Poor Management By Va

[broncovet]

At the VA watchdog site, in the comments section, a VA employee admitted to "cherry Picking" Veterans claims..looking for single issue, fast easy claims while passing over multiple issue claims. How fair is this? Could I suggest this, as follows:?

Employees go to supervisor desk for their next claim, which is done in order of date received, unless there is a valid "advance on the docket" claim which would have priority. Employees would not pick their claim..they would be assigned a claim to work..in date order.

As far as complex claims go, each employee would get hard ones and easy ones..in date order, so that it would all even out over a period of a year or so.

Is this really so hard? Even waitresses are often assigned customers by the hostess.

comment follows from the VA watchdog site:

- I will not identify my employment afilliation so take this for what you will....

What was left out of the VA special (aside from many other things) was that if an employee does not get their "points" it has a negative impact on their performance evaluation! Performance evaluations can get you promoted. I have never heard of them getting you bonuses, but i guess anythings possible. And consistently under performing can get you fired! I'm sure this points system had the intent of promoting high levels of production however, what it ends up promoting is working just hard enough to get those points. Many cases would benefit from a more thorough review but due to time limits forced by the required "points system" they are just shoved through as quick as possible. More importantly not all cases give the same value. For example a case with 15 different disabilities being claimed is worth the same amount as eight - A case with 7 different disabilities being claimed is worth the same amount as a claim with only 1. Which do you think is more likely to be done first? Of course, the one that takes the least time for the most points! Or how about claims that are already in progress that need a review to see if they are ready to be rated? Some are 5+ volumes thick and some are the size of a manila envelope. I ask again - what gets done first? Of course, the one that takes the least time for the most points! The same scenario can be applied in any number of situations: old cases vs. new, thick vs. skinny, complicated vs. easy etc etc. Many times employees will "hold" files that could be sent to the rating board, simply because they have enough numbers for the day and because they know they will need them the next day (or God forbid, next week). Easy quick claims are "cherry picked" over others or "stolen" from other employees because they require less output to get the points! As a Vet working within the VA, I do what I can to serve Veterans the way I want to be served, but in the end I to am bound by the "points" system and my ensuing performance evaluations.

[Pete53]

Ok maybe we should say this is based on an actual claim but not whoes claim and than I would feel better. Trust me I get your point.

Believe it or not my original claim was for several issues and I was the one who dropped 4 or 5 to make it simpler for the idiots in Waco to focus.

[usmcfigdaddy]

I would hope that someday that the VA would require that if you work for the Va you must be a VETERAN .I think that this would add some compassion and effort to the claims process.I know that the members here must be careful but most "new members" aren't as knowledgeable as you "old salts" about the workings of the VA.However I have learned a lot here and it has helped me.Now if I could just put my comments and questions in the right place.

[Testvet]

Pete..

Your point is well taken. My hypothetical example was used rather than me using my own actual example. Why? Probably for some of the same reasons lots of Vets dont want to talk about things like PTSD:

Many Veterans are afraid if they speak out against the VA, the VA will "target" them for retaliation and reduce their benefits. There is some evidence that this has happened in the past.

The VA uses this fear, which often keeps Veterans from appealing a wrong decision. I think this is the main method the VA is using right now to try to reduce the backlog: "Keep Veterans in fear of retaliation so they dont appeal" It has worked well, for years, as many, many Veterans never appeal a bad RO decision. I try to make sure that not enough details to identify me appear in my posts, just in case that the 300 or so VA lawyers dont get bored and come to hadit looking for their next scapegoat to burn and put the fear back in all Vets. Altho I do appreciate the anonymity that hadit gives, a very astute attorney could piece posts details with Veterans names and identify the poster..(or a hacker could do the same, maybe even for a price)

Bronco my issues make me visible no matter where or how I post them Edgewood Arsenal 7 heart attacks and a stroke and a Gulf War veteran make me stick out like a man at an all woman party, there is no way to disguise myself so I don't even try I haven't seen any retaliation along the way, I saw a lot of foot dragging and low ball awards which eventually were granted like most other veterans most of the process is persistence and filing the NODs it's nothing more than that have your evidence, be prepared to appeal the denials or the low ball awards and eventually you and your family will get the benefits that they are entitled to, should it be this way no but it is what it is and until Congress mandates the VA to change it it's not going to change if we go back to the Revoluntionary war we can see how this nation has dissed veterans and not kept the infamous "PROMISE" I gave up trying to "hide" my identity a long time ago the human experiments at Edgewood kind of mark me

[Jazona]

Look folks. The problem is not with the VA. The total problem rests with our congress critters. Congress tells the VA what to do and allows the VA to come up with methods to do it. Shredding, cherry picking, incesant denials are all methods to keep costs down. The congress tells the VA that "we have x amount to spend on Veterans" and the VA is charged with keeping costs within that limit. Unfortunately, deserving Veterans get denied along with Veterans that file frivilous claims.

