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etcm
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Posts posted by etcm
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One year ago today (26 July, 2011) a big brown envelope from the VA arrived stating I was found to be 80% service connected and would receive $x,xxx per month. I thought great, I need the money and while I am working, it is getting difficult and I could use the financial assistance. I waited a few months and never received anything so I called and was told to be patient, sometimes it takes a few months, so I waited. 3 or 4 more months passed, again no money so I called again and was told the same thing, so I waited. Another 3 or 4 months passed and I called again, Peggy told me she had never seen anything like this and would get to the bottom of it. I called last week, same story, no new information but Peggy did say “ at least your retro is growing larger”, I am beyond tired of the situation.
My advice to all vets who receive the “big brown envelope and letter” do not count on, spend, expect or make any plans for your newly awarded funds until you have a check in hand or deposit into your account. Again, I thought I would have had this long, long ago and I am still waiting with no expectation of anything happening anytime soon.
Did you have an outstanding debt to pay? or did you receive a terminal payment from the service? If so, the VA could be holding back your award until the payment is made. Now retro is a different matter.
Are you saying that you are not receiving the monthly disability payment?
Or only retro payment?
I've corresponded with a lot of vets who are in the 6-month to over a year that are awaiting retro (I am at the 8-month mark myself) but I am a retiree and we are the ones that the VA is holding back on - even after the VA has received the DFAS audit.
The last thing is maybe they are sending the money to some old account they had on record? or maybe they do not have an address, or maybe an address they have is receiving the checks and a person their is glad to receive a monthly contribution.
If all else, now you can contact your elected officials too!
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I was medically discharged by the Army, my disability lowered to 10% & paid severance in 1977. I never knew
I was rated by the VA. I found out by accident 2 years ago when my wife lost her job & i applied for VA medical.
The RO claimed I didn't show up for a C&P in Aug 1977. I never had any contact with the VA at all until I went
there seeking medical treatment 2 years ago. They had 1 copy of no show exam in my cfile, but no other paperwork.
There is absolutely no paperwork of notices to reduce or sever service connection in my file. My thought is if it is a protected
rating then why is it not eligible for retro compensation.
Thanks for your time StreetWalker
Do you know if those requirements to inform/assist, etc. were in the law back in 1977? If not they might have severed you without notice.
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An average wait of 474 days, well that means the claims of the 30+ groups of vets who have priority status are much lower...and a regular vet that is not part of the priority groups is waiting a LOT LONGER.
And after you get that VA decision, (you won your claim) and they owe you thousands of dollars, they have no rules in place that make them pay you, no regulations to force them, no one accountable who will answer to our elected officials, so you wait and wait some more.
and VARO Indianapolis: well we get the government that We the People" deserve.
Fox News 59 reporting on VRO Indianapolis:
http://www.fox59.com...,1820800.column
http://www.fox59.com...-Hoosier-Heroes
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New info! DFAS paid a low 5-figure CRDP retro" amount on Jan 19th. The DFAS CRDP customer service help line(1-877-327-4457) indicated they performed the retired pay audit and forwarded their results to the VA (Indy regional office) on 19 JAN2012. The 1-800-827-1000 VA customer service rep said: about "45 days" for the VA to pay their portion of the retro. Its been 12 days so far....
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Wow! They are really trying to set the bar high heh. I have a claim that is now 365 days and have not received the first contact letter. All of the items claimed are either already SC or presumptives that have already been diagnosed by the VHA. It is dissappointing because I know that the majority of the VA administrative staff are SC veterans and new job openings have been posted as to only be filled by veterans or tenured civil service employees. You would think things would improve, but they seem to be getting worse. I hear they have terrible turnover so maybe they just have to keep training new staff. Still....Wow!
As I was informed the last time I visited the Indianapolis VARO - you are unfortunate to have a claim where there is such a large number of returning Gulf War OIF/OEF vets because of the large number of reserve units called up from the iNDIANA AREA. That has created a large number of vets with higher priority than a regular claim submittal.. The politicians made it this way and that is how the VA must adjudicate the claims. I know it is difficult to accept that you are not as "equal" as other vets...but that is the way it is. When you are standing in line for gov't benefits, you pretty much have to accept what you are given. I think Indy is moving faster now..
Good Luck - etcm
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Received letter dated 01DEC2011 saying my CUE to assign sleep apnea rating at 50% from 01NOV1996 was approved. This was really not a "hard" claim as the law changed before they made my original rating and the rater did not know that it had changed. As this was just about pre-internet, it was not like I knew the CFR had changed, so I did not appeal then. The original rater identified that I had sleep apnea as service related with the CPAP but then said there was no rating code for it so he was assigning a related code at 10%.
