Pay Vets Claims Now!

[broncovet]

Filner endorses the proposal, but I am waiting to see how our congress does at implementing this good idea. I just might have a tendency to vote people for re election if they can "get er done".

This would put stimilus money in the hands of those who deserve it the most, and also those who probably need it the most.

The story is here:

http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfjul09/nf071609-1.htm

[pacmanx1]

Thanks Berta,

I still have no problem with pay vets now but this will not solve the problems of huge retro pay. History also tells us that big insurance companies and our government only thinks of trying to save money. I think they used to call them "Bean Counters" they calculate the number of claims filed vs. the number of claims denied vs. the number of claims appealed vs. the number of claims approved. They know that a lot of veterans will not file a timely appeal or the veteran will reopen their claims years later. This saves them a lot of money; this also is where most of the huge retro comes from. When a veteran files a claim and it is denied and appealed on time and the appeal is finally awarded that's what generate the huge retro, or if a veteran file a CUE claim that is awarded. VA will still have huge retro's because of these two issues and I think (JMHO) that most of the fraud comes from VA employees and not from veterans. Yes I know that there is fraud by veterans but most of it is from VA employees setting up fake accounts and paying their friends. It is easier for them because they know the system and how to manipulate it. Altering documents is stupid because there is always an original out there somewhere soon to be found but creating bogus documents VA employees can easily take information from veterans files and change them to create their own. I read one case where a VA employee receive over $600,000 and I am thinking how the heck could she do that and get away with it so long and I couldn't even get approved for 100% with all original documents in my file.

[broncovet]

I agree with Pete and Berta. There are some possibilities about the discrepencies between the number of POW's listed by the VA and the other numbers.

1. There are more POW's than they kept track of because war is very confusing. Did that soldier get seperated from his unit because he was hiding from the enemy, because he was captured, because he was just plain scared, or because he went AWOL? There may not be very many witnesses who are willing to talk, possibly because they are dead. It is possible, or even likely, that several of these things happened to a soldier..he could have gotten lost..the enemy could have killed the rest of his unit, he could have been scared, or he even could have escaped from his captors and been unable to unite with his unit and considered AWOL. We just dont know.

2. There is a possibility VA is guilty of fudging the numbers. It wont be the first time the Va fudged numbers to make themselves look good..only this time it may have backfired.

3. There is a possibility of VA employee fraud..doctoring of documents making their brother or neighbor look like a POW, and then splitting the Retro with him.

4. And finally, possible Veteran fraud. This seems to be the least likely, because the VA makes Veterans prove EVERYTHING multiple times rendering it nearly impossible for the Veteran to get away with this without "inside" (VA employee) help, even if they were so inclined.

IMHO items 1,2, and 3 are ten times more likely than Veteran fraud. There are many, many safegaurds to catch Veteran fraud, but almost none to catch Va employee fraud.