Whos Does The Rating?

[subvet]

I have been told that the very people that assign disability ratings, are not doctors at all, rather beaucrats with no knowledge of medicine. Is this so? I have a TDUI claim that is at end of process according to customer service at Cleveland.

Subvet

[Berta]

If you have sent them whatever they requested for the TDIU claim-hopefully they will process it properly.

Did you get a copy of the last C & P you had?

Do you get SSDI -and if so-is it for exactly the same SC disability?

The caliber of intellect here at hadit is far greater then much of that regarding the VARO raters.

In my opinion -after years of dealing with them.

We are reaping the products of the big hiring steps the VA took about 2-3 years ago in order to reduce the backlog.The VA said somewhere that it can take 2 years or more for a newly hired RO rater to get up to speed with their training.

Some of these VARO FNGs have actually added to the backlog-some of them are either illiterate or well trained to ignore the most probative evidence.

Some of the best people I know are employed by the VA at every level.

But this past week I had to make numerous phone calls to VA St Louis because my REPS claim was being handled by a VA employee who couldn't read.

His supervisor however was quite literate-

my REPS "denial" per phone by the initial REPS VA employee- was actually an Award per his supervisor who called me few hours later.

Where do these people come from?

[Pete53]

if you ever stood outside a VARO when the building empties out at closing time you would swear it looks like an old AOL call center from the people that walk out of there I wouldn't bet on many 4 year college graduates being in the bunch they are people pretty much like us, the people at the Post Office, and the people who work at the IRS they just handle VA compensation instead I read in NY the average VARO employee has 2 years of employment they have a high turn over rate how would you like them handling your claim? they are not doctors I heard years ago they used to have a medical member of the teams docs or nurses but I think they stopped that a few decades ago

When I walk into the VAMC I feel that I am at an AOL call Center in India. That said my PC Doc is probably Indian but she speaks perfect English and has always treated me as good as I can expect. One time I complained to upper tier tech support that I did not like dealing with Indian Tech Support and he told me that over one half of the people working in his call center were Indian and the Call Center was in Dallas.

My shrink is Indian but went to U of Texas Southwestern Medical School and is nice to me but he gets mad cause I won't shake his hand but he does not wash his hands between patients.

Maybe its us and not them?

[Testvet]

Pete I was working for a company called Sitel in 2001 when they sent trainers to Mumbai to train the indians to run the tech call centers in May 2001 they shut down the last of the us AOL call centers AOL has been out sourcing tech support for more than a decade and there is nothing wrong with it all I am saying is they are average people they dress in t shirts and jeans for the most part they are not highly educated they made minimal wages at these type of call centers the VAROs pay their employees better than call center employees I am sure but they do not exactly give you the warm fuzzies that your claim is being handled by highly competent people they are just people doing what their bosses instruct them to do push paper the faster the better numbers is what make these processing centers it means if the bosses get their bonuses or not not taking their time to make sure they are done right the first time just get the file off your desk in the fastest time possible thus we have so many appeals and then we get on the hamster wheel because the next employee is under the same time clock get that file off your desk and some of us spend decades fighting the bad paper they create I am not ragging on indians I am ragging on the fact the VA does not put quality first and while some employees may feel they are doing "quality work" we veterans see the oucomes of their work denial after denial even though we have the evidence to support the awards they just refuse to look at the entire file because of time constraints they just go back to the last decision and work from that they do not go back to the beginning and look where the mistake was first made because of time factors and the veterans and their families suffer they don't have medical experts involved in looking at the evidence any more they have people like us doing it and they do not spend the time needed to look for the roght answer they just push it off their desk "next" looking for thier bonus.......gotta keep that boss off their back

[john999]

I know the doctors and claims examiners never read deeply into the files because they ask the same questions that have been answered time and again in the file. To think that some claims examiner is going to read a file that is forty years old is beyond imagination. Like TestVet says, they read from the last decision. The C&P doctors do the same thing if they even do that much. Many just wing it. If you have been going to the VAMC for ten years you have a mass of medical records. There is no way the PCP will read this stuff considering they have 20-30 minutes with you every 6 months. Actually, that is more time than your private internist will give you. I had a Russian female doctor for a while. She was great. Anything I wanted I got. That is the kind of government doctor I want.

[Pete53]

Test and John

I knew what you meant I just wanted to show something that surprised me. I guess the AOL jobs went south when they started charging a fixed amount.

My current Doc at VA is a blessing to me and I suspect the only reason I still have her is that her husband also is a Doc at VA and they are satisfied with 350 k a year together and Vacation and VA bennies.

She has been the longest staying Doc I have ever had and actually spends time with me. She told me once that as her patients get older and have more problems the 10 minutes just does not work and she spends as long as it takes. Thank goodness for no shows.

Currently I have a PCP, a Diabetes Doc and a Shrink and believe it or not I like all of them. We have even worked it out that every three months I see PCP and Diabetes and every 6 months I see them all on same day.

I get my eyes checked every 2 years if I remember to ask for a consult. I can't get an appointment with Cardiologist and occasionally I see skin Docs and a Podiatrist every three or four years whether I need it or not.

The VA has far to many patients for the staff and facilities. When people come to Dallas they think it is a very big hospital but it is really just spread out

Apologize for the rant

[Stretch]

Hulamatt,

Yep, you are right I am 100%. I am just telling it the way it is. That was before I was rated anything.

Yesterday I won three head injury claims, not rated yet. The COPD claim was remanded again. They said that I worked in a brush factory. Well, I never did work in, enter a, or have even seen a brush factory in my life.

Even if I ever did work in a brush factory what difference would that make.

The point being made here is that these people can't read, or something. It is go to know information.