Case opened 14APR2010 - a regular claim at Indianapolis VARO.
VA Letter dated: 01DEC2011(595 days) can you say "backlog "
Now I get to wait for DFAS audit, DFAS back pay, VA back pay, refiling 2008, 2009, 2010 federal income taxes, and go on a cruise next month
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I just checked the eBenefits site and it indicated my CUE is CLOSED and Appeal Possible? - Yes. The Benefits Explorer check indicated 60% (which is up from the 30% I had before the claim. Data: Oct 1996, service connected for sleep apnea, letter said there was no rating code for sleep apnea and assigned a similar code at 10%. The 1996 letter even said that I was prescribed and had a CPAP.
Submitted CUE to assign sleep apnea rating at 50% per the new law (effective OCT1996, before my rating was initially made) as well as requests for increases in back and sinus issues.
14APR2010 - CUE/claim submitted to Indianapolis VARO
9AUG2010 -C&P's conducted and claim in "Development"
03NOV2011-claim to Decision phase
23NOV2011- claim to Notification
30NOV2011-claim closed. (595 days)...but no letter.
No letter as to whether the CUE for an earlier date at OCT 1996 was granted but at least they bumped the rating percentage up to the 50% that it should. The poor back is screaming and yet it must still be at 10% though. I figured that based on the ROM numbers I read on the C&P results. Number that were fabricated because I did not even come close to the numbers I read.
But for now, I am >50% and can start the CRDP and stop paying the high co-pays on my VA mailed prescriptions.
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I was thinking about a silly post saying that it was now in the 16-28 day period (for Decision phase) so I wondered if I should be waiting Notification...and then, between last night and early this morning, eBenefits moved into the Notification Phase (day 592). I'm waiting word from my American Legion VSO to see if he has had a "preview" chance. I am not "worried' anymore but my claim involves a retro decision that is over 15 years old and retro >$25K from both the VA and DFAS. The eBenefits update included an entry that my VA hospital treatment records were received only 11 days ago so it is curious that they could have jumped through all of the VACO approval and 2-signature approval hoops over a Thanksgiving week and THAT seems awful fast... I'm hoping the next post will be in the success forum. My CUE does not involve a difference of opinion or misinterpreted/missing medical records, it involves not applying changes in law that occurred before my original adjudication.
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Wanted to note that I opened eBenefits today and was deflated a little bit. Expecting to see red and no progress, my claim, at day 566, is moved to the decision phase and they updated the standard entry that says I have ACTION due and to submit data any medical information to closed (the eBenefits step, not my claim) . So now a different clock is ticking...tick tock. Mine is a "regular" claim and this is how long it has taken to arrive at the documentation phase.
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From the ASPIRE data(http://www.app.hospi...a.gov/index.cfm) the "average" claim processing time for completed claims in Columbia for FY2011 is 211.1 days. That includes all of the prioritized claims and those that have been waiting a while. That average age value is so deceiving! I am at 560 days at my VARO (INDY) and they told me they still have not started working 2009 regular claims. Numbers do not lie but these VA numbers tell almost no truth.
Between APR2011 and May 2011 the average completed claim age jumped from 135 days to 202 days, a phenomenal time jump because that is a cumulative rate-6 months and the average was 135 days one month later, the average is 202. That meant that of the 1511 claims they processed during that one month, the average age of the claim was over 600 days -> meaning they processed a lot of old claims that month but not many more ever since.
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UPDATE, and not good. VA benefits stop effective 12-2011. Trying to get a lawyer, but they say we do not have a case. As of 12 01 2011, my kids and I have no health insurance, and we just found out last month that my 17 yr old daughter needs Major surgery on her hip. Going to be impossible to get insurance for her, so she will probably end up in a wheelchair for life. Trying to get Shriners to help, but by the time we get through the red tape she will probably be 18, and too old for Shriners to help. Just trying to figure out how to get my daughter insurance, and live on $1800 a month. HUGS Lori
It looks like you have about 1 month to get the surgery and as much follow up care as you can. Is medicaid available?
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Made a trip to the VARO today and it was an eye-opener!
Per the customer service rep: Regular claims for Indianapolis are still backed up to 2009 submissions! He commented that they are backed up so many ways and that they are just working through as best as they can. In an attempt to modernize the VA claim process, the Indy VARO has changed to a team concept that has teams for NEW claims (FastTrack
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I deleted the table with the prescription information since the forum webpage does not seam to like tables.
