Rivet62

Things run more smoothly now that I have a VA primary care doctor and outside referrals are not a problem. An outside primary care doctor and referrals just causes their heads to explode.

Smart. Lead by the nose. They're busy after all.

Right. The providers have to be in the network. It's like the onus is on you to be sure they are. So when a referring physician on the outside wants to make a referral to another specialist that when it's best to call care in the community scheduling imho. I think it also depends on hospital system differences as to what you'll encounter in the CC authorization protocol. Maddening I know. Yeah. I ran into that. The trouble happened for me when my outside primary care doctor made a referral to an outside anesthesiologist for an epidural pain block, and then the anesthesiologist made a referral to an allergist to be sure I wasn't allergic to what he was about to inject for the nerve block. After a few months everyone realized that allergies are not within the scope of an anesthesiologist to request and so my outside primary care doctor had to make the allergy referral on behalf of my anesthesiologist. Things begin to break down the farther down the path you go in the CC authorization. It seems like they are not set-up to enable pathways of authorization stemming from the original authorization. I am now in a CBOC and life has got quite a bit easier.

Try Patient Advocacy at your VAMC. If they can't help you then take the matter to the executive office of the VAMC. Try those two things. Executive office likes to market their effectiveness in PR campaigns, large resounding pats on their own backs...your situation would not look good...so the executive office is sure to get to the bottom of it.

Yeah. That really affected my physical therapy as well my chiropractic. Really I just gave up and got into a CBOC, not only for continuity of care but because the MyHealth eVet messaging system is golden for vets disability claims.

Yeah. But not only the healthcare that changes all the time, but every single blasted thing a veteran does or has to do with the VA changes all the time. This is evident in simply the speed at which extension numbers change at a VAMC (that's why they don't publish extensions or provide new patients with extensions because what's the point) and everything a vet relies on the both the VHA and VBA also changes, all the time. Once a vet learns to deal with things one way, they quickly switch it. The final resting place is the VA cemetery system, and there's probably no rest there either for all the changes. Actually I do too.

Report says "The OIG found that routine community care consults were unscheduled for an average of 42 days, not meeting VHA’s timeliness goal of 30 days." Ha! That's pretty lenient. Try MONTHS.

You are spot on! I'll add to what you're saying here. I worked briefly at a VAMC interfacing with patients, and the sentiment from my own supervisor (who had worked at the VAMC for quite a long time) was that Community Care was yet just another wedge to pry open the VHA toward privatization. The way he expressed it is that, for years, there have been ongoing external pressures to privatize the VA from private interest groups who exert their way politically, similar to the pressure to privatize social security. I can say as a patient on the receiving end in the community care system that my outside primary care doctor would have to make multiple requests for authorizations so I could get to his referrals, and that it would take MONTHS each step of the way. It was nearly impossible really. This was recent, and it's not just about Covid because it was before Covid and it's not just about the transition from Tri-West to Optum because the crap was before that. And when Veterans Choice first started, years before, my providers were simply not getting paid and their contact number for billing was just a merry-go-round of an automated response system. Faster to drive your request in-person if they only provided an address to drive it to. The public facing excuse (or perhaps the matter is a real impediment) is that VHA benefits were never intended to function like health insurance, that the portability of vets health benefits is ad hoc at best.

I need to know that too. I sure hope Broncovet is OK. We haven't seen him around have we?

Hi Broken, is this the faster way to argue for the right effective date? Better than appealing it or asking for a higher level review? Seems like your way is faster.

Is the better way to argue for an effective date for TDIU? I thought it needed to go to an appeal. Seems like your suggestion is the faster way.

What is the proper way to attach additional pages to the TDIU request form (VA Form 21-8940)? My DAV VSO is saying use the VA Form 21-4187 (I may have written that form number wrong). I can't find that form number, but he called it a statement in support of the claim form. Which seems only to apply to lay statements. My problem is that my medical treatment history and my employment history exceeds the space on the TDIU form and it exceeds the Remarks section. I can make a note in the Remarks section that says see attached and give each attachment a title, one called Medical Treatment and another called Employment History but is this the best way to include information that the RO wants to see? Should I do that on blank pages of my own? Or is there a form to add pages to TDIU form 21-8940?

How did you reach them to get the email link? I don't see any way of contacting my VARO except to call Peggy.

I clicked on it and it took me to a text page for a URL shortener service. I backed the URL up to its domain name and it redirected to here: https://mobile.va.gov/ Maybe they're using this app now for all of VA. It's like a tease. They're laughing I'm sure.

How can this stand? The date you become unemployable should be the effective date? Why is VA looking to the previous year? I wonder if they would apply this to someone who is totally bed bound? There must be other considerations going on. Oh I see... reading through the case I see the Board's rationale. it's been distorted by RO dates of increases while simultaneously appealing to the Board. It appears, the Board kept the EED as of the date of the claim because the rating increases hadn't happened yet. I think it might be best for me to just submit an application for TDIU standing alone, without attempting increases. Get the TDIU first, then submit for increases on issues. That's what I think I'll do.

I never looked at it as an average, but that would be fun to calculate. Oh no wonder I haven't lived large. Mine comes out to $4,600 over 43 years. Fun times.

Thank you. I'm just going to print that whole link. As you know, my whole gripe with my attorney was not following the procedure for TDIU application and instead drawing it out to be argued as inferred. He even had the nerve to put the blame on the VARO for not considering TDIU in the NOD, when in fact all I (we) had to do was submit VA Form 21-8940. Well, he got the answer he was looking for because it sent the VARO on a fault-finding rampage (maybe... I'd like to think of it that way ) making him resubmit a VA Form 21-22a and rewritten fee agreements for every veteran he's working with, citing violations of 38 CFR 14.636 sections.

I'm going to miss ebenefits. I guess they're switching everything over to VA.gov so things are not like they should yet. EDITED: Deleted screenshots to save space on the server. Added link instructions below. Anyway, this is where I found mine: eBenefits Dashboard, click on Manage Your Benefits on the near bottom of the page >Click on Housing>Click on Certificate of Eligibility for Home Loan>Click on the View your COE link>you can view it or print it to PDF or an actual printer.

They probably don't have it but maybe it's worth a try. I think they're just glorified schedulers.

I'll bet you can get a copy, maybe, by calling whoever provided it (QTC or MSLA or whoever maybe).

I would like the VERA system to work, instead of throwing errors, to schedule a virtual appointment with my VARO. The San Diego VARO offers virtual appointments. How nice. https://benefits.va.gov/sandiego/ My VARO offers this, and the VERA page is the same. So, I guess no matter where they may be there's the VERA option. Nice if it worked. Has anyone gotten this to work? https://vets.force.com/VAVERA/s/

Any word on delayed RO notifications I wonder?

I wonder what else they could recalculate, maybe the botch job on my hearing docket? Not likely...sigh.

Deflect or delay.

Excellent. That will definitely be helpful because I'm asking for increases and it will be helpful to know.