Claims Moving From One Office To Another

[nicknack]

Alright so I don't know where else to inquire as to the proper location for this question.

Background. I was given 20% for lower left lumbar strain upon my discharge in 2005. In May 2010 I had a L4-L5 Laminectomy. Guess where my hernia was, you guessed it L4-L5 left side. It was the second time I had an MRI done and the second time a hernia showed up in the exact same area. Well in late June I called the VA about upgrading my claim, they told me about Paragraph 30 because I had the surgery. So of course I applied. The VA didn't officially open my claim until late July 2010. Anyways, at that time I was living in Minneapolis MN, my records were kept in the Seattle regional office. I had been under Voc Rehab for awhile, from Seattle to San Diego and finally Minneapolis. And I have never had any issues recieving VA mail at each new place, because I made sure they had the addresses prior to my actual moved. And I always checked in when I moved.

Anyways in September I recieved a letter about ebenefits website, use it, it makes things a little easier. So I could of course stay up to date on where my claim was, also I had recieved a letter from the Seattle office apologizing for the delay in processing my claim. I called the 1-800 number and they at one point told me it would be decided in 16-28 days, this was back in September. According to ebenefits though it was still in the developmental phase so someone on the phone gave me wrong information. I moved back to San Diego November 4th, and didn't look at status for a couple of weeks. The week before Thanksgiving I see the status had changed to Decision Phase with an national average wait time of 16-28 days. Well December 6 I called to find out when it actually switched to the Decision phase, they told me November 2nd. Well on Dec 10th I sent an email through their iris system saying I want to talk to someone on the phone from the Seattle office to see what the delay was. I also started looking at the Monday morning reports online. Well I checked my ebenefits profile daily and yesterday on the 15th I see it had been changed to closed. The date said it was closed on the 14th. I couldn't get through to anyone on the phone that day, so today the 16th I was able to talk to someone. Apparently the Seattle office put a hold on my claim (it says closed on my profile) and forwarded it to the San Diego office. All my records and claims are in the process to be transfered to San Diego. Now in reality I don't mind that it will be coming here, what I am upset at is it made my claim process even longer.

My new Congressman is Bob Filner who currently is the Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Comitte. He'll be the ranking minority come next congressional session. So I emailed him and my 2 Senators to complain and ask for their assistance to keep from my claim being placed back on the bottom. And also the Senators in WA state and the Congressman in Seattle district to let them know and to keep the Seattle office from screwing over other Veterans in the process.

Anyways...has something like that happened to anyone else? Moving of the records and the claim like that? Or any advice for me?

Thank you

Edit: My question is about being moved from one RO to another without informing the veteran while a claim is in middle of being decided. Not about time frames given or who I talked to. Thank you for your insight and experiences but please I wish to focus on my question not anything else.

Edited December 17, 2010 by nicknack

[john999]

Yes, the VA often moves claims around to different VARO's. I think this is just to make their statistics as far as having taken some action on a claim. The VA actually moves claims to the ST. Pete VARO to work from other less busy VARO's. It makes no sense to us but there is a reason they do it for their own stats. Writing your congressman is usually useless. There is a million claim backlog and congress knows all about it. They helped create it.

[nicknack]

Ok thanks.

I do disagree with the statement that writing one's Congressional Representative and Senators is useless. It at least feels good to vent to someone who is expected to do something about it, even if they do nothing.Kind of like venting to a bartender, or your pet.

Lately I have had been getting better then average responses from the 1-800 number people. They did tell me that it is not unusual for it to be done when the claim is still in the developmental phase, but highly unusual when it is in the decision phase, such as my claim was at the time. At least according to the Monday morning reports the San Diego office is way more efficient then the Seattle office, so I will take that as some sort of consolation.

[justrluk]

I've had this happen. The Atlanta VARO isn't the fastest; isn't the slowest but did transfer one of my claims to another VARO during what was posted on eBenefits as being in the Decision Phase. Once the transfer happened, the decision came relatively quickly. They're doing you a favor in a roundabout way. I was told that moving a claim to another VARO might actually result in a better decision as they have less volume and can provide a better review of the claim. I don't work for the VA, so I can't confirm this but I did get an increase, and at the appropriate percentage. The decision notification came from that VARO as well. One issue I had was that my VSO wasn’t in the loop and I had to fax a copy of the decision. I could live with that. If I'm lucky, they'll do the same with my request for reconsideration.

[nicknack]

I've had this happen. The Atlanta VARO isn't the fastest; isn't the slowest but did transfer one of my claims to another VARO during what was posted on eBenefits as being in the Decision Phase. Once the transfer happened, the decision came relatively quickly. They're doing you a favor in a roundabout way. I was told that moving a claim to another VARO might actually result in a better decision as they have less volume and can provide a better review of the claim. I don't work for the VA, so I can't confirm this but I did get an increase, and at the appropriate percentage. The decision notification came from that VARO as well. One issue I had was that my VSO wasn't in the loop and I had to fax a copy of the decision. I could live with that. If I'm lucky, they'll do the same with my request for reconsideration.

Thanks Just. I am pretty sure that's why they did the move. San Diego is faster then Seattle. I think I am most upset that I wasn't given any notification. Which to me is the biggest failing of the VA. And I work at the VA Hospital so I know first had how bad communication is. Otherwise I have no other complaints, for the most part they have been good to me.