Eric,
I am sure that you have done this but I will ask if you have reviewed the path that a CUE takes during the adjudication process. Carlie identified that you need to keep it simple and to the point. The reason I repeat that is because the claim will not be adjudicated by a lawyer but by a regular claims rater who might or might not have much experience in this issue. They do not review court cases too much to my knowledge, they are trained and told how to implement the law(s). They use their M21-1MR and a whole lot of other (not too obtainable direction documents) . Of course you need the facts, but your text reminds me of the interchange in the movie Legally Blond where the lead actress gets told by the judge not to try to teach her about what the law says and to get to the point.
Now I am not an expert as I am still awaiting adjudication of my own CUE, but I would encourage you to separate the CUE to allow for the assignment of the higher percentage based on the evidence (cortosteroid prescriptions) and not tie it to the TDUI issue. Why? Well they might have said "No" due to no 60% rating but there might not be enough evidence to award this rating even WITH the 60%. They could churn a refusal for this years portion to denial for all of it and churn your case for years until it gets to a high enough appeal that will look at the facts and not opinion(s).
This is just my 2+ cents
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Just to give you a frame of reference for your stats, I applied to Indy RO on 04-14-2009 for PTSD, TBI, TDIU, residuals, hand fracture, tinnitus, and bilateral hearing loss and my claim was awarded on 8-5-2010. By my math that's 16 months. With regards to your dependency claim, I filed for dependency at the Manila RO in May of this year and it was awarded this past Monday, 10-17-2011- for 5 months total.
Yes, Your claim was adjudicated BEFORE all of the AO presumptives and the Nehmer claims started to be adjudicated. Thanks for the input. It indicates a significantly longer time than their laughable average processing claim times indicate. They keep processing enough of the recent (prioritized and others) claims to keep the average lower and still keep a significant majority waiting around. Interestingly, today I read that one of the past funding initiatives was to be able to charge interest when the VA overpays vets....but there is certainly no reciprocity when the VA owes us for years and finally pays
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I expected there to be some questions with the TDIU and protected rating. But what is your question for the difference in rating for asthma?
Did you have treatment the required number of times in the one-year preceding the 2001 decision? It reads like you stopped in 1999 and no longer met the one-year requirement. I do not know for sure, but it seems like a way they can weasel out of following the rating criteria. And anytime it gets to a "judgement" on the part of the rater, they apparently say it is not a CUE. I like your way of presenting facts. Are the rating criteria that you cite the ones in effect in 2001?
I used to have an Eric Hughes that served with me in the early 90's - a nuke ET
Good luck
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Received a reply to an IRIS inquiry regarding whether new C&P exams will be required due to current C&P exams being over one year old (due to slow VARO response to claims):
Dear Mr. Xxxxxxx
This is in response to your inquiry to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) dated September 27, 2011.
We apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiry. We are currently experiencing a large volume of inquiries and are working as quickly as possible to respond to each in a timely manner.
Mr. Xxxxxx, we thank you for your service to our country.
We received your claim for increase on April 14, 2010, for ............. Your claim is still in the Development Phase. Based on the information available, the required development actions have been completed. We will review your claim to ensure we have everything we need to make an informed decision. If we determine we need additional information, we will contact you.
There are two additional phases: the Decision Phase and the Notification Phase.
The VA doesn't have a policy to reorder exams if they are over a year old. Once a claim is awaiting a decision by our rating activity, a rating specialist will review the information to make sure we have everything we need to make a fair decision. If at that time, they feel a more current exam is necessary, one will be ordered.
Your continued patience is appreciated.
Thank you for contacting us. If you have questions or need additional help with the information in our reply, please respond to this message or see our other contact information below.
Sincerely yours,
Donovan W. Thompson
National IRIS Response Center Manager
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All of my claims have been processed through Seattle. My claim for IHD AO and other disability claims including TDIU took 11 months under nehmer and included TDIU claim. I received a rateing of 100% P&T and unemployable rating. All things considered I thought they did an excellent job of processing my claim with very little problems. Guess I was just one of the lucky ones.
I feel sorry for the vet that was over paid for his prostate cancer claim by $59,283. Won't he have to paid that back?
Probably not. When they say that it means they did not terminate his higher rating in a timely manner. Usually, we see this issue as a post from a vet on sites like this complaining that he/she got a letter that says the VA wants to lower his rating and asking what to do to keep it higher.........