If you want to clean up the VA, look to your critter. Make him/her understand that you want more money spent on Veterans and that their continued career in Washington is dependent upon their voting to spend more.

Sure, the VA comes up with some pretty insidious ways to do congress' bidding, but it works, does it not?

I used to have a seething hatred for the VA for many years, but eventually I was able to see what was really going on. Why do you think that more VA employees aren't hung out to dry when they are caught red-handed in some of their evil works? Because they are doing exactly what congress is telling them to do.

They love waging war, but don't want to pay for it.

jaz

[Berta]

I think the VCAA is a big part of the problem.

VA cherry picks on who gets a proper and legal VCAA letter with the proper response form and who doesnt get one-VCAA is our most important right under Duty to Assist regs.

The BVA bears out what I mean.THOUSANDS of remands solely due to prejudicial VCAA letters-which can add years to the decision.

I have griped to COngressman FIlner on this many times and asked him to support an amendment I wrote to the VCAA which he didnt do.He was busy on HR 2254 issues which I also discussed with him and the VCAA matter simply went no where-

We can 'amend' the VCAA ourselves- by doing this-

If you get a VCAA letter that is not in compliance with the VCAA (you need to look up VCAA here or read BVA remands for VCAA violations to see what it entails-

(or if you get a generic VCAA form letter with no italized or bold typed statements that are specific to your claim and the evidence they still need-your VCAA rights have been violated and you and your vet rep should immediatley request a proper VCAA letter from the RO.

Many VCAA letters also must contain a potential EED and other info as to the potential rating of the claim.

Also in every single response you make to the RO remind them of the deficiencies in the VCAA letter they sent to you and tell them their error has been prejudicial to you and the claim cannot be transferred to the BVA containing this prejudicial error.

The very first thing a BVA attorney does when they have the claim before them is to check the VCAA letter.

If it was highly prejudicial to the claimant it will surely cause a remand unless the claimant takes steps I took.

I continually griped to my POA and the RO about a deficient VCAA letter I got. It said nothing as to the evidence they needed.

It contained no attachments menaing no VCAA response form.

The VA again denied me saying I did not respond with the response form -which they didnt send me.

I raised this issue as the first statement on my I-9 and theh referred to all of the evidence VA refused to consider as they had prejudiced my claim with their bogus VCAA letter.

I had enough evidence for the BVA to award.

They made a statement as to the VCAA problem but found it non prejudicial in light of the evidence I had sent which overcame the RO letter's deficiencies..(thus no remand was in order)

THOUSANDS of widows and veterans get a half baked VCAA letter and many of them have no idea how to overcome that error.

Evidence however is everything and the evidence -at the BVA level- will often outweigh these ROs errors in many cases.

If it doesn't however- the claim remains in the system under remand for a long time.

The VCAA is perfect. It is the manipulation of it by RO employees who pick and chose who actually gets a proper VCAA letter.

The claim actually has to be read first to get a proper VCAA letter.I think if the claimant has not gotten the attention of the RO in their first few sentences -as to the basis of their evidence for service connection- they will get a generic VCAA letter that will probably cause their claim to be denied right off the bat.

[Berta]

to add-A lot of this is due in part to those lazy vet reps out there-who get copy of the same VCAA letter on your POA as you,the claimant gets.

They know right away (unless they are really dumb) if the VCAA letter is wrong and will hinder the claim.

From 2003 to about 2006 I griped to my POA even at the highest level (their director) and they kept saying my VCAA letter was legal to shut me up.

Long story -about 5-6 individuals who told me that are no longer employed by this state vet POA division.

Only one single vet rep there actually verified I had one of the worse VCAA letters he ever saw.And all of the claimants he had all got proper VCAA letters.That tells me that the ROs know when we have piss poor vet reps and can pull the wool over their eyes too knowing a good vet rep would have challenged them on what I got.