tdiu Appeals Management Center

[wayne]

I received two letters recently. One was the same generic letter from the RO Columbia SC saying they had received my claim for benefits. This was from my approval for GERD and Right Knee for payment from my appeal. The other was from The AMC saying they are developing my Remand for other increases and TDIU. This is my third Remand for this six year old claim.

My question is, has anyone elses Remand been developed by the AMC? I thought all claims Remanded from the BVA went back to the RO and the AMC was just a holding area?

WAYNE (LLEWELLYN)

[Guest Berta]

Wayne- one of my local vets-right at the end of his 12 year long ordeal for service connection-

had his claim sent to the AMC-

It was only there for 2-3 weeks and as soon as it came back to the VARO- they prepared his award letter-

But he was really upset at the time and asked me if this AMC stuff is just another VA stall tactic-

I tried to find out in in M21-1 just what the AMC does but I still dont know.

[Testvet]

Berta, didn't the VA set up a "special team" a couple of years ago to handle really old vets claims because they were like 75 or older? Didn't that morph into the AMC for claims that were just flat messed up by the RO's and BVA can see it after multiple remands....... I could be wrong it won't be the first and I'm sure it won't be the last

[john999]

I think that AMC Team concept just turned into another delaying tactic. You know it is all BS and playing with numbers.

[Angela]

Found some references to the AMC you might like to look at.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06149.pdf

Effective February 2002, VA issued a new regulation to streamline and expedite the appeals process. The new regulation allowed the board to process remanded decisions without having to send them back to VBA regional offices. To implement this regulation, the board established a unit to process remanded appeals. However, in May 2003, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the board could not, except in certain statutorily authorized exceptions, decide appeals in cases in which the board had developed evidence. As a result, VBA regained responsibility for evidence development and adjudication work on remands, and chose to establish a centralized Appeals Management Center at its Washington regional office. According to VBA officials, remand processing was consolidated because a consolidated unit, focusing only on remands, could process them faster and more consistently, and with better accountability, than the individual regional offices. VBA’s Washington regional office was chosen because of its proximity to the board’s headquarters. The Appeals Management Center was established in July 2003, and was, according to VBA officials, fully operational by February 2004. According to a VBA official, it was staffed largely through transfers from regional offices and with staff from the board’s former remand processing unit.

VBA continues to consolidate specific types of claims

http://veterans.house.gov/about/plan109.html

says "In order to handle the large number of remands, the Veterans Benefits Administration established an Appeals Management Center."

http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/schedul...05/raument.html

"VBA has also established an Appeals Management Center to consolidate expertise in processing remands from the Board of Veterans' Appeals."

http://veterans.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseA...s&rID=53&hID=11

6. The Appeals Management Center has become a “parking lot” for both Court and BVA remanded cases. As of October 2004, there were about 21,000 claims at the AMC. As the caseload increases at the Appeals Management Center, longer delays are inevitable