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brokensoldier244th
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Posts posted by brokensoldier244th
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Here's what I know of the process now.
Almost all paper files are at NARA (National Archives). If we need something we tell them and they scan it and send it, there are hardly any situations anymore where paper is used for anything. Even veterans who served in WWII, etc. don't have paper files anymore that don't exist in a secure facility or satellite of the National Archives.
I've never printed, nor touched paper once in the 3.5 years I have worked for VA- at the office it just doesn't happen. Anything that would be printed is being printed from an electronic document. I saw that twice in 2 yrs, and it is collected and destroyed at the end of each day. At home (remote) we don't have access to print anything or save anything on our computer for printing later, the capability is locked down and not enabled by Administrative IT policies.
When you guys submit stuff through VA.Gov it's already electronic, and anything mailed to Janestown is scanned daily and appears in its respective file usually within 24 hours. We get a notification that incoming mail was barcode scanned at Janestown before it shows up in your file, and we get a notification that the document is pending scanning at the top of your file when we open it for something so we know to hold the file and 'wait' for something, or follow up with Janestown if it doesn't appear.
The only people who have the ability to delete records are at the middle to upper leadership level, so, pretty much nobody below a Team supervisor or above in an RO can even request the process if we notify them that there is PII/PHI in a file that shouldn't be there unless they go through an Asst Director. I usually make an electronic copy and move it to the appropriate veteran's file, and then request the deletion of the original information that shouldn't be in there. I have to record the veteran's information (what file it was found in and where it should be) and then make a note of the alphanumeric document ID's of every document involved- those are something 15 characters long and generated at random when something is uploaded or scanned in.
I'm aware of the stuff in 2008, and the VHA thing in AZ in the later 2000s, so I won't say everything is hunky dory, but the ability to pull some of that stuff that was being done 15 yrs ago is almost non-existent now because paper files don't exist at RO's. Document control has multiple layers, and everything that is emailed back and forth is either encrypted or you get a serious nastygram the first time from IT Sec, usually within the same day- sometimes within the same hour or two. The 2nd time it's an administrative intervention of some kind, and if it happens after that you are out the door.
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Pretty much. I just don't know if regs for income definition at the IRS have caught up with the internet influencer economy.
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Hmmm..good question. Since you have no choice about the monetization or terms it could be passive, but you are actively creating content, too. I wish I could help on this one but I honestly have no idea how that would be interpreted. I guess it would depend on if it was enough to be substantially gainful.
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It wouldn't matter if VA continued to try refute it, or point to thereg-no one listens or reads anyway so it's wasted energy.
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Not necessarily as long as you are forthcoming enough to provide whomever the information they ask for. You'd need documentation of how it impairs your civilian career from a doctor; self-diagnosis doesn't cut it for SSA or VA, though VA is less of a PITA than SSA.
If you need to see a doc, see a doc, if you need to see VA for a doc see VA for a doc. If your conditions haven't changed then stop worrying about them and focus on whatever it is that you ARE going to claim. The longer you don't the less time its potentially service connected. You're already at 100% so its up to you if you want to file for something or not.
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Unless it has significantly improved over time then there is no reason to examine it. Its not 'protected' fully until 20yrs, just varying increasing levels of evidence required at 5-10-20 yrs. If it's being reported to OIG It doesn't matter if its protected or not - they are only investigating fraud.
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Once you ETS the unit sends the records, or they ultimately end up and National Archives and we request them from there if they are needed for a period of service to verify something.
Anyone can call OIG and report suspicions of something. People do it all the time, but OIG doesn't investigate all of them, they couldn't. I would suspect that a provider divulging your information to VA without prior authorization would backfire on them worse than you- they'd be in violation of HIPAA among other things.
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I don't know, that's up to you. Civilians can't just upload into it, though, they can only share records with VHA, so, whatever is in there is what we pull in the context of a claim. If you've never told your provider(s) they can upload to VHA and filled out some forms authorizing it then they can't.
We can also pull Tricare/Genesis/JLV etc (active duty medical and retired) if we are working on a claim. How much weight a PHA from a Reservist would have would depend on the claim being filed. Its not all automatically loaded into your claims file though, except when you finally outprocess. Then, usually in a few weeks to a month or so we get the bulk of your STRs sent to us from the Service holding them.
All of this still has to be done in the contxt of a claim- we don't just log on for fun and upload things. Its a PITA to get logged on to half of that stuff, already.
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Civilian providers can't just upload medical to your claims file. It only gets in there if you 1. opt into that provider being able to do it (no idea how that works) or 2. we request it after you provide a 21-4142/4142a that gives us 1 yr auth to request private records for a claimed contention.
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Unless you have sustained improvement there isn't any reason to consider reducing a rating. After 5 and 10 yrs the bar is substantially higher to propose that kind of action (google protected ratings). The first 5 yr period after a rating is a 'stabilization period'. If there are no substantial improvements or worsening of the condition at that point it is considered static and not likely to change, so no reason for a routine future exam, either.
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Not necessarily corrected, there is that "facts found" language in the M21. I suppose that could be wiggle room for a higher amount in there. I didn't post 4.16 because it was the less liberal sounding between the two.
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I was going off of this:
VIII.iv.3.A.2.c. Definition: Marginal Employment
Marginal employment exists-
when a Veteran’s earned annual income does not exceed the amount established by the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, as the poverty threshold for one person, or
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on a facts-found basis, and includes, but is not limited to, employment in a protected environment, such as a family business or sheltered workshop, when earned annual income exceeds the poverty threshold.
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How what? You are now rated 100% with an SMC (housebound, statutory). Normally they are supposed to catch it during the rating process if you meet the criteria but sometimes they don't. Did you have a claim decided in 1/12/2020? If so, that is the effective date that this would have been on had it been applied at the time of rating.
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Wow. Congratulations, all things considered, though, I wish you weren't as bad off as you are.
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VA defines marginal employment as any job (or jobs) that pay less than the federal poverty level for one person
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No problem. Information is power
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Extraschedular also can mean you are rated for a contention at va percentage that does not describe all symptoms and effects. It doesn't have too be 100%.
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What are you asking?
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7 minutes ago, Vync said:
@brokensoldier244th That seems promisingly odd to roll this back out slowly. This will benefit all veterans with POAs who perform the screenings. However, the removal of it should have never occurred in the first place.
@Dustoff1970 That's pretty awful. My father retired in 1990 and the VA exam gave him SC ratings of 0% and 10% which were likely lowball assessments. Your description of the boozy doc reminds me of being a dependent and going to some of the Army base docs back in the 70s.
@Riplip I hope you get a competent follow up on this. Filing a BBB complaint is actually a good idea.
Vync- Not saying it should have, don't know why it was. They are rolling it back out in pieces because, as I understand it, the way that VSO's/POAs are notified has changes to it. I don't know what changes- I'm not in Operations and I'm not a VSO. Thats all I know, is that it was re-introduced late last year.
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Well, gee whiz, as long as you got yours, I guess.
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6 minutes ago, Dustoff1970 said:
Yes follow thru on her advice about the medical records and send copies only and also copies of same records to the VARO with your claim. Do not assume the VARO will acknowledge they already have access to those records as sometimes they are dishonest in their adjudication of vet claims.
Since 1985 I have successfully won many claims and BVA appeals myself by being proactive and sending extra copies of important medical and other evidence to the VARO and examiners.
I also use certified return receipt mail for the important stuff as it gives me that warm good feeling. I can afford it thanks to VA.
Sometimes they return my copies marked as duplicates and I know for sure they received them. Works for me for over 30 years and I don't care about any extra workload for the well paid union Fed workers. They can kis
My advice/opinion is not legal advice as I am not a lawyer, paralegal or VSO.
That extra work you're proud of X's several 1000 = BF because it takes twice as long to go through everything meaning we aren't working on someone else's claim.
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Yes. When you do, the notes of the call they type up on an 27-0820- basically a contact report, that gets uploaded to your file. Since it is 'new mail' it triggers the claim to be viewed by somebody by pulling it out of queue and assigning it to someone, usually one of 'us'.
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GO to your claim, click on details, then the Files tab, then Add
ALS Survivor Bens Denied
in VA Disability Claims Research
Posted
Heh, BS in MIS AND MS in IT Assurance. At one point some years ago I had a CCENT, CEH, CHFI, Network +, SEC +, and was working on a CCNA before with decided I didn't need it to do TSQL conversion of live and archived Co Gov treasurer and Assessor data. Go figure. Now I work where I work, tried to go IT first but VSR answered first.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ that is me, every week or two, when a security email about "don't open attachments" comed out....... Again.....