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A recent VA OIG report on THE SeATTLE varo
http://www.va.gov/oig/52/reports/2011/VAOIG-11-00515-266.pdf
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Next VARO Indianapolis issue:
Submitted IRIS request on 27SEP2011 -> its supposed to have a 5 business day time for response. Nothing yet after 8 10 business days. The 1-800 operator says it was forwarded to the Indy VARO for them to reply. Just like my last IRIS inquiry that I had to call the 1-800 number and get the customer service rep to read to me from her computer.
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Thanks, I was wondering about Phoenix and its significant backlog. Your format was good also so I copied it also. Mine is for a Regular claim of already service connected disabilities, requesting increases and a CUE for an erroneous application of the law when my initial claim was adjudicated in 1996.
Received by Indianapolis VARO: 04-14-2010
Development Phase: currently at 540 days
C&P Exams: 09AUG2010
C&P Exam Results: 29AUG2010
Decision Phase: TBD
Notification Phase: TBD
Retro Pay (DFAS): TBD
Retro Pay (VA): TBD
Start New Monthly Pay: TBD
Closed Phase: TBD
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No higher level math here. Using the VA Monday Morning Weekly Report data for AUG2011 and the Aspire data for AUG2011, the average age of every one of the 1092 completed claims processed by the Indianapolis VARO, in AUG2011, was about 310 days. This is interesting. The average time to complete the rating is listed as 252.6 days. The previous month it was 245.6. That time listed is the cumulative time to rate for all claims in the fiscal year 2011. SO the 1092 claims completed in AUG2011 is added to the approx 9400 other claims processed during the year. To get a seven day rise over approx 10500 claims means they must have a lot higher (average time to complete) time over the 1092 claims than that 252.6 average.
Now, more:
The VARO has told me in mid AUG2011 (and some other times since) that they had not yet gotten to my (then) 490 day old claim as it had not waited long enough and they work all claims in the order received. This means that they worked a large percentage of young (higher priority) claims and a few really old (regular) claims.
Comparing number of 01AUG claims <125 days (5443) and an average of 25% of those claims aging to >125 days old with the number of 31AUG claims <125 days (5478) and the new claims(~1718) (Average age 15 days old) indicates that 315 claims that should have reached a status of >125 days old never did - these must be the number of claims less than 125 days that got adjudicated; these are some of the prioritized claims that got processed in AUG2011. Now some real hypothesizing: IF you assume the average age of these 315 claims that got adjudicated is 100 days, the rest of the claims for AUG averaged 395 days... but my 490 day claim had not been touched, so I'll assume that all of the regular claims adjudicated were at least 490 540 days old then (and now I am at 540 days so I'll assume all of the regular claims completed in AUG were at least 540 days old. )
This means that they do not give enough numbers to postulate
And I'd guestimate that about 85-95% of the claims processed at Indy are prioritized. But it does indicate another symptom of a system at its breaking point where unless you are in a "prioritized" category, your estimated adjudication date is growing and continues to grow - to at least 540+days now. This conclusion assumes they work the claims in the order received...but I've read posts here and on other forums that indicate that their "party line" about this is a lie wishful thinking.
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Another thing I just noticed: My last claim was a dependency claim in 2007. The claim was "opened" at 10 months after submittal and completed during the week that made it one year. So they have been slow to adjudicate for a long time (at least on my claims). One of the claims submitted a couple of months after mine, as I read, was adjudicated earlier and it just dawned on me that it was mistakenly sent to another VARO for adjudication, then sent back to Indianapolis and completed. So it goes.
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Thanks for your candor Ethan's..
This is one of the things that is making me feel so disgusted with them. IF they decide to deny my CUE, when in fact it is a cut and dried CUE, I'll have to appeal through this very same VARO and there will be an even longer wait. Of course the later courts would award me the CUE but the pain and anguish at having to wait and wait and even wait for this VARO to relinquish its grip on me (and my claim) is wearing on me now. All the while, they say they are doing everything they can and they are working so hard - I think there comes a time when a leader has to say that enough is enough and that the current team is NOT a team that can produce success. I'm going to be excessively bitter at them even if the significant 5 figure $$$ were deposited tomorrow! Of course that would have required an adjudication and CACO approval and more. I can understand but I will not forget what they have done to me and most likely thousands of others.
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Thanks for the responses. I have an IRIS request to the VARO for the same question, plus I asked IF they could initiate a new one now. I am not holding my breath for a response to that. I will post their response if they send one. With the great length of claims now, especially those over 1-year old I am surprised this issue has not provided some additional delays recently.
And I'd guestimate that about 85-95% of the claims processed at Indy are prioritized.
Just Got Proposed Rating! Need Advice Fast!
in VA Disability Claims Research
Posted
I thought there were some early retirees (15+ years) that are drawing CRDP also?