help you or not would depend on your level of knowledge. If you had never filed a Veterans claim, and had little/no experience, my vote would be you should get a DAV or other VSO, pronto. However, if you have been reading hadit for 3 years, and you are an expert, say, like Berta, then the DAV would probably be of little use to you, and may even slow or hinder your efforts. The "grey area" is in the middle somewhere. For me, even tho I have read hadit for a good year or so, and can maneuver around USC 38 a little, I still have a VSO because there is no guarntee that he may know something I dont. However, just because my VSO says "jump" that does not mean I will respond with "how high". Recently, I have been feeling that a VSO is unnecessary, however, he has saved and resubmitted some forms that the RO lost, with little effort and no cost on my part. If you are in one of the "shreddergate" RO's...(Cleveland, New York, Detroit, or St. Pete), then you will probably have to submit each document multiple times to get it to "stick" before they quit shredding it. If you are in one of these "Terrible 4" RO's, then having a VSO to send your documents sometimes 7 or 8 times, could save you some money on postage and envelopes. Bottom Line: You decide. I would like to add that some VSO's are actually counter productive. They sometimes tell a Vet to forget it, that he cant win this or that. I say that is bull. Only you and your doctor are qualified to determine your level of disability, and not a VSO. This or that VSO should not be "screening" you out, at least not until he has read every single one of your doctors reports. JMHO

Jim and Pilgrim are right...it should not be that long of time when retiring from the military. However, my experience with the VA RO's is that it takes exactly as long as the RO wants it to take, and the RO has no accountability even if it takes ten or more years, whether you are retired military, a widow, or you just served 4. The VA does not play favorites, they treat disabled Vets, widows, retired military, with equal disrespect, especially if they think you are trying to maybe make them show some accountability or, heaven forbid, try to get them to improve Veterans service. As I have mentioned in other posts, some Veterans claims have been delayed for MORE THAN 3 DECADES. I personally met a Veteran with an obvious disability who has been fighting with the VA since 1973 to award him benefits. He has contacted his congressman, but that may actually slow his claim down, if that is possible.

Did I miss something here? A Decision Review Officer that disses you because you are not represented by a Veterans Service Officer? There is a policy somewhere that states that Veterans are to be treated with the utmost care and respect, even if the Veteran is obnoxious. I really can not see how the DRO can refuse to serve you because you represent yourself legally. You pay taxes, this is part of our government, and I am not sure he can refuse service to a Veteran for any reason except, perhaps, if you threaten him with violence.

I got a decision on Jan. 13, 2004, and I am still waiting, so you can probably expect another 5 to 10 years, realistically to get your check. The VA is the slowest moving thing on earth. Dont hold your breath for anything, be suprised if/when it comes. Some get it sooner than me.

I am allowing my story knowing that the VA will MOST CERTAINLY retaliate on me AGAIN. They will punish me to get others to stop. I am sure the retaliation will be in the form of more delays, reductions in benefits, denials, etc. I know this because the Cleveland RO has already done this: I filed a Writ of Mandamus in 2007, because the RO in Cleveland ignored my 2004 NOD, excessive delay, and never filed a SOC. The RO manager in Cleveland retaliated against me in testimony to the CAVC. (IN the Secretary's response to my Writ) She claimed that my NOD was "interpreted as a claim for benefits", and that my complaints about a 5 year delay were unjustified because "mere passage of time, though frustrating to the Veteran," did not justify a writ, and then cited some case law, that basically says they can delay my claim indefinitely! A few months later my benefits were reduced without the 60 day required notice, that is, my Pension was terminated. They also manipulated my benefit dates to deny my dependent benefits prior to 2006. Oh, and yes, I am considering publishing the Writ, and maybe the Secretary's response..on hadit, along with later decisions which retaliated and reduced my benefits, just to show, yes they can and do retaliate! If the Cleveland RO Retaliates on me again, (because I am still getting 40%) this time I am ready for BEAR! I wont put up with it any more!

Congrats, CG up!

CVSP Great idea..do you know how to contact Lou Dobbs? If you want to contribute to our cause, then by all means contact the media..the public needs to know how the VA treats Veterans.

It does not matter to me if you want to take the "F" part out. Go ahead. If it will help Veterans, by all means do it. However, it is not slander to say that you are giving the VA an "F" in service. This is America, and, Thanks to our millions of Veterans who sacrificed their life and limb for it, WE do have an absolute right to voice our opinion about our government/elected officials. It is called free speech. And If I want to give the VA an "F", and you want to give them another grade, then so be it. Neither CBS News, nor www.vawatchdog.org nor many other organizations or individuals are always complimentary toward our government. It is the right of every American to express displeasure with the government. In Sadaam Hussein's Regime, if you voiced displeasure with his policies, he simply killed you. Thank God for America, and American Veterans that I can say this without fear. I think it is clear that letter grade is my opinion, and does not necessarily express the view point of all hadit members or all Americans. It is my opinion only..tho I do think there are plenty who would agree. Slander would be if I made a statement about someone (not our government) that was false. However, I am entilted to express an opinion, in this case a letter grade, about a government agencies service.

Belle Awesome! I posted a "possible" script, but is there another one you did? I am sure that most Vets story is better than mine, but let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Let me know the link of the script you are considering (if its not the one I posted), as I would love to read it. Did you like the one I posted? Tbird indicated in a post she didnt know if she had time to "approve" the script, so I guess she is leaving that up to us. The way I understand it, hadit is not ENDORSING your video, but has approved its mention of www.hadit.com . Someone (tbird?) please correct me if I am wrong. I am, like you, seeking feedback from hadit members on what you guys want in the video..if its alright with Tbird, I would love it if you would do the video, post in on hadit, let us look at it, then we hadit members/Veterans/widows could hopefully offer constructive critique on how to maybe edit it and improve it before posting on youtube/cnn.

Purple.... Unfortunately, you are right about the VA delays..be they electronic or paper claims. They can delay em indefinitely. We would be able to better track these delays online, however, and locate and maybe fix the bottleneck. I wonder how long those 16,000 unopened pieces of mail remained in the Detroit RO before anyone "noticed". However, like it or not, our medical records are already online..this is not the issue. The doc puts our prescriptions online and we don't get any paper records of it. This enables Veterans to order their med. refills online, if they so desire. This is especially convenient for rural Veterans, especially the ones who dont get around well. The VA is far ahead of many private hospitals, many of which have not converted to electronic medical records yet. At least one, that I know of, plans on converting medical records online similar to the VA. Often the elderly can not remember which medications they are on and the doctor needs that information if the patient is seeing multiple doctors. At the VA, because it is done electronically, you have a better chance of not being prescribed conflicting medications because each doctor can tell at a glance which meds you are on and does not have to rely on the patients memory, or paper records, which may be in another town. If people want to hack your medical records, they do not need to wait until claims processing goes online..they can do that now. What we are referring to to the claim process being paper. Of course, our claims decisions are also online, and BVA appeals are online. Most of us also get payment online, and not by check. You are safer to get an electronic deposit than a paper check, because theives love government checks, but find it much easier to steal a paper check than to try to hack an online payment system secured by 256 bit encryption. By converting Claim processing from paper to electronic, documents can be transferred in seconds instead of weeks. With all our medical records already online, we would not be exposed to any more hacking than before, it just would speed up the process, since detailed information is already available online to medical professionals and anyone able to hack into the VA system, borrow a VA laptop for the weekend, or look in any one of the thousands of cubby holes where VA employees store unopened